Primers for black powder

Discussions of powders, bullets and loading information.

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Don McDowell
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by Don McDowell »

What I've more or less settled on for primers.
Regular Goex, depending on the rifle, either cci lr, or winchester lr, with Cartridge showing the same preference. Express worked equally well with either BR-2 or CCI pistol primers. Olde Eynsford has shown a definite preference for RP 9 , with BR-2 a very close second.
KIK fell again to CCI 200 and Winchester lr, just depending on the case manufacturer and individual rifle preference.
Shuetzen got along well with CCI 200.
Swiss seems to gravitate to BR-2.
Elephant pretty ambivalent.
Large Rifle magnum primers of any breed only proved useful in anything bp related when trying the new wonder powder of the late 70's when pyrodex first came out, and then again when Blackhorn 209 hit the market.
Bottom line is BR-2 is always a good thing to have on hand..
Large rifle magnum primers best left to loading 300 wby, 338 ultra mag, and other such things for the most part, unless one is into using the so called bp substitutes.
But as always your mileage may vary and may not be available in all states, certain restriction may apply.
AKA Donny Ray Rockslinger :?
charlie young
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by charlie young »

About 15 years ago I spent about an hour shooting different loads in a 45-70. Since then only CCI 250's Only primer I've used in my 45-90's and 45-110. In all those bricks I've shot only one didn't ignite. And they've proven themselves very well in the venue's I have shot.
charlie young
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by charlie young »

Been thinking about this thread, and reminiscing about shooters in the past that have had trouble with primers. Lots of misfires and two in specific were seating them using their reloading press. I suggested that they use a hand primer seater and make sure that they were bottoming out the primer in the pocket. No more problems. I seat all primers with an old style Lee. And to the best of my ability they are all seated with the same pressure. To me it is just as important to get primers all seated the same as any other part of the reloading process, we all know what happens with a broker firing pin and the erratic results even though the round is fired.
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Don McDowell
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by Don McDowell »

I really liked the old style Lee priming tools, altho their propensity for the thumb lever to snap unexpectedly was a pain. Their new style scares me a bit and I seldom use it except when priming small rifle or handgun primers. I use the RCBS universal tool for vast majority of case reloading, with the exception of the 44-77 and as it won't fit in that tool head go back to the old style RCBS priming tool that uses the same shell holder that is used for reloading.
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TexasMac
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by TexasMac »

mdeland wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:17 pm Have you had any breech block face gas cutting or peening Wayne?
Mike,

I forgot to check "Notify me when a reply is posted" & just read you question.

Nope, no block face gas cutting or peening in my Browning's - one rifle has around 8,000 rounds through it. And the same applies to my Shiloh Sharps 1874, but only has around 1500 rounds fired so far.

Wayne
NRA Life (Benefactor & President's Council) Member, TSRA Life Member, NSSF Member, Author & Publisher of the Browning BPCR book
http://www.texas-mac.com
TexasMac
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by TexasMac »

Don McDowell wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:38 pm Who was the author of the article?
Don,

Assuming you are asking about the article mentioned in my opening post, the author is Allan Jones. I had to dig the magazine out of my recycle bin.
When a new magazine arrives I read it, tear out any articles on info I want to keep and the rest goes in the recycle bin. BTW, Allan said the testing was done with Brett Olin, a retired CCI rimfire engineer. And the tests were run in CCI's Quality Assurance tunnel.

Wayne
NRA Life (Benefactor & President's Council) Member, TSRA Life Member, NSSF Member, Author & Publisher of the Browning BPCR book
http://www.texas-mac.com
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Don McDowell
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by Don McDowell »

Wayne that's what I was asking about.
Was going to browse thru one of those magazines when we went for groceries the other day, but they quit the magazine rack.
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TexasMac
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Re: Primers for black powder

Post by TexasMac »

hepburnman wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:41 am Hi Wayne- Would you know if in this test that over-primer wads were used? These would prevent powder from getting into the flash hole and maybe producing the pressure-peak time variations. I do not currently use these but may start to for just-in-case reasons.
If you're asking about the tests reported in the Shooting Times article, over-primer wads or under-powder wads were not mentioned. But I did some extensive testing using both techniques some time ago along with other much thicker under-powder wads. Here's my article reporting the results:
http://www.texas-mac.com/BPCR_Primer_Wa ... sults.html.

Wayne
NRA Life (Benefactor & President's Council) Member, TSRA Life Member, NSSF Member, Author & Publisher of the Browning BPCR book
http://www.texas-mac.com
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