Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters cci vs federal primers

i have always used cci primers (except in shotgun and always use federal ) however i cant find any at grafs or jerrys they have federal at jerrys any differences ?
thanks

Fog, very little difference, if any.

IMO Fedrals 210's are a wee bit warmer than CCI 200's. Both primers have served me very well in all temps with doses (between 44 and 65 grains) of fluffy stick powder.

Beggers can't be choosers......

I like to keep life simple. CCI for LR and Fed 215's for mag loads. Winshester for large and small pistol primers and Remington 7 1/2's for small rifle. A quick glance and they are identifiable. I've used some Fed 210's and really didn't notice much difference in chronographed velocities or accuracy from the CCI 200's. Thankfully, I have enough to get buy until supplies get normal again.

I used to use CCI BR-2's, but had some issues with the primer cup being too hard. I've switched to Federal 210 M's and/or 215 M's and haven't looked back.

I shoot matches at 200 yards mostly and sometimes at 300 and 600 yards.

I can't tell the difference at 200 yards between brands of primers in large rifle size except I use only F215s for big magnums (hunting rifles, not for matches).

Note: I am not trying to shave 1/4" off a group at 200 yards or something. I don't care about that.

I stay away from Remington because in small rifle size they are a little smaller in diameter. In .223 I can get more reloads from WW cases with WLR or Federal primers because the Remington 7 1/2 primers get loose in the pockets.

I think but I am not sure that Federal and CCI are now the same company.

Fog, I don't think you will experience much difference (if any at all) by switching. You may need to tune your load if it is right on the edge (about like switching lots of primers or powder). I have used all the major US made brands and found reliability to be equivalent.

i figured it wasnt a big deal but i just hate changing old habits

around here a while back feds got hard to get so i changed from 205m to br-4 and 210m to br-2 and could tell no diff. in accurcy or through the chrono with the same cases, powder charge or bullets

Actuaqlly some tests have shown CCI 250's and Winchester LR Magnums to be hotter than Federal 215's. But the difference isn't much.

Federal and CCI have been owned by the same company for a while now (ATK), but the primers are still made in two different facilities.

Federal primers have thinner cups. Somtimes this makes a difference, as somebody noted earlier. I once put a trigger spring kit in a Ruger Redhawk revolver and it wouldn't make CCI's go bang all the time. Switching to Federals solved the problem. I have seen that sort fo thing happen a few other times, with rifles as well as handguns, but it isn't common.

IVE used a few thousand CCI primers with zero problems, but prefer the 215 federals, or win mag large rifle primers, the only brand I try to avoid is remington, Ive had a few hang fires at well below zero temps in the past with remingtons, (might have been a rare bad batch but still, once burnt......

Remingtons tend to be the mildest of all the primers, which is a good thing in some instances, not in others. I would be their magnum rifle primers would work pretty well in cold, though I don't find them stocked very often.

My unscientific testing (seeing how fast I could blast a pistol bullet with no powder using various primers) showed that WLRM primers were the undisputed hottest ones. PS magazine ran an article a number of years ago where that author concluded the same thing. I think the regular WLR primers are among the hottest non-magnum as well and I [almost] always use them for WW ball powders.

I generally use Rem 9 1/2 for most starting loads as they are mild, smaller in diameter and give good results.

I used Fed 215s for most of my magnum stuff but use WLRM for H870 and simillar powders.

I have no preference for small rifle but use mostly Remington and CCI since Federals are so hard to come by these days.

I really like the CCI BR series as it is stamped on the face of the primer and I can ID them at a glance in loaded ammo!