Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .223 Primers…does it make a difference?

I have almost used up my supply of WSR primers. Got them when Obama was in office and Winchester was all I could find. I was going to use BR4s for .223. But wondered about the Federal Gold Medal
Small Rifles. Federals are $20 cheaper per 1000, about the same as any other primer.

The Winchester’s have been OK. I always used CCI small rifles in the past. Truthfully, I never gave primers a lot of thought other than match grade or not. The only match primers I’ve used were Gold Medal Large rifle.

My .223 is a bolt gun. My best loads for it are H4895 with a 60 VMax or X-Terminator with a 55 Blitzking. I have also used TAC under the 55 BK, 60 Horn SP and 60 Vmax. The 60 Horn SP did the best with TAC. I tried some 60 Vmax’s with a Federal SR over TAC, and it made no difference accuracy wise.

I’m trying for 1/4” groups which I have got from Black Hills factory and the H4895. Powder charge and seat depth have made the most difference for me, but I’m wondering what others experience is.

I'm not an accuracy freak but do like accurate rifle. I haven't seen much difference in group size with different primers. MY rule of thumb is ball powders, AR's and redlined loads get CCI 450 or Rem 7 1/2's. Bolt and combo guns with stick powders and regular hunting loads get standard SM rifle primers.

My 20 Practical in the AR gets loaded with Rem 7 1/2's, in the bolt action and Benchmark standard SMR primers. The 222 Rem's are all bolt actions, with 748 or 2230 they get Rem 7 1/2's and Benchmark, SMR's.

Rem 7.5's..........

call it good !

The BR4’s are way overpriced for what they do over a standard CCI small primer. Nothing to write home about. The gold medal match shows a little better results over standard but not a lot but compared in price they aren’t a bad deal. The best BR primer for results and money has been the Rem 7 1/2 BR. With Benchmark or LT32 they beat out both the others. I shot up all of my BR4 and BR2 and will never buy again due to the cost.

Primers do matter but it is not real predictable which one is going to work in a specific rifle / cartridge / powder / bullet combination. While the benchrest / match primers are more consistent, they may not be as good a fit with the other components so switching from std to match won't always improve accuracy in a given rifle / powder / bullet even if it does with others. The only way to really know is to try.

There are so many variables that I generally just pick a brand of case and a seemingly appropriate primer, then try to only juggle bullet and powder. If I find adequate accuracy for the purpose, I quit. I only start changing cases and primers if I'm unable to achieve the accuracy I want with whatever I started with.

I've used CCI, Winchester, and Federal std and match in the .223 family in the past. Today my .223 shooting is with an AR and I use the Federal 205-AR match primer exclusively. My bolt gun is a .204 with a sloppy firing pin hole which requires a hard / thick primer cup else the primers pierce .. I wrecked 2-3 $200+ Jewell triggers before finding a solution. I shoot only Remington 7-1/2s in it. No blown triggers, half MOA groups, done.

Tom

I never figured primer's made that much difference. Then fooling with one of my 243's one time I swapped from, I think it was CCI, to Herter 120's. Pretty good difference in them but not enough to win a shooting match I don't think. Something most of us get caught up in is trying to find the load to win bench rest match's with. Probably ain't gonna happen! I have always looked for loads that go into an inch or less and of course when I got there ended up looking for more. Simply reloading will probably never win a competition. But then again I never figured changing a primer would make much difference either. What ever you do, don't stress over a primer. It's just one different thing to try changing to see if there's a better one otthere for your rifle.

I use CCI400. I get .25” and under groups with my Tikkas.




P

I've been running small rifle mangnum primers (CCI 450) in everything I load that takes small primers. I started that once when I couldn't find regular SRP's, and they worked fine. I'm an accuracy nut, so I should probably test some others, but I've just been assuming that it makes no difference. I have a couple AR's that shoot 1/4 minute with them, so being the lazy loader that I am, I'll probably just stick with it. The posts above do have me wondering, though...

Some of my rifles don't seem to care about primer type at all. Others seem very sensitive to it; in 223 for example I've got one load where CCI 450s are a 2"-3" load, but the same load with WSR or S&B SR are under 1" @ 100. I usually try both the 450 and WSR in small cartridge loads, sometimes the WSR shoots better and sometimes it doesn't matter.

I started with WSRs and got some good loads with those.

When Obamascare came along, the only brick I could find at any price was a taped-over brick of CCI 400s white box. When I put them in my "pet" load, the load shot even "petter" (same everything else), like two tenths better, from fives to threes. And each subsequent brick of CCI 400s has never disappointed.

Actually, I felt kind of silly upon "discovering" CCI primers. I grew up shooting CCI Mini Mags and never had a quality or accuracy issue with those, ever, over 20 years. Kind of a "duh" moment.

I also like the Federal GM205Ms and CCI BR 4s, both in 223 and in BR.

Yeah...I grew up using CCI Stingers. Got a box in my stocking every Christmas!

Yep.

When Wolf primers became available ten or twelve years ago, I bought some. I think the component shortage had begun. I used the Wolf SRs for loading .223 and my 700 Classic loved it---it shot tighter than I'd ever achieved before averaging in the low 4s. The problem was that out of every box of 100, there would be one or two duds. Seems counterintuitive (at least to me it does), but that was my experience with them.

When I was shooting benchrest 9 out of 10 shooters swore by Fed 205's, when shooting my AR's I heard the horror stories of slam fires with federal or Win primers so I shot Rem 7 1/2s in my semi-auto's. only problems I have had is with CCI's, had a carton where 1 out of 20 was a dud.

If you enjoy experimenting in search of the best accuracy, shooting groups with different primers is sometimes worth the effort. I've recently been experimenting with CCI-400s, CCI-450s, and Remington 7 1/2s in .222s and .223s (including ARs). Almost always there is a measurable but small difference, but you have to shoot several groups to know for sure.

I realize CCI-450 and Remington 7 1/2 primers are often recommended for ARs in .223 / 5.56, but generally, the smallest groups for me have been with CCI-400s. However, CCi-450s and Remington 7 1/2s are often very close. Splitting hairs, maybe, but that's the part some enjoy.

I haven’t ever used Remington primers but it sounds like it may be time to start. Have you all found that Winchester is as “hot” as the Rem 7.5 or CCI mag SR?

Take Em: I currently am using the wonderful and dependable Federal 205 Match grade primers in virtually ALL of my small Rifle primer needs.
In other words I am using these Federal 205 Match primers in 41 (forty one!) of my Rifles in calibers from 17 Mach2 on up through 6m/m PPC and 6m/m Remington Bench Rest!
I have LONG ago given up trying to find a more consistent and more accuracy inducing primer.
Thats all I buy and all I use.
I say give them a try - they ARE worth it.
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: Many years ago when I was first staring out with the 17 Remington calibered Rifles a good and trusted friend of mine was mentoring me on the 17 Remington and his experiences - in short he suggested I use the Remington 7 1/2 primers in this "high intensity" cartridge as they are built of "stronger" material - and I do so, in all three of my 17 Remington Varmint Rifles.
This is the only exception to my Federal 205 Match primer policy.

I must live in primer bliss for 223 and other small primer rifle rounds ...

I've never really had any issues or notice any real difference.. with the one time, I ended up with Aguila primers...and Mag Tech..
then I noticed inconsistencies a lot.. but when do you expect out of South America or Mexico...

S& Bs were cheap at Cabelas a few years ago.. I'm still working my way thru all the ones I picked up back then..

they were $16 to $18 a box of of 1000....1996 prices...

Yes, I just used up a box of 60 grain Hornady Soft Points that was less than $10 for 100.

I just bought another pound of H4895 for $29.99 and the BR4s were $59.99 per 1000 with most others $30-35. I’m not sure what’s going on with Hodgdon but last year I had my choice of whatever I wanted including Varget whenever I walked in. Thin pickings now. I buy it whenever someone has it. Need it or not.

Benchmark has been available here locally, so much that I can buy it for $23.50 a pound.. and then it goes on sale for $2.00 off of that price seems like every 90 days....I've been running 26.5 grains with 55 and 60 grain bullets out of several bolt action 223s...

Velocity and accuracy has been real good, even with bullets ( like Speer 55 SPs) that aren't always that accurate...
this load of Benchmark, tightens em up....the powder seems to like to be pushed to the max loads in each of my bolt action 223s.

I've had very good luck with S&B primers. I did a shoot off between them and CCI-450's behind tack and the S&B's turned in better groups.

There’s only one way to find out...try them. 😊

Yeah, my favorite 223 primer.