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Gerry · October 6, 2012, 05:47 AM

Lucky for me my wife is picking up 10,000 Winchester SPPs on her way back from work later today. I get a bit nervous when I'm down to my last big brown box (5 x 1,000). Stores have been dry in my city for the last couple months, but finally as of the beginning of this week they're in stock again here. Of course the pent up demand makes everyone buy them by the case-loads, so probably it will last another week before we face another dry period

I've tried all all 3 primer brands you mentioned in my XL 650. I found CCI to be the most problematic for consistent feeding, but that could just be me. Others don't share my experience. But mainly I hate the fact they don't color coordinate with the brass cases

In all seriousness, I've also had the most problems firing them with a few out of every 1,000 not detonating. I use reduced hammer (main) springs for easier double action in my IPSC guns, and CCI's hardness seem to make them more prone to light strikes.

I know a GM class IPSC Production shooter who only uses Federal primers in his XL 650 because they're the opposite of CCI in that they're very soft and easy to detonate, working well with his very reduced mainsprings. To my knowledge he's never had a problem with them in his 650. I only used them out once of desperation myself because I found that compensating for my weak mainspring with an extended firing pin gave me an acceptable reliability rate. Plus Winchester primers here are less expensive than the other major brands.

There has been a lot of conflicting information on the relative reloading safety of various brands of primers. But I'd say an XL 650 is just as capable of turning a CCI primer into little pieces as it is Federal primers. And we've all had it happen, usually without incident. If you head over to the Dillion reloading forum on Brian Enos, you'll see that Federal is an extremely popular primer among IPSC/USPSA shooters and almost the ONLY primer that wheel-gunners use. Considering action sport shooters often load thousands of rounds a month, a third of forum members there should already be dead from primer accidents according to popular belief.

October 6, 2012, 05:47 AM	#2
Gerry Senior Member Join Date: December 24, 2010 Location: Canada Posts: 382	Lucky for me my wife is picking up 10,000 Winchester SPPs on her way back from work later today. I get a bit nervous when I'm down to my last big brown box (5 x 1,000). Stores have been dry in my city for the last couple months, but finally as of the beginning of this week they're in stock again here. Of course the pent up demand makes everyone buy them by the case-loads, so probably it will last another week before we face another dry period I've tried all all 3 primer brands you mentioned in my XL 650. I found CCI to be the most problematic for consistent feeding, but that could just be me. Others don't share my experience. But mainly I hate the fact they don't color coordinate with the brass cases In all seriousness, I've also had the most problems firing them with a few out of every 1,000 not detonating. I use reduced hammer (main) springs for easier double action in my IPSC guns, and CCI's hardness seem to make them more prone to light strikes. I know a GM class IPSC Production shooter who only uses Federal primers in his XL 650 because they're the opposite of CCI in that they're very soft and easy to detonate, working well with his very reduced mainsprings. To my knowledge he's never had a problem with them in his 650. I only used them out once of desperation myself because I found that compensating for my weak mainspring with an extended firing pin gave me an acceptable reliability rate. Plus Winchester primers here are less expensive than the other major brands. There has been a lot of conflicting information on the relative reloading safety of various brands of primers. But I'd say an XL 650 is just as capable of turning a CCI primer into little pieces as it is Federal primers. And we've all had it happen, usually without incident. If you head over to the Dillion reloading forum on Brian Enos, you'll see that Federal is an extremely popular primer among IPSC/USPSA shooters and almost the ONLY primer that wheel-gunners use. Considering action sport shooters often load thousands of rounds a month, a third of forum members there should already be dead from primer accidents according to popular belief.