Home Forums Reloading Shotshells 209 Primers

I’ve been buying “lots” of shotgun reloading stuff for over 30 years, and a while back, I picked 1000 Federal 209 primers (not 209a) and a couple thousand CCI 209 trap and skeet primers. The boxes look really old, but they appear to still be good. I seated a few of each in empty hulls, and they all popped.

I had an old timer shotgun reloader tell me that they’re both interchangeable with Winchester 209 recipes, but I wanted to get a second opinion.

I've been using CCI and Fed 209s interchangeable with Winchester 209s. Not so with a 209A. 209A raises the pressures.

The Fed 209 was generally considered a "hot" primer back in the day. It was the preferred choice when using slow burning powders in heavy hunting loads. The 209A was developed for better performance in said loads, particularly in less than 20 degree weather.

I've several bricks of the old Fed 209s on hand, I have no qualms substituting them for Win 209 in my 7/8 and 1 oz 12 ga target loads. The pressures are quite modest so the generally accepted worst case scenario of a 2500 psi rise in pressure would still be safely under industry recommendations. As load pressures per book rise, either through heavier loads or smaller bores, I follow the recipe as leeway becomes much less. Most loads I have used with the old Fed 209s were at least .5 (1/2) grain to as much as 2 grains less than with a load calling for a Win primer. This was in 12 ga, when I used them in 20 ga and especially 410 I followed published loads. I do recall at least one load in the 410 using the 3" hull in which the Winchester primer actually called for a lower powder charge than the Federal. I once read of an explanation for this but it was long ago and I don't recall it at the moment.

The CCI "Trap and Skeet" primers were the standard 209s as I recall. They are about the mildest primer one can find. They worked best with faster, easily ignited powders in my experience. Especially, in colder weather. Looking at the data for what I used to load, one should lose a good 30 fps if substituting for the Win 209 with typical target loads. Pressures generally drop too, at least in the couple recipes I looked at.

CCI's 209 SC was considered to be hotter than their standard 209 and the data I used was pretty comparable to Win 209. I recall it being introduced to address the shortcomings of the standard 209. The 209M is even hotter and is closer to Federal 209A than the Win primer.

I had issues with an old brick of the CCI trap and skeet. Some very good and some weak. Was told the trap and skeet primers had issues with humidity. Sold them to a collector at a gun show.

heck, im loading alcan primers and they are all good.
just loaded up some red w-win 209's...no problems. heck, the faces of the primer were gray and corroded ....all went bang.
load em up.

As long as the load is 9K and under switch anything you want. Will not make a difference safety wise. They will still be safe. The weight of the shot going up will change the load as any increase in powder. All modern shotguns are proofed WAY beyond what the books show for normal pressure loads.

Shoot some 3.5" steel loads if you want to see pressure.

I have a neighbor that has several thousand WOLF 209 primers. He sold all his reloading equipment several months ago, forgot he had these primers plus some others. I helped his sell some locally, but there are several thousand left. Before placing a ad on the forum, and since I am not a reloader, is there anything negative that I need to know about these.

you can not ship them so you will have to sell local. You have to be hazmat certified shipper to ship them

Thanks, knew that, what about quality....good, bad, ugly

They are just fine for reloading. I've done 10,000 + of them over the years. I believe I still have at least one sleeve of them around. If I could go back in time, I would have bought more Wolf primers when I had the chance rather than the Cheddites I did.

The only caveat I can think of is the battery cup is not tapered like the American one's. This can distort the primer pocket on American hulls enough to allow an Amercan primer to fall out if they are used for a subsequent loading. If one is reloading "one and done" or European hulls then this is not much of an issue.

Amen. I had 20k, and also wish I'd bought more. They were Win209/Ched brissance, approximately. There was little data available tho, which bothered some. But I run near everything way below max, so have zero concerns, but there it is.

They are just slightly larger than domestic, but did not open pockets as bad as Cheddites and Fios. I especially liked them in M-12s. Not one perf, ever.