Best Primers

[Badger Boy]

Which company do you all think makes the best primers for small (.223, .243) and large (30-06, .270, 30-30) rifles.

Im new to reloading and would like to bypass al the company propoganda out there. By best I mean most reliable and having the longest shelf life.

[TimberCreek]

Depends on the use but CCI is a good reliable primer, use them in all my rifles.I like Federals for all pistols or a rifle with weak firing pin. Federals are a little softer. Example: Taurus pistols work best with federal because they have aweakfiring pin strike.

[ruger357w]

I've had real good luck with CCI.

[kelbro]

I've had good luck with Federal, CCI, and Winchester. I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of them. I normally work up a new load with one primer and then try one or two of the others to see which works best. I would suggest that whatever you use to work up your final load, stick with them. Buy a bunch!

I have been partial to federal since starting reloading. But I have used remington, CCI, and winchesters. I have seenfriends on here get sub 0.5MOA accuracy out of his 300RUM with WLRM primers and then try my beloved 215M and accuracy went down, and vise versa.

Its just another one of those components we have a option to try different ones

[Pavomesa]

I've used them all and quite frankly never known .02$ worth of difference in any of them. But I'm a hunter and not a benchrest shooter. Most of the BR crowd used to go with Remington primers. I have no idea who is their favorite today.

[jemrami9]

I use CCI as well. I did get a good deal on some Federal large rifle primers as well. Havent tried them as of yet.

[Pavomesa]

Let me add another comment here about primers. As I say, I've used most every brand and they all worked fine for me. But a few years ago I called Dillon tech support about some questions with a progressive press. Dillon told me flat out, "Do not use CCI primers. They are the sorriest made and least uniform in size. Almost all of the people who call us about primer feed problems are trying to use CCI. We tell them to change to anything else and 99% of the time their primer problems go away."

I've never tried to measure size, cup thickness etc and am only repeating what Dillon tech support told me. Mostly I use Federal and Winchester and both have been great.

ORIGINAL: Pavomesa

Let me add another comment here about primers. As I say, I've used most every brand and they all worked fine for me. But a few years ago I called Dillon tech support about some questions with a progressive press. Dillon told me flat out, "Do not use CCI primers. They are the sorriest made and least uniform in size. Almost all of the people who call us about primer feed problems are trying to use CCI. We tell them to change to anything else and 99% of the time their primer problems go away."

I've never tried to measure size, cup thickness etc and am only repeating what Dillon tech support told me. Mostly I use Federal and Winchester and both have been great.

But then another tech at Dillion will tell ya not to use federal pistol primers because the cup is too soft, and Lee and other progressives ahve reported primers going off while priming.

I use CCI for pistols because I use a progressive and they claim they are the toughest cup out there. Can't win.

[redgreen]

I use the WLRM in everything. I tried the rest of them, and wasn't happy with the results. The Winchesters gave the most consistant velocities across the chronograph with the magnums and the standard loads. Remingtons gave a 45 fps deviation. Federals gave 25 to 30 fps. CCI's gave the same. Winchesters dropped the deviation to 10 to 15 fps.