Try as I might I can't seem to come up with the above. Found a nice chart for Large & Small rifle primers. I think that was on Rocky's website. No luck at all with anything on pistol primers. If anyone knows of such a reference I would really appreciate your help. Thx in advance for anything you can share...

I don't know of a chart for pistol primers. I've been using CCI's for quite a while now and over almost 50 years of reloading have used about every one on the market. Can't say that I can see much difference in any of them as far as ignition goes for most calibers. Perhaps with some of the new extremely high pressure loads it might make some difference.

I do not know of a chart either. I can give you some opinions supported by observation and gut feelings though (yeah, you should be very afraid right about now!:D).

1. The Standard WW large pistol primer is a lot like the Federal large pistol mag primer in it's ability to light slow burning ball powders like H-110. In fact the WW box says their primers are for standard or mag loads.

2. The standard CCI small pistol primer is a lot like the standard Federal small pistol primer.

3. The entire line of Federal pistol primers (and maybe rifle??) is softer than all or most other brands of primers. On a high pressure load, you'll see more primer flow on a Federal than any other brand I had used.

If I can find them, I use nothing but Federal pistol primers. In rifles I only willingly use WW primers. Lot's of good stuff out there but this is where I have settled.

I haven't found much difference in small pistol standard primers, but CCI and Remington small pistol magnum primers are a step up and Winchester small pistol magnum primers are two steps up. The Winchester magnums are great with W296 and I assume H110, but I found that things get spooky fast with 2400 and faster powders.

Bye
Jack

Notes: Ratings were established by experience and inference from velocity/apparent pressure results and are not scientific. Do not use these charts for load development. Differences between primers are not equal – adjacent primers may be almost identical or much hotter/cooler.

Large Rifle Primers

Fed 215
WLRM
CCI 250
Rem 9 ½ M
WLR
F210
CCI BR2
CCI 200
Rem 9 ½

Small Rifle Primers

Fed 205
Rem 7 ½
WSRM
Fed 200
WSR
CCI BR4
CCI 400
Rem 6 1/2

Rocky Raab

HANDLOADS .COM

Manufacturer Cup Thickness Diameter Height
Small Rifle
CCI 400 .020" .1753" .109"
450 .025" .1750" .113"
BR4 .025" .1755" .109"
Federal 200 .019" .1757" .111"
205M .0225" .1744" .1075"
Remington 6 1/2 .020" .1753" .109"
7 1/2 .025" .1752" .110"
Winchester SR .021" .1750" .109"

Large Rifle
CCI 200 .027" .2112" .118"
250 .027" .2113" .118"
Federal 210 .027" .2120" .117"
215 -- -- --
Remington 9 1/2 .027" .2100" .119"
Winchester LR .027" .2114" .121"
Mag .027" .2114" .121"

Sorry-I see now you are looking for pistol info. Can't help you with pistol.

Priming mix can vary from primer to primer and often from lot to lot.

Never heard or seen a chart your referring too. Some years ago several different individuals conducted tests to determine which primers had the most brisnase (spelling?). They set up test fixtures to set off primers in a darkened enviroment with a graph type background and then photographed the resultant flash. By counting the squares in the lite up graph gave a rough idea as to each primers brisnase. This was done for all makes of primers if memory serves. This information was used to load ammo to verify the tests. The tests demonstrated that the most brisnase is not necessary the most desirable feature for accuracy. In fact one of the least brisnase primers had the best accuracy leading to the conslusion that consistant, uniform and complete ignition were more important than brisnase.

Thanks for the mention, guys.

I have no intention of repeating that test for pistol primers. For one thing, I have yet to note any significant performance difference among standard pistol primers (magnums are a different story, as told above). Second, these days I haven't the patience to try to find all the different kinds.

In general, Winchester primers are the hottest, with their magnum style up in the WHOOOEEEE! level. I'd reserve those for the hardest lighting, high-volume charges of ball powder. Flake powders and/or any cartridge not the size of a beer keg will perform just fine using any standard pistol primer you can get.

Finally, and despite the chances of igniting a firestorm of flames (intentional pun), I have to say that that test of primers using photos of the flame pattern is interesting, but it bears no relationship to brisance. Brisance simply cannot be measured that way. I'm not even convinced that one can say "more flame means a hotter primer." Nor does a bigger flame mean that you'd get more pressure or velocity from that primer when fired in an actual cartridge because there are too many other factors influencing the outcome. Interesting results, yes. Meaningful results? No.

Perhaps a more accurate test would be to use the Speer plastic training cases and bullets, the ones that just use a primer for power.

If someone were to fire a bunch of rounds with each primer, and record the velocities, this might give a good indication of which primers have more power.

I also agree though that with standard pistol primers, brand doesn't seem to make any difference in any loads I've worked with.

Nope, that still doesn't tell you anything except how good a certain primer is at launching plastic bullets. Primers are designed to ignite smokeless powder. Doing just that and recording the results with different primers is the only way to rank them for the job they are intended to do. Even at that, one could argue that we might get a different ranking when using spherical versus extruded or flake powders. And that's probably true.