[mgdive]

Does anyone know of any good comprehensive tests that have been performed regarding primer sensitivity and have access to the data?

Federal primers are supposed to be more sensitive than other makes but I haven't seen this confirmed yet in practice...


I've been working on a revolver I use in USPSA (Smith 625) with the goal to ensure reliable ignition on a particular type of primer. With well seated Federal large pistol primers I am just at 100% reliability (4# yielded some light strikes, no issues since changing to 4.5#).


I have some CCI and Winchester primers laying around and decided to test these. I expected a few failures with the Win and mostly failures with the CCI. I had 1 failure with 1 Win primer (second strike set it off) but I was surprised to have 100% reliability with the CCI which I have heard were the least sensitive of the three.


This was a small test (6 rds each) so it's possible my data test wasn't large enough to show what I expected, but wondering what others have seen? Does anyone know what test procedure the mfgs use and/or what their standards are for lot to lot tolerances?

 

[Ben Nelson]

There is an article in Hodgdon's 2015 annual manual that discusses how primers affect pressure, velocity, and accuracy. Different primers are tested with the same powder/bullet load. I haven't had a chance to read the article yet. . . Just bought the manual yesterday . . .

 

[HK SD9 Tactical]

Comprehensive test on primer sensitivity? Not that I have seen but I am sure that at some time in the last 120 or so years, somebody has done it several times. It would be a good article/study to read. I suspect that your answers lie in Bench Rest Primers for sensitivity. Although I have never had one of my primers failed to go bang (the reloaded ammo that I do), I have had a couple of factory rounds that failed to ignite even when the primer was hit multiple times. One of them was SS192.

I have used Federal, CCI (both civ and mil), Wolf (magnum and regular), Remington (magnum and regular), and have not had any issues. I am looking for some Federal 210 Match Grade primers for my long range loads. The 6mmBR.com site has good information on stuff like this.

Keep us in the loop. I would like to know this as well.

However, I expect NO FAILURES when I use any one's primers.