Primer Hardness Charts?

[Stradawhovious]

I have been told that Federal Pistol Primers are reasonably soft, but they are hard to come by. Is there a chart somewhere that shows Primer brands by hardness? I'd like to try a few others since I can't find the Federals.

[usnret]

I wouldn't really worry about the hardness of primers. They are all pretty much the same, except for certain CCI ones that are made for use in military rifles. This is due to the fact that most military semi-auto rifles have a free floating firing pin.

[Stradawhovious]

If you are running a revolver with a trigger pull that is arificially light, its my understanding that even a slight difference in hardness will come back to haunt you in the form of failure to ignite. For this reason the aftermarket spring kits for competition revolvers recommend Federal only. I'm curious to know if there is a chart or other type of comparison to see if I can get close to Federal. I agree that under normal circumstances it shouldn't matter, but in my case it seems to.

[Rem700]

No chart but from what I remember, Federal, Remington,Win, CCI dont recall where Wolf or the the other one fall.

I havnt needed to purchase primers in the last couple of months but Scheels had all kinds of Fed back then.

[Pat Cannon]

Here's a guy regarding Wolf primers.He's on an Internet forum so he must know what he's talking about.

I am convinced now after a year or so of using them, that Wolf SP primers are at least as "hard" if not harder than "CCI" or Winchester.

I can't put numbers on this "hardness", but I have noticed one thing since I started using Wolf primers. Until I started using Wolf primers, I never had light primer strikes or misfires with any type of my reloaded ammo, using Federal, Winchester, and CCI primers. I began to have misfires / light strikes once I started using the Wolf SP primers for my 9mm and 40. These always fire the second time, but... the misfire rate was around 1-2%, that is maybe one every box of 50. (based on getting one or two misfires in a typical club IDPA match). The problem was worst in my Kahr CW9, which could not set off some of my Wolf-primered loads no matter how many times I tried. The same "failed" rounds would go off just fine in my G19 so I'm convinced it's hard primers.

I wouldn't say I won't buy Wolf SP primers again, I will gladly if that's all I can get. However the experience of the past year has made me stock up on Winchester and CCI primers when I can get them (not easy around here!) I don't have enough data on the other types of Wolf primers (SR, LR, LP) to be able to tell, but I don't recall having this happen with my 45s or any of my rifles. I would imagine these other Wolf primers would be "hard" as well but I don't shoot nearly as much of the other stuff as I do 9 and 40, hence less data.

As always, YMMV.

[Pat Cannon]

Here's some more. This guy goes by John Boy, Boolit Master and he is on the Internet too so he must really know his stuff:

Indents made in primers with a Lee Hardness Tester- the size of the indent from a 5/8" ball with 60 psi of the Lee Tester:
0.32 – CCI 300 LP
0.34 – Remington 9 ½ 6% - softer than CCI
0.40 – Winchester WLP – 25% softer than CCI
0.42 – Federal 150 LP – 31% softer than CCI

Haven't measured, but presume the other LR's are the same hardness

[cobb]

If you are running a revolver with a trigger pull that is arificially light, .............
For this reason the aftermarket spring kits for competition revolvers recommend Federal only......
I agree that under normal circumstances it shouldn't matter, but in my case it seems to.

From some of your recent post, I am starting to think that you are trying to game things abit.

Good for you.

If that above list is correct, I would guess you would be interested in Winchester primers. I have maybe a couple hundred Federal, maybe, but I have been pretty much running Winchester for years and have not had any problems with them, so I don't plan to change. If you want, I can dig through my primer stash and see what I have for Federal large pistol and trade you for them.

[Rem700]

Nice but doesnt take into account the sensitivity of the individual priming mix.

Here's some more. This guy goes by John Boy, Boolit Master and he is on the Internet too so he must really know his stuff:

Indents made in primers with a Lee Hardness Tester- the size of the indent from a 5/8" ball with 60 psi of the Lee Tester:
0.32 – CCI 300 LP
0.34 – Remington 9 ½ 6% - softer than CCI
0.40 – Winchester WLP – 25% softer than CCI
0.42 – Federal 150 LP – 31% softer than CCI

Haven't measured, but presume the other LR's are the same hardness

[Pat Cannon]

Nice but doesnt take into account the sensitivity of the individual priming mix.

That's right, people talk about the 'hardness' of primers but 'sensitivity', or something, might be a better term, since we just care whether it goes bang when you hit it, and that's affected by the mix of the primer compound as you say, the amount of compound, the thickness of the metal cup, a bunch of other mechanical dimensions of the primer, and probably two or three more factors I haven't thought of.

[livnlg55345]

You are married to Federal 150's, nothing else comes close to them. Make sure you seat the primers firmly and that they are below case head.

[EJSG19]

Also, watch that set screw under the wood grips on your 625.

Poor Dawn fought through almost a whole steel shoot with that thing loose. Lots of light strikes. She was shooting awfully well when a round would light off though

I imagine you've been all over that stuff though.

Will keep my eyes peeled for federals for you.

[Stradawhovious]

Also, watch that set screw under the wood grips on your 625.

Yep, since I bought this 625 I have invested in a 55 gallon drum of blue loctite.

[Paul]

Blue is for wimps. Real men play for keeps and use red.

[EJSG19]

Blue is for wimps. Real men play for keeps and use red.

Agreed. For strad's gun only, I recommend Red.

Set it, and forget it, because if you try and get that tiny little screw loose, you'll probably twist the head off

he's getting too quick on the reloads, I think he needs a few light strikes to keep him honest.

[gyrfalcon]

Lee seems to think federals are prone to light detonation and sells blast shields for them.. I did find this reposed article on primers which was fairly detailed and may be of interest:

http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0