[Unclenick]

Reynolds357,

I started using Federals in pistol matches a good thirty years ago and have tended to stick with them. However, I recommend you take a look at the Russian TulAmmo primers. They are a bit harder to seat (you may want to swage or use a Wilson primer pocket profiling tool with your cases to ease that), but the consistency of their rifle primers has been very impressive for me. My last test on an '03 Springfield got me about 1/3 lower velocity SD than the 210M's I have with the same basic load.

Mind you, that kind of thing can vary lot-to-lot. I've heard of one lot of the Russian large pistol primers that caused problems, but most of the rest of the reports are good. The Federal 205M's and 210M's have been consistently good for a long time, so they are still my standard to compare against in guns without floating firing pins, and I don't know if that long term consistency will hold for the Russian primers or not. The Russian primers used to be half the price of Federal, but as their reputation has grown, so has their price. Graf and Sons now charges almost as much for them.