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Primers

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Bugs100

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It seems that Winchester primers are the most popular primers and as a result sell out real fast and some times hard to find.

One of the gun shops that I go to always seems to have either Federal or CCI in stock.

I've heard that Federals are the softest, CCI are hardest and Wolf are a little over sized and hard to seat.

So if Winchester primers are out of stock which primers are the best to replace them?
 
I look for CCI first, Winchester second, then Remington, and only if I have to I'll use Federal.

There's nothing wrong with the Federal primers, I just don't like they way they're packaged (sideways). It makes it hard for me to deal with them because I don't use a flip tray.

I slide the tray of (CCI) primers out of the sleeve, put an empty primer tray on top of the full tray, turn it upside down to flip the primers, slide the sleeve back on, put the package flat on my bench, carefully slide the sleeve off, and pick the primers up with a pickup tube. It sounds complicated, but it actually takes longer to type it than to do it.

The Federals are packaged sideways so you can't handle them this way.
 
CCI used to come sideways in the tray; 10 x 10. Makes for a very compact package, but you need a flip tray - which I have. It appears CCI no longer does that.

I get WW, which allow me to do things the easy way; put the flip tray over the open box, invert and start loading the primer tubes.

Too many hard primer problems w/CCI; I'd get WW or Federal.
 
I use WW exclusively (when I can get them) with Federal as a second choice. I tried CCI many years ago an found they wouldn't seat in my progressive machines (Dillon 300 and CH Mark VA). The word was that the cups were too hard. Rumor has it that CCI fixed the problem, but I haven't tried them as WW works too well to change. I would definitely try some now if they were available at a decent price.

I bought 5000 Remington large pistol many years ago that were so poorly made that they wouldn't feed as the anvils were sticking out past the edge of the cup. This QC problem has kept me away from Remington but in the current situation I would try them again.

I posted a thread on Wolf primers as my experience with them has not been positive, to say the least. I would avoid them.
 
I have not paid attention to the anvil protrusion lately because I never have a problem with any brand going bang. The reason that they protrude was to de-sensitize them until they were seated with a little pressure. That compessed the priming pellet with the anvil and they were ready to go.
 
BIG GUN said:
I have not paid attention to the anvil protrusion lately because I never have a problem with any brand going bang. The reason that they protrude was to de-sensitize them until they were seated with a little pressure. That compessed the priming pellet with the anvil and they were ready to go.
Click to expand...

The Remington primers I had a problem with had one leg of the anvil sticking far enough out to the side to prevent the primer from making its way down the tube. You couldn't ignore this problem.
 

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