I'm sure there is a chart someplace on the web that ranks primers in order of heat. Would someone please point me in the right direction?

I'll give you an "opinion"..........

Hottest to "coolest".

WLR Mag
WLR
Fed 215
CCI 250
Fed 210
CCI 200
Rem 9 1/2 M
Rem 9 1/2

There was a list published in Precision Shooting, developed by photographing the flash produced by each brand and type of primer. The list was of large primers.
I would be very interested in a list of small primers, particularly, of small pistol primers. Presumably, pistol primers are less powerful than rifle primers. The purpose would be to use the pistol primer with the least power for Hornet loads; the idea being to balance primer to powder load, avoiding using a very peppy primer in the very small Hornet case, thus, reducing velocity variation.

Hi.
I don't want to confuse the issue but I have recently been trying different primers on a .243 load. The load is Hdy 87HPBT. Vit 160 at 45gr. Lapua case. CCI primer. Bullet sat 3 thou short of the lands. Chrono'd at 3170fps I have tried the following primers: Fed Magnum. WLR. Rem 9 1/2. CCI and CCI B/rest. The results were interesting but the relevant point to this thread was that all pressure signs were safe except the Rem 9 1/2 which slightly marked the base and gave the odd stiffish extraction (on a cold day). No such problems with the Fed mag or WLR. Not what I expected, but why?

Years ago, Bob Hagel did a pretty extensive test of various primers using different powders in three different calibers. The results were pretty ambiguous. A primer that produced the highest pressure or greatest consistency with one powder in a cartridge didn't necessarily net the highest pressures/best consistencies with other powders in the same cartridge. Likewise, when different calibers were compared, there was no real correlation between one specific primer and highest pressure or best consistency.

Even the much ballyhooed Federal 215 primer wasn't the hot rod ALL the time that it is rumoured to be.

So...the net result of his testing, which comprised several hundred different combinations was that each powder/bullet/cartridge combo is unique, and that one would have to experiment himself with the load he was using to find the most uniform ignition and highest velocity in his particular load.

I imagine that even if you took the highest velocity/most consistent primer/powder/bullet combo in my .270 Win, then did a test in YOUR .270 Win, you might also find a different primer gave higher velocities and/or better uniformity.

[ 02-24-2003, 01:44: Message edited by: Norm ]

One other thing about Hagel's study. The Magnum designator on a primer had little correlation to the velocities or consistencies he got. Sometimes he got higher velocties with them (i.e. 9 1/2 vs 9 1/2M) and somtimes he didn't. He came to the conclusion that it didn't mean a whole lot as far as pressures went. Lot to lot variation of the same primers sometimes had more effect on pressures than the standard vs. magnum primer.

[ 02-24-2003, 01:24: Message edited by: Norm ]