Ok, so I was spending too much time reading again. Couldn't go shooting, or reloading so I was reading up about it

Came across a place in a book (Handloading for Competition: Making the Target Bigger by Glen Zediker) where he mentioned he'd never had good results from CCI primers (cool end of the spectrum) w/ ball powders, nor had anyone he'd compared notes w/ (this is primarily HighPower, i.e. .308 Win, .260 Rem, .223 w/ heavy bullets. etc.), and opined that at least in his experience, ball powders worked much better w/ hotter primers such as Federal match or WW.

The more I thought about this, it got me wondering if perhaps an alternat primer might help as there are a few of the short extruded powders (N-140, RE-15), and at least one ball powder (Tac) that are *supposed* to work extremely well in a .308, but in my gun at least, the results were unimpressive, compared to Varget w/ CCI BR2 primers.

I picked up another pound of Tac, and some Fed GM 210M and WW primers to do some testing as I get around to it, but I was wondering if anyone else had tinkered around in this area and had come to any conclusions.

TIA,

Monte

Way back when, we were farting around with 44 loads we found that the non-magnum primers gave us better velosity and accuracy with ball powders. We got curious and extended this experament into rifles and extruded powders and to our amazment found similar results. There was nothing scientific in our methods however and no records were kept,it just seemed to work and I still use these "ideas" today. derf

Monte, my results have always been good with CCI BR primers and ball powders. I use mainly H380 for the 22-250, H4895 for the .223 with heavy bullets, and I used to use H335, and H380 in the .308 --------- all with CCI BR primers. I'll let you be the judge of my results.



While this rifle is particularly unbelivable, I have had proportionally good results with rifles not quite up to snuff using the BR primers with ball powder. However, I have never tried them in a case with a capacity over 50 grains.

[ 05-06-2003, 22:06: Message edited by: TBS ]

I've done quite a bit on primers. The last thing I do in load development is try the winning load with every primer I can get my hands on, including magnums of the same manufacturer as the standards. Since I start with Federals, 70% of the time I end up there with Federals, but many times there is noticeable improvement in accuracy with alternate primers. I have never, ever had a CCI primer give improved accuracy in any load in which I've tried it. Many times there is no effect on accuracy meaning the load would be OK with any primer. The only place I use them is in handguns where they seem to be the primer of choice for me, much as Federal is for rifles.

I don't know it's so much the make of the primer that affects accuracy as it is the heat of the flash in igniting the propellant. All primers are slightly different, much like hammers. You can drive a nail so far with a light hammer but you have to swing it harder to get comparable penetration to a very heavy hammer that you swing lightly. A heavy hammer swung hard will drive the nail further. Primers are the same and therefore cause the propellant to react differently.

The other loads I develop besides with Federals, usually end up with WW or Remington in that order, and most times it's with the standard primers rather than magnum. The exception to that is the ball powders that for some reason, possibly their density, do better for me with magnum primers even in small cases. I try all forms of CCI primers in all loads yet not once have I had improvement, and in many cases noticeable deterioration in accuracy. Possibly if I started load development with them they would work for me but they never have.

Bottom line is that any primer will work, some just seem easier than others, and what you start with is usually where you end up.