Talking about Primers

[hounddogman]

I recently picked up some Fiocchi sp primers at $75 per 1500 . Didn't know much about them so only bought 2 bricks. I've tried them in the 38 special and the 9mm so far with good results. I set up all my guns for CCI primers and the Fiocchis worked 100% . My cz sp01 used to shoot cci primers no problems but recently started having a occasional misfire on double action but had no issues with the Fiocchis. Only problem is they feed a little glitchy in my hornady press but fine in the rcbs bench tool. Haven't tried them in the dillion yet.

[AxeHandle]

Thanks! That the kind of feedback we need! I'll pick up a few 1500 packs this morning!

[x101airborne]

The european primers are a smidge bigger. They can cause problems. I quit them in my Dillon 1050 and use them for hand seating only.

[AxeHandle]

Another bit of wisdom and hands on experience shared! Thanks! Seems like I remember a note somewhere that that Dillon loaders did not like CCI primers. Moot point to me since historically I only use CCIs on magnum stuff that I only load single stage.

[ridenshoot]

During the past several years I was able to pick up a couple thousand of S&B large pistol primers (5,3 LP Boxer), they were all that was available at the time. I have had no issues with them and used them to load 44 SPL and 41 Mag (light/moderate loads, 210 LSWC, CFE Pistol Powder, ES=28, SD=11) using both my Dillon 550 (they fed well) and a Lee hand priming tool. I don't recall the price at the time, but I would definitely buy them again if the price were competitive.

Last year I also ran across a couple bricks of Aguila 1 1/2 small pistol primers, I recall them being competitively priced at the time.  These were loaded in 9mm, 40 S&W and 357 Mag, again with no issues noted.  I loaded all of this ammo with my Dillon 550 (small primer setup), the loads were accurate enough and the ES and SD were OK, though nothing to write home about.  I was experimenting with Heavy Pistol powder (357 Mag) and 800X (9mm) and Silhouette (40 S&W).  Though the numbers weren't impressive the accuracy of the 9mm and 357 were acceptable, the 40 was not.  I would gladly buy these primers again if they were available at a lower price than other more common brands.

I have two Dillon 550s, one setup for small primers and the other for large primers.  I have owned them for probably over 20 years and most of the primers I use in them are CCI.  I have used the CCI primers primarily because they were what was most available to me in the areas where I have lived.  I haven't had any problems with them and continue to purchase them when available at a reasonable price, unfortunately reasonable is now becoming relative.

[bigbore5]

Jan 12, 2024 7:34:42 GMT -5 x101airborne said:

The european primers are a smidge bigger. They can cause problems. I quit them in my Dillon 1050 and use them for hand seating only.

A Lyman sp pocket reamer fixed that problem for me. Never had trouble out of the S&B large pistol.

[pleadthe2nd]

I bought a box of Argentina made primers (Servicios) or something like that, a small pistol primers offered at Powder Valley, very good primers, used them for 357 mag, with max loads of #9, they're usually on sale too

[Encore64]

I recall when small primers were as hard to find as dinosaur eggs. People were steadily looking for them. I gave a couple friends bricks of small primers to keep them going.

But, nobody bothered to stock up on large primers because they were available and nobody felt the need.

Today, it's flipped. Small primers are in stock some places and everybody is looking for large primers.

I wonder how many are stocking up on what's available? Rule of thumbs says the tide will eventually turn.

[nicholst55]

Jan 11, 2024 14:27:07 GMT -5 sixshot said:

I think we will be very lucky to ever see $50 primers again, pretty sure those days are gone. That's for a brick of CCI, Winchester or Remington. It's around $70 most places here.

Dick

As of right now, Norma has Servicos y Aventuras SPPs for $49.99 per K.  It's listed as a 'Blowout,' so I would guess that when these are gone, we won't see any more at this price.

Servicos y Aventuras SPPs 

[bigbore5]

Thanks. Ordered three boxes to try.

[z1r]

Jan 14, 2024 10:46:28 GMT -5 bigbore5 said:

Thanks. Ordered three boxes to try.

Thanks, same here.  Need to shoot my .32;s and .357's more anyway! 

[ridenshoot]

Much appreciated.  2K on the way.  Free shipping, that's always good!

[z1r]

Jan 14, 2024 11:57:37 GMT -5 ridenshoot said:

Much appreciated.  2K on the way.  Free shipping, that's always good!

Yeah, icing on the cake that was! And, no hazmat!

[revolvercranker]

Yup those cheap primer days are gone forever. With the current anti-gun and ammo climate we'll be lucky if we even have primers, or anything else gun related for that matter.

I've been shooting foreign primers for decades. Someone mentioned here about S&B primers. Some of the best in the world. One must not forget that Europe was into the gun/ammo business far longer then the U.S. I hate to break it to some that everyting in the U.S. of A is not the best in the world. No I'm not foreign, I was born and raised here. I just bought some primer recently made by RAUG. I'll have to check, but I think I got them from Powder Valley. They had a two carton limit. Here's a PDF about RAUG. Believe they are Swiss and some of the best primers around.

www.ruag.com/system/files/media_document/2017-01/RUA0016_Leistungsbroschuere_12s_f2_01_Interactive.pdf

Been doing a study of primers since the late 70's. I keep updated with friends I've made around the country. Don't hate me, but the number on hated primer because of not firing or hard to set off are CCI. I've noticed this myself and I try to avoid them. I started with CCI primers. I remember when that was all they made. Came in the litte wooden tray. Then they expanded to 22 rimfires. Not look at them. I've used 1000's of Wolf prmers. Never ever had a problem with them. They are a little tighter fitting and I liked them in cases that had primer pockets on the larger side, not loose, just larger. The story I heard that was on the internet on the Wolf Magnum Small Rifle primers was there they were initially two different ones. Both had thicker cups. One was a thicker cup with the standard primer mix and the other was a thicker cup with the magnum primer mix. They had two different numbers to identify them. I can longer longer find that. I also had zero problems with either of them in AR15's. I remember at the beginning of 2000 buying Wolf large rifle primers from Widner's Reloading in TN for $18.95 a thousand. I miss those days. I though we would see more and cheaper primers with Fiocchi building a plant in the U.S. Whatever happen to that place in Texas that was building a plant to exclusively make primers?

[Deleted]

CcI 300 are by far my favorite large pistol primers. Ive shot the foreign ones. They worked good. But never found a steady supply.