Switching to/from CCI primers

[BHFG]

I will (hopefully) soon be a new reloader and was talking to one of my mentors yesterday about primers. I mentioned that there local gun shows seem to have CCI primers, but hardly ever any other brand.

He said that if you use CCI primers on then you have to keep using CCI on that brass from now on because CCI primers are larger and stretch out the primer pocket. He claims that if you switch from CCI to another brand, you will get some gas leaks on any brass that used to use CCI.

This guy loads about 20,000 rounds a month for himself and ome law enforcement buddies, so I tend to expect he knows what he is talking about,

Has anyone else found this to be true? Or is he (ugh!) blowing smoke?

Tnx!

 

[Jim Watson]

I have used different primers, CCI included, pretty much interchangeably with no gas leaks. The only primers I have found noticeably tighter in the pockets were Russian Wolf brand.
There is as much difference in primer pocket size as there is in primer size, maybe more.

I doubt you can apply enough hand pressure to expand a primer pocket.
I doubt a thin primer cup will expand a primer pocket in the solid brass head no matter how hard you ram it in.

 

[interlock]

that sounds like bull*hit to me

 

[The Bushmaster]

BHFG...Your friend/mentor just doesn't like CCI primers...I, on the other hand, use any primer that I can get at a price that is reasonable. Be it CCI, Winchester, Federal, Remington. I haven't tried Wolf yet, but that's next I'm sure...

Primer pockets become enlarged by high or over pressure powder charges and over the extent of the case life of many reloadings. And that is determined by the quality of the case in the first place...

 

[NCsmitty]

He said that if you use CCI primers on then you have to keep using CCI on that brass from now on because CCI primers are larger and stretch out the primer pocket. He claims that if you switch from CCI to another brand, you will get some gas leaks on any brass that used to use CCI.

As Jim Watson alluded to,

There is as much difference in primer pocket size as there is in primer size, maybe more.

.
Your friend is giving you bogus information.
All American primer manufacturers produce their products to the standard spec of .210 for large and .175 for small, within their +- tolerances.
I have not used Wolf primers and cannot speak for them.
Use any American primer without worry of pocket fit. But we are not talking about the different primer intensity that does occur between brands. Some are slightly hotter than others.

NCsmitty

 

[qajaq59]

I've switched from CCI to Winchester and never noticed the difference. Maybe he just doesn't like CCI.

 

[ReloaderFred]

You can change them back and forth, as long as your particular firearm will set them off. Those with lightened hammer springs don't do well with CCI primers, but those are mostly tuned match guns.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Shoney]

BHFG
Tell your Urban Myth Purveyor to BITE THE BULLET!

 

[Steve C]

I've used all the major US manufacturers primers pretty much interchangeably as far as fit goes they all seem to be the same or so close it doesn't matter.

With shotgun primers I and other members at my club would load shells, mainly AA or Remington Blue Magics using Win, CCI or Remington until the primer pocket got loose and then would switch to Federals as they where slightly larger and you could get another 2 or 3 loads from a hull before the crimp section burned through or cracked in too many places to hold any more.

 

[SASS#23149]

Balony,pure and simple.
the primers are much softer than the brass case is,especially at the rim/pocket area.nO way the primer can stretch the pockets because of size.

 

[Walkalong]

I just primed some 5.7 X 28 cases last night. Some with WSP and some with CCI primers. The CCI primers actually seated ever so slightly easier. I have used them in 9MM, .38 and .357 cases recently and could tell no real difference between them and the WSP primers.

 

[The Bushmaster]

That's because they are chrome plated and that makes them more slickier...

 

[ranger335v]

"This guy loads about 20,000 rounds a month for himself and ome law enforcement buddies, so I tend to expect he knows what he is talking about,"

Repeating the same thing thousands of times is "experience", of a sort, but it doesn't expand the knowledge base a whit, as your friend demonstrates.

 

[ReloaderFred]

If your friend is loading for other people, and doesn't have a Class 6 Ammunition Manufacturer's license, he's breaking the law. You shouldn't take advice from criminals..........

Fred

 

[Smokey Joe]

Not to hijack the thread or anything...

BUT...Reloader Fred: Isn't there an allowance for if your friend passes you the empties and you just reload them for him, you aren't manufacturing, wheras if YOU provide the brass, be it previously fired or new, you ARE manufacturing?

(Granted, 20 k per month would seem like an awful lot of friendship. I was under the impression, however, that doing up a box or 2 for a hunting bud--in his brass--wasn't illegal. Not that I would do such a thing.)

I dunno--there is a pow'ful lot of misinformation, and just plain mistaken ideas, and dreams, circulating around nowadays.

 

[deacon8]

I actually work for ATK, in primer assembly (i.e. I make CCI primers for a living). With that being said, using a little common sense, don't you think it would literally be impossible to STRETCH a primer pocket with a primer. It stretches, and the entire rim gets enlarged? That is nonsense. Look at the thickness of the walls of a primer...the guy is completely full of it!

 

[Slamfire]

don't you think it would literally be impossible to STRETCH a primer pocket with a primer. It stretches, and the entire rim gets enlarged? That is nonsense.

Nonsense in my book. I regularly switch between primer brands, CCI, Winchester, Wolf for handguns. Whatever is cheaper. Never noticed the primer swaging the case pocket.

It might be that your bud is loading too hot of ammunition. CCI primers are thicker than most, harder to pierce, maybe he loads them up until the primer pierces, then blames the thicker primer for his problem.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Anyone heard from BHFG lately?

 

[Walkalong]

Nah, but can't we talk about it anyway?

 

[BHFG]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. As I suspected, it does not sound like he was right. Maybe I misunderstood or he mis-stated, but either way, opinions are just that....opinons. That's why I tend to trust the consensus from here.

My plan is to try a few primer brands, find what I like, and stay with it.