federal primers

geeguy

I may be behind the times, but I ran out of primers for my .243 load and when I asked for Federal 210LR I was told I couldn't get any. And it turns out that may be right. I haven't been able to buy any every place I asked and the only intranet offering was for local pickup in Washington state. Anyone know why?

Semper Fi

geeguy

Stealing a thread for my own edification:

One of the topics indicates there is a threat of Federal primers creating a mass detonation when used in a progressive machine like a dillon, as well as from a tray like a Lee.

I have always used Winchester or CCI (except Federal 209's for shotgun if the price is right)so I am not aware of the issue.

Has anyone experienced this? I've been reloading for almost 50 years and never heard of this happening with any modern primer.

Any stories?

BHAVIN

I load with a Dillon 550B and have loaded at least 10,000 Federal primers over the years and have never had any issues. I have seen two primer tubes go up on Dillon 650's. I was not the loader in either case. I am not greatly impressed with the prming system on the 650 because of this. Both were with Winchester primers.

Rocky Raab

I know of several people who have had whole tubes go off on progressive presses, and one guy who had about half a tray go off with a Lee Auto-Prime. Progressive tubes can go off either when a primer gets caught and mangled by the seating action, or by the accumulation of priming mix dust within the tube and then friction, bumping or static spark setting off the dust. In either scenario, they all go. If the tube is shielded, all the force goes upwards and can go through a ceiling - the primer cups and anvils acting like shot.

The Lee Auto-Prime accident did indeed involve Federal primers. Luckily it happened after several dozen cases had been primed, leaving only about half of the 100 he'd started with. It sent plastic shards and primer cups in all directions. He was wearing safety glasses and suffered no injury other than nicks and small punctures on his hands and chest. But his wife darn near killed him!

glabray

The only primers I will use in a progressive press are CCI. I learned the hard way.

ryanek9freak

It specifically says in my Lee manual NOT to use federal primers

perry shooter

The PPC guys learned long ago that Federals had the softest CUP and then Winchester Remington and CCI were the hardest they liked to have the lightest double action trigger pull and had light hammer springs.

Rocky Raab

This is one of those questions that I have to answer about every second Thursday, so here's my cut and paste, again:

Federal is the only US primer maker to use "basic" priming mix. All the others use "normal" mix. (The difference refers to the Ph of the mix, but the chemical chain is different.)

Basic mix is more sensitive, which makes it more reliable, and also has production advantages. But it also makes it more susceptible to "fratricide" where one primer going off will set off any nearby primer as well.

For the end user, that means that Federal primers have to be isolated from each other during shipping - and ideally during use as well. That's one reason why Lee says to not use Federal primers in their Auto-Prime unit: up to 100 primers touch each other in the tray. If you manage to set off the primer being seated ...

Yes, it has happened, and the lawsuit is why Lee prints that warning.

Do note that fratricide can occur with "normal" mix primers as well, especially in tube-style automatic priming systems on progressive loaders. But of the two types, the "basic" mix is MUCH more susceptible to it.

v35

Thanks for the timely heads up on extra safety precautions in handling Federal primers.
I wondered about the extra wide spacing between primers in the boxes.
I thought their sensitivity was due to a softer cup.