Primers/accuracy?
02-02-2009, 08:11 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Adirondacks
Posts: 1,305
Primers/accuracy?
Has anybody noticed one brand of primers verse another gives better groups all else being equal?To avoid the hazmat fee I ordered my powder/primers local but he wont be placing the order for another week or two so I have time to change what I asked for.
02-02-2009, 08:42 AM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
RE: Primers/accuracy?
Generally no. CCI is the only brand I kinda don't like. Its all about the combo. You can take a consistent great primer and put it with a powder too slow or fast for it, and it will shoot like crap. I like to use match federal primers mostly. Every test I have seen show them the most consistent. But I have seen that wrong too.
02-02-2009, 08:51 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,320
RE: Primers/accuracy?
In my observation I would say no. And changing primers will not make a poorly shooting gun suddenly shoot sub MOA. To minimized my inventory I have favorites for several different chamberings. For the most part I use CCI BRs....many years ago when I started handloading that was all that was availible. I kinda stuck with them for most things. But I also use Fed Gold Medals, Remington small pistol
02-05-2009, 04:06 AM
#7
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: grottoes,va.
Posts: 764
RE: Primers/accuracy?
the CCI BENCH REST PRIMER is a far better primer then most on the market. i started useing them 4-5 years ago. when shooting groups you sometimes get a 3 or 4 shot group thats real tight and then a flyer thats out of the group,the CCI BR really seem to stop those flyers and tighten most groups. i have seen this with every caliber i've used them with.
02-05-2009, 08:44 AM
#8
Spike
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: North Pole, Alaska
Posts: 71
Primers and 223
The .223 Remington uses a Small Rifle primer. In a bolt gun you'll get good results from all the major brands: CCI, Federal, Remington, Winchester. The Rem 7 1/2s work very well with both stick and ball powders. Benchresters have shown a bias towards the Federal 205M (match), but in our informal testing, the CCI BR4s shot just as well as the Federals, while the CCIs delivered lower ES/SD with some powders. In fact, we've found that the "plain Jane" CCI 400s were closely matched with the much more expensive BR4s. Both can deliver good accuracy with low ES and SD. (Currently, at Powder Valley, CCI 400s cost $19.00 per thousand, while CCI BR4s cost $29.50 per thousand.) Some primers do seem to work better with particular powder/bullet combinations, so it's wise to do your own testing, and you may want to test CCI 400s vs. CCI BR4s head to head. You may find that the cheaper CCI 400s work just as well as the pricey BR4s in your gun.
For use in semi-automatics and AR15s, we advise that you stick to CCI and Remington primers. These brands have harder cups and are much less likely to pierce primers. Also, the AR15 has a free-floating firing pin that dents the primer on loading. This creates a risk of slam fires. So you want hard primer cups. The latest generation of Winchester primers, with brass-colored cups, should be avoided for AR15 use. The old silver Winchester primers worked fine, but the current WSRs are soft and can be pierced more easily than CCI or Rem primers. A poll of Highpower competitors (mostly shooting ARs) showed that Rem 7 1/2 primers are the most popular (33.23%), followed by CCIs (25.78%). The majority of CCI users favored the CCI BR4s, but both CCI 400s (small rifle standard) and CCI 450s (small rifle magnum) were also popular. Only 10.25% of Highpower shooters polled used Federal primers (either 205M or 205). At the time of the poll, many shooters reported using WSRs, but this was the older version with silver cups. See NationalMatch.us website for complete poll results.
For maximum protection against primer piercing and slam-fires, CCI also markets the #41 military primer. Possessing a very hard cup, with decreased sensitivity, #41 primers are designed to resist slam fires in rifles lacking firing pin retraction springs. In a bolt-gun or semi-auto AR-15, it is not necessary to use #41 military primers. But this is an appropriate option for some military applications
For use in semi-automatics and AR15s, we advise that you stick to CCI and Remington primers. These brands have harder cups and are much less likely to pierce primers. Also, the AR15 has a free-floating firing pin that dents the primer on loading. This creates a risk of slam fires. So you want hard primer cups. The latest generation of Winchester primers, with brass-colored cups, should be avoided for AR15 use. The old silver Winchester primers worked fine, but the current WSRs are soft and can be pierced more easily than CCI or Rem primers. A poll of Highpower competitors (mostly shooting ARs) showed that Rem 7 1/2 primers are the most popular (33.23%), followed by CCIs (25.78%). The majority of CCI users favored the CCI BR4s, but both CCI 400s (small rifle standard) and CCI 450s (small rifle magnum) were also popular. Only 10.25% of Highpower shooters polled used Federal primers (either 205M or 205). At the time of the poll, many shooters reported using WSRs, but this was the older version with silver cups. See NationalMatch.us website for complete poll results.
For maximum protection against primer piercing and slam-fires, CCI also markets the #41 military primer. Possessing a very hard cup, with decreased sensitivity, #41 primers are designed to resist slam fires in rifles lacking firing pin retraction springs. In a bolt-gun or semi-auto AR-15, it is not necessary to use #41 military primers. But this is an appropriate option for some military applications
