Hard and Soft Primers

[7shooter]

What brands of primers have the reputation of being hard and which are soft ? I want to buy primers and /or ammo that will be less likely to misfire ( in revolvers ) due to hard primers.

 

[perrazi]

federal is the softer of the primers, remington is next, then winchester, and the hardest are cci. that is at least my finding on this. if you have a gun tuned for federal primers, you won't be able to set off cci and probably winchester. remington will be a maybe. this is for tuned match guns only, not factory spec guns.

 

[JohnK]

I solved my sometimes problem, of misfires, by seating the primers with an RCBS hand primer tool.

It seats the primer fully to the bottom of the cup, and even CCI's go bang everytime.

Yes, I have reduced power Wolff springs in all my K's, and L's

 

[flop-shank]

I've had a similar experience to John. My wife's 3" model 60 has a reduced power hammer spring so I have to use a primer pocket reamer before I prime my cases. I use Winchester primers and once the cases are reamed and the primers are seated, they go bang every time.

 

[cabezaverde]

I have a couple thousand old old old Winchester small pistol magnums that are really soft cupped.
Was wondering if anyone else had encountered this.

 

[7shooter]

Thanks all.

 

[danski]

Is it really "cup softness" or actually primer compound sensitivity?

 

[TSQUARED]

Perazzi provided good info on relative primer cup softness. However unless you have dramatically lightened the DA trigger you should not experience any difficulty igniting any of the primer brands. A factory sprung revolver will ignite any brand of primer or ammo.
My competition revolvers have very light DA triggers and function best with Federal primers.

 

[ar15ed]

magtech primers are definitely "hard". i agree on the federals. i reckon every federal i have ever loaded went "bang" first time.

 

[ricks1]

one reason federal is soft they sell to Law enforcement and Many carry glocks or a firearm that uses a striker. It needs a soft primer. I reload the 40 for my sig and buddy has a glock. he will get a misfire with my loads SOMETIMES I use cci
I said sometimes so you glock guys dont jump on me. OH my sig never fails LOL

 

[chief38]

I know that for years many people have said CCI primers are the hardest, and Federal are the softest, while Remington & Winchester fall somewhere in the middle. I won't put money on this because I have no real way of determining if this is fact or fiction. I have a few revolvers that I have done some pretty extensive trigger work on and designate them as "target shooting only" guns because of possible reliability issues from lightened triggers.

With that said, I have also been doing my own reloading for 30 years now and have used just about every primer available. My personal experience has been no mater which brand primer I use, the gun is either reliable or it isn't. I now have a really good feel when doing trigger work of what is light enough and what is too light, but in the beginning of my "gunsmithing career" there were times that primers would not reliably go off regardless of brand. If I had a revolver that certain brands of primers would not consistently go bang, I would deem that gun to have been lightened too much. I would not simply change primer brands, I would slightly increase how hard the primer is hit.

To sum it up, I ONLY do this kind of trigger work on guns that I use exclusively for target shooting . With carry guns, I shoot a minimum of 500 rounds through them to break them in, then completely disassemble them and ever so carefully remove any burrs that are left, lightly lubricate the moving parts and pivot points with Remoil, and reassemble.

IMHO if a gun does not reliably detonate any brand primer, then that gun is just not reliable.

chief38

 

[cabezaverde]

Is it really "cup softness" or actually primer compound sensitivity?

I would say cup softness. I can load a well under maxmum load and the primer will have a more flattened look than the same load same case with CCI standard small pistol. I am talking starting type loads here.

 

[Alk8944]

What brands of primers have the reputation of being hard and which are soft ? I want to buy primers and /or ammo that will be less likely to misfire ( in revolvers ) due to hard primers.

If you are talking about high quality and un-modified revolvers this is not an issue. Any revolver in factory condition will ignite any primer (which is not otherwise damaged) without fail.

The only time this becomes an issue is if the mainspring of a revolver has been modified or replaced with one of lesser power with the purpose being to reduce trigger pull, double or single-action.

If a gun is to be used strictly for target purposes this is acceptable, although to do so will increase lock time somewhat. If the gun is intended to ever be used for defensive carry you should never alter the mainspring, and there should be little lightening of the rebound spring in a S&W revolver. Dependability is absolutely paramount in a service or defensive firearm of any type.