CCI primer alternatives

Joined
Nov 20, 2021
Messages
1,635
I'm not going to lie, I am a primer whore and hoarder. Federal 210, 215M, CCI 200, 250, Winchester, WLR, WLRM. As well as some small rifle primers, small pistol and large pistol primers of differing varieties. I've had the Fedral 215M's for 25+ years, still work like the day I got them and the 210's for dang near as long. Living in Colorado, they are near timeless in a basement workroom with the low humidity out here.

I would buy whatever you can as they will last forever if you take care of the storage conditions. With 2K of your preferred primers already, use them for when it matters. I like a bird in the hand versus two in the bush. Working up a new load with a different primer is a matter of a few shots and I haven't seen a difference in accuracy with respect to a hunting gun in three decades of loading.
 
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wyosam

WKR
Joined
Aug 5, 2019
Messages
1,284
I’ve got a variety on the shelf, though mostly CCI. I’ve never really cared which I use, other than generally sticking with one type for each rifle/load. I’ve never found a need to switch from any of them chasing groups or ES.


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fshaw

WKR
Joined
Jan 26, 2015
Messages
410
A few LR primers have started showing up by me. SR pretty available. Maybe in a short bit of time things will ease up and there will be some 200s, and others, available. Hopeful.
 
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
1,821
Location
Montana
I have a brick of fed large rifle magnum primers. I was sighting in a new scope today and discovered that two identical loads except for the primers don't shoot the same. I found that I can't mix the shells. The variance between cci 250 and win large rifle magnum was enough to make me sort my loads into two groups.

I will go back out and do some fine tuning another day but after loading cci 250 for 30 years, I can recognise the need for finer work.
 
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