I don't know if I have a favorite. If I did, I would not know why. They have all worked well for me and as strange as it sound, in the tens of thousands of shells I have reloaded, I have never had a primer problem or noticed that one brand worked any better than the others. I like CCI and Federal when it comes to Magnum primers. I have read that they are a bit hotter. Remington primers are a bit softer than the rest and I use them in some pistols where I have had a few misfires with harder primers. Because of the Price in my area I use more WW primers than anything. One reloading shop that I stop at a lot sells only WW primers and has a good price on them. I by far prefere Winchester Brass over Remington. Better case life it seems anyway.
For Powder I use more IMR than anything but Alliant or RE powders are very good as well. Hodgdon is a great old standby and now own Dupont Powders as well. IMR 4064 and IMR 4350 will load a great number of different cartridges. IMR 3031 is another versitile and useful powder. Its one of the faster powders but not the fastest. Short barrels often benifit from faster burning powders. H-4831 is a good starter for Magnum and small calibers that burn a lot of powder like the 6MM and 25-06. IMR 4350 is also in this class.
No real reason on the primers. I like the powder because it metres well and I get a good consistent load everytime.
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I like CCI and Federal primers but use CCI the majority of the time. I have the Federal because i have one rifle that shoots better groups with Fed primers than with the CCI, i don't know why and don't pull my hair out trying to find out so i just use the Fed in that rifle. I have always used IMR powders with good results but i recently started using some Reloder and like it as well. Currently in my cabinet there is IMR4350,4064,4831,7828, Re19 & Re22 as well as some Reddot & Bluedot for my handguns.
The real answer is a pair that works best together.
In a round about way to answer-- I will NOT use AA powders. AA varies so much at times and has caused me major expenses and grief that I won't chance them ever again. Other than that you have to use whats best. You can have no favorite. You may love IMR but in a given gun the best powder may be Alliants RL. And then you have to pair the primer that the powder likes best. That can be from experience( IE I know that in my match rifles if I use Varget I'll be using CCI BR primers and that if I use VV N500 powders I'll be using CCI Mags or Rem Match) or purely from testing. Heck for practice stuff I'll buy surplus powder in bulk. And with those ball powders I used WW primers religiously as they were best till WW decided for some reason(stupidity) to make the cups thinner and more prone to pierce. Then I had to switch to Rem match.
So in reality if you have a handful of guns you can have no favorite single brand and expect the best performance.
Same goes with case brands. And with bullet choice. Choose bullets-- shooting highpower rifle I shot sierras because they were cheaper and accurate to beat all at 200, went to bergers for 300 because of the knots they shot there, and for 600-1000 I always use JLK for their accuracy AND performance.
Now if you are talking one specific caliber, type of chamber, brand of barrel for a specific use, maybe we could get closer to a consensus(not)
Jeff
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Get as close as you can, but use your skills as needed.
Ruger- stabs us in the back on gun control- why support him?
What is your favorite powder & primers ?
