Russian Primers

[PaulW]

Had a local shooter get a good deal on some Russian primers at the last gun show. Well he chrono'd his ammo and was getting crazy extreme spread deviation. I mean like between 100-350 fps!! Had him try some Winchester primers and it brought it down to an acceptable 50 fps ES. They all went bang......but the ES sucked big time. Not such a good deal after all.

[Merlin Orr]

Damn.... Were they of recent manufacture or old stock?

[mscott]

Wow, that's a big spread. Were they Wolf or something else? I thought about buying some Wolf briefly, but I try to buy American made stuff when I can. There isn't that much of a savings over Winchesters and such, so I'll stay away from them.

[PaulW]

They were recent...umm, not sure if they were Wolf or not. I'll have to find out.

[DougCarden]

Before everyone gets in a tizzy, My lot of Wolf small pistol primers are chronoing within 10 fps of my same loads with Winchester primers. Lot is from 2007. I just dont want there to be angst amonst the populace until we get some more facts...... An extreme spread of 50 with Win primers still doesnt sound very good either.....unless it is the old 610 Revolver I had with one charge hole that was 70 fps off the rest......

DougC

[Chills1994]

Are you sure he wasn't standing too close to the chrono.

My chrono does some weird stuff when I get too close to the screens (or sensors/eyes).

I have to stand back at least 10 or 12 feet. I pack along a measuring tape in my other range bag just for that purpose.

Edited January 27, 2008 by Chills1994

[Dan Sierpina]

That is strange. A lot of the long range prone shooters are using Wolf primers for their consistancy. Some shooters are reporting ES in the single numbers.

[jasmap]

I'm just about done with my first 5,000 WOLF primers. They are fantastic, especially for the money. I used them at the Western States Single Stack Champ and they chrono'd with very little variation there.

Edited January 27, 2008 by jasmap

[PaulW]

We tried several different loads and did vary the distance from the chrono and sunlight direction. Again I will have to find out if they are WOLF primers are not. Guess I should have had more facts before I posted that. I'll find out later today and post what kind they are.

[scirocco38s]

Was you chrono in the same room as your Roomba when the crap debacle happened? Maybe your screens arent clean.

[whizz]

I have used a lot of Russian manufactured PMC primers and they have given me better ES than the federals I use when loading for competition. Many times around 12-15 fps.

[Tom Freeman]

Lots of long range rifle shooters have switched over to them (even david Tubb) because of low ES and SD.

I bet bad chrono readings.

[gm iprod]

I am in the high ES camp when it comes to the Russian primers.

I don't usually care what the ES or SD are as long as it groups. Obviously low ES will give you a better chance of accuracy. But a couple of my firearms have a serious problem with the Russian primers. My NRA AP handgun especially, a gun that usually groups 3/4" goes to 2"+ at 50Y. My Rock River AR is another. 1/4" at 50Y.

Most of my hunting loads are affected to a much lesser degree, but they are set up for power over accuracy, but I have my minimum standards. Nothing has gone outside them, but I just want to be able to use the same primer for most cartridges. I have a personal preference for Federals, I tend to stock pile a couple of years worth if I can. But I gave the Russians a fair go. But they just are not as consistant as the Federals. They are not worth the saving in my book.

Edited January 31, 2008 by gm iprod

[shooting for M]

I've been using WOLF to my great saticfaction. They are running about 10-15 FPS faster than with WLP, but more consistent, I think my SD was like 12. I just sarted using the WOLF Small rifle for 40 and I might have to change something, out of about 200 I've had 5 failures to fire, all but 1 has gone off the second time. but that's the risk of rifle primers in a pistol. BTW in bulk the savings is pretty good.

Jason

[Dan Sierpina]

I've been using WOLF to my great saticfaction. They are running about 10-15 FPS faster than with WLP, but more consistent, I think my SD was like 12. I just sarted using the WOLF Small rifle for 40 and I might have to change something, out of about 200 I've had 5 failures to fire, all but 1 has gone off the second time. but that's the risk of rifle primers in a pistol. BTW in bulk the savings is pretty good.

Jason

What's the weight of your mainspring?

[shooting for M]

I've been using WOLF to my great saticfaction. They are running about 10-15 FPS faster than with WLP, but more consistent, I think my SD was like 12. I just sarted using the WOLF Small rifle for 40 and I might have to change something, out of about 200 I've had 5 failures to fire, all but 1 has gone off the second time. but that's the risk of rifle primers in a pistol. BTW in bulk the savings is pretty good.

Jason

What's the weight of your mainspring?

I don't know, I just satrted shooting it, it was used, and Derrick at Millenium did the trigger work for the previous owner (very nice). I am going to buy a couple different weights and try them, the primers seem to work fine in my other .40, so I'm sure that's what it is. Thanks for the help.

Jason

[AlamoShooter]

Are you sure he wasn't standing too close to the chrono.

My chrono does some weird stuff when I get too close to the screens (or sensors/eyes).

I have to stand back at least 10 or 12 feet. I pack along a measuring tape in my other range bag just for that purpose.

I Read a thing on being too close to the chrono screens It said that the air in the barrel that gets pushed out (muz. blast) ahead of the bullet will trigger the first screen and the bullet will catch up and trigger the second screen = so the variation will allways be to the low/slow side. Being too close will not cause a reading to be higher than normal.

JF

[Dan Sierpina]

I don't know, I just satrted shooting it, it was used, and Derrick at Millenium did the trigger work for the previous owner (very nice). I am going to buy a couple different weights and try them, the primers seem to work fine in my other .40, so I'm sure that's what it is. Thanks for the help.

Jason

Too light a mainspring can be an issue with rifle primers. I was doing a trigger job for a friend recently, using supplied parts. The trigger was real nice, but, the hammer fell slowly (yes, you can tell the difference). I put in a 17 poiund Wolff mainspring. The lock time improved greatly, and the trigger still won't pick up a 2lb weight.

[JThompson]

I've been using WOLF to my great saticfaction. They are running about 10-15 FPS faster than with WLP, but more consistent, I think my SD was like 12. I just sarted using the WOLF Small rifle for 40 and I might have to change something, out of about 200 I've had 5 failures to fire, all but 1 has gone off the second time. but that's the risk of rifle primers in a pistol. BTW in bulk the savings is pretty good.

Jason

What's the weight of your mainspring?

I had my first FTF ever with my open and Wolf Small Rifles. I only loaded up about 200 of them and had a FTF. Not good. My gun lights everything fine... this is worrisome as I have 5k of them. My spring has been in there forever, so I'm going to swap it out and see if they all light. From what I've seen so far I would not order these for pistol again. I used WSR and WOLF pistol with no problems. I looked at the strike and from what I could tell the primer should have lit. I ran it through again and it went. FYI guys. I only bought them cause I couldn't find any wolf pistols or Wins.

[Dan Sierpina]

Jim,

If the primer fired on the second strike, you may have to adjust your stop for primer seating. It sounds like it didn't have enough crush on it. Also, what mainspring weight is in the gun?