May be a dumb question, but are there harder and softer primers?...and if so which would be softer?

Yes there are-

Depends on what type of primer you are talking of, but for the most part, Federal are softer, CCI are harder.

My own opinion of purchase desire is in order, CCI, WW, Fed. I still have a bad taste in my mouth for Federal primers after their china outsourcing after the Obama victory in 08; a lot of failures to detonate.

I have shot Federal Match primers since 1973 and have never had one failure to detonate. After using all the primers made for a few years and reviewed my targets I noticed the Fed match revealed the best groups and started using them exclusively. I shot 2-3000 rounds a year until recently, now it is 1000 to 1500 per year. They always load easily no matter how many times the brass if resized within reason. For what it is worth this is how I do it. Good Shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by JonP:
May be a dumb question, but are there harder and softer primers?...and if so which would be softer?

Lots of good info at the link below.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIMER - A PRIMER ON PRIMERS
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0

Ditto phurley.