rdinga Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I purchased 5,000 PMC lead free primers from Wideners because they were in stock. Reports from various users gave mixed reviews. After reading every comment on lead free primers, i noticed two consistent observations.: 1-A user on Bench rest central noted the lead free primers have a smaller flame footprint. 2-Due to the smaller flame footprint, these primers seem to do best with fast burning powders and small cases. I load a lot of 9mm for several handguns. So I set out to develop a practice load that would do well in several types of handguns and provide satisfactory results. My load consisted of 4.5 grains of Titegroup, MG 115 FMJ and the PMC lead free small pistol primers. The primers loaded very well on my Dillon 550. They fed well through the primer system and seated easily in the mixed brass with no crushed primers. Load testing was done using a Glock 34, an H&K USP and Kahr CW9. Every round fired without incident. There were no hang fires or duds as I have read in other post. Groups on the target were consistent and tight. We also noticed the inside of the fired cases was cleaner than with traditional primers. As a double blind test, I also loaded the same powder charge using Remington 1 1/2 primers. I couldn't tell any difference between the two with either of the three guns and neither could two other shooters who were with me. Would I use these primers again? Yes! Since I practice once a week at a nearby indoor range, I will be using the lead free primers for practice ammo until they are gone. They seem to work fine in the 9mm case using a fast burning powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intel6 Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I got some of the Russian Lead free primers and found the only thing I could load them in was 9mm. I also tried them in .40 and .38 SPL with fast burning powder and had pop/bang/pop/pop signaling poor powder ignition. In 9mm they work fine with lead bullets and WST. Neal in AZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Thanks for the info. Do you have any plans to chronograph the loads and compare with normal primers? I hadn't thought about it before, but it's probably a smart idea to consider loading ammo with these for indoor practice now that I'll have to do much of my winter shooting indoors. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxbat Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I also bought 5000 of them some time ago, and they definitely did not work for me. Maybe batch related problems, who knows... but I had way too many duds. Not something that fired on second strike - dead duds. In addition, if I can avoid sending the fascist Putin government my money - I will! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco4me Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 I've loaded those PMCs in 9mm using between 4.4 and 5.0 grains of Unique with Dardas cast 124 Lead, Montana Gold 124 CMJ and Bear Creek Moly 125 bullets. My brand new bone stock CZ SP-01 went bang every time, while another worked over CZ had inconsistent ignitions with PMCs. Third test gun was a well worn Taurus PT-92, and it too had a few clicks that required another strike. The final test gun was a Ruger Blackhawk shooting light .38 target loads ( 4.5 of Unique over a 158 gn cast bullet), and it too fired every time. *Each gun was fired over 100 rounds, with test conditions of dry clear sky at ~55 deg OAT@2300 ft MSL. Those primers require a significant hit to light off, so a weak hammer will most certainly reward you with inconsistent results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flycaster Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 My XD9 had a few issues at first with the PMC's, but the original striker spring had an awful lot of thousands of rounds through it. Since I changed to an extra power striker spring, all seems fine for now. Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicald_223 Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Interesting...I'll have to try some of these for myself. I just some wolf small mag. pistol primers and I haven't had time to test them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxbat Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 We are not talking about hard primers here - in my experience there were several totally dead ones... something I normally don't see in other brands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flycaster Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 We are not talking about hard primers here - in my experience there were several totally dead ones... something I normally don't see in other brands. Not good, Foxbat. My failures always went "bang" with a second strike. Obviously yours is a totally unacceptable issue. Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco4me Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 I also bought 5000 of them some time ago, and they definitely did not work for me. Maybe batch related problems, who knows... but I had way too many duds. Not something that fired on second strike - dead duds. In addition, if I can avoid sending the fascist Putin government my money - I will! I think you must have got a bad batch; I just shot another 200 yesterday and every one went bang on the first try. I got a chuckle out of your last statement as I'm seeing less and less differences between ours and his these days. Perhaps an primer czar needs to be appointed, because we all know things get significantly better when the government gets involved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_kahuna Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 I also bought 5000 of them some time ago, and they definitely did not work for me. Maybe batch related problems, who knows... but I had way too many duds. Not something that fired on second strike - dead duds. In addition, if I can avoid sending the fascist Putin government my money - I will! I think you must have got a bad batch; I just shot another 200 yesterday and every one went bang on the first try. I got a chuckle out of your last statement as I'm seeing less and less differences between ours and his these days. Perhaps an primer czar needs to be appointed, because we all know things get significantly better when the government gets involved! Gotta love that stock CZ mainspring for hitting power. I will be sure to reinstall my stock mainspring if I plan to shoot any of those hard primers. 15 pounder was iffy at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco4me Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 I also bought 5000 of them some time ago, and they definitely did not work for me. Maybe batch related problems, who knows... but I had way too many duds. Not something that fired on second strike - dead duds. In addition, if I can avoid sending the fascist Putin government my money - I will! I think you must have got a bad batch; I just shot another 200 yesterday and every one went bang on the first try. I got a chuckle out of your last statement as I'm seeing less and less differences between ours and his these days. Perhaps an primer czar needs to be appointed, because we all know things get significantly better when the government gets involved! Gotta love that stock CZ mainspring for hitting power. I will be sure to reinstall my stock mainspring if I plan to shoot any of those hard primers. 15 pounder was iffy at best. Kahuna - Not seeing anything like we experienced a few weeks back. Check your email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooting Coach Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 I have used about 25K of them since fall, and no misfires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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