Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Large rifle magnum primers

I need to buy some large rifle magnum primers for use with some ball powders I have. So does anyone have a favorite that seems to perform good? Thanks. RRM

I`ve had good luck with all of them, but do favor the Fed`s 215`s with Rem 9 1/2M a second.

Ball powders don't necessarily require a mag primer for good ignition, so depending on the cartridge, I generally use mag primers only in Mag cases, with the exception for slow powders expecting to see cold weather.

The chronograph will let you know.

I have stock of most brands, and they all work fine, but the choice is simple using FED 210M or 215M for serious loads.

I wouldn't shoot a newer un-plated Win primer in any of my rifles.

Rat Rod Mac,

I've mostly been using CCI 250's for the past couple of years, due to the shortage of Federal 215's. Still have a good stash of 215's, but wanted to see how 250's compared, partly because people were asking. So far the 250's have worked just as well in every cartridge tried, and a little better in some. For many years 215's have had the reputation of the hottest magnum primer, but in reality 250's were changed to a hotter mix in the 1990's.

I don't look at velocity as much as groups when trying primers for a certain load. Have also found that SOMETIMES even some pretty small cartridges work better with spherical powders and magnum primers. The smallest cartridge/powder combo that's responded well to magnum primers for me is the .220 Swift with Ramshot Big Game and 55-grain Ballistic Tips. Switching to 215's from standard primers shrank 5-shot groups from 1.5 inches to half that in a Ruger No. 1B.

John, I always used 215 GOLD Medal Match primers for ball powders and magnum cartridges. When they started to become scarce a few years ago I switched to remington Magnum primers and noted better accuracy in several cartridges. The 300 Ultra, 25-06AI and 300 win mag specificaly.

In my stash, I probably have a few thousand Win. Primers. Please fill me in on this Un-Plated issue. Thanks

They have a problem with leaking from defective cups, causing erosion to the boltface with standard loads.

There are some threads on here about the issue.

Thank you gentlemen for your help. And John I have some BR-2's and some 200's so maybe I'll just pick me up some of those 250's and give them a try. I have seen you guys talk about them, but I have never tried Ramshot powders being old fashion with my IMR and Alliant and even some older Hercules laying around. Maybe it's time to buy a pound of Big Game and see what happens. I do have an older Swift and a Roberts that I could try it in.
A couple of years ago, in my tang safety Swift, I loaded up 38/H-380 with 55 gr. Ball. tips. W-W cases, .030" off the lands, 5 shot groups with everything being the same except primers. Boy what an eye opener. I used BR-2's, 9 1/2's, Winchester, Federal 210M's and CCI-200. One or two of the groups were down around 5/8" to 3/4" (very good) to 1 3/8" to 1 1/2". Then I would change powders and do it all over again and the results would be different. Did I learn anything, I doubt it, but I sure did have fun letting the lead fly !! Thanks again fell'as. See ya, RRM

Thanks for that info. These primers I would guess to be 5 to 10 years old, so perhaps not affected. I must have bought them right at the time, as I usually go for Fed. or CCI.

Rat Rod Mac,

If you run the same test again with the same powder you will often see one primer the gun prefers.

CCI 200/250 primers seem to give me slower velocities and less accuracy.

I get higher velocities and good accuracy with WLR and WLRM primers.

I get slightly slower velocities with Fed215 than WLRM, but the accuracy is the same with each.

I never plan to buy CCI primers again.

Ok, at the risk of opening a whole new can of worms, the publication "Accurate Shooter" has opined that Win primers MAY be more temp stable than others IF you have a temp resistant powder and everything else is carefully controlled. Can anyone offer a yea or nay on this? I have had good results with Win primers, and sometimes Federals are hard to get, along with CCI's, but no super hot or cold experience.

I have a brick of WLRM I'll sell you... . I've never had a problem with CCI's. They are damn good primers that don't scar my rifles bolt faces...

I'll usually switch out the rifle instead of primer... Just sayin....

I'm glad I still have two unopened 5K flats of WW plated WLR primers. They are the best most consistent primers I have ever used. At 64 years old I doubt I will ever use even half of them. They still say ( For standard or Magnum loads ).

I use mostly Fed 215 but also use Standard Win LR Primers WLR which are about as hot as most magnum primers.

I like the Federal Gold Medal mag primers.

Winchester WLRM primers used to be the hottest primers you could buy. Don't know if someone has come along and made a hotter one. This is what some of the custom muzzle loader makers use to light off 200 grains of Pyrodex or 777.

I typically use WW primers when working with ball powders-especially 748 and 760/414. The regular WLR primers work great with ball powders in standard sized cases.