Comments on: Ultimate Large Rifle Primer Shoot-Out — 16 Types Tested

By: Mark S. Mann

Mark S. Mann — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 16:46:35 +0000

Outstanding work! Laurie, you rock!

By: Troy

Troy — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 02:53:08 +0000

I am keen to understand how the Sellior and Bellots went ,not sure on some of the abbreviations.Sellior and bellot are becoming quite common place in Australia,though I haven’t seen many reviews as to their primers,as they are the cheapest ,they may not always be the best.currently running up loads of Swede using 2209 and Sierra 123hpbt.

By: gstaylorg

gstaylorg — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 21:23:31 +0000

Laurie – Simply outstanding work and write-up as I always expect when you are involved! Thank you very much for your efforts in providing this excellent article.

The main question that remains for me is how the primers results might vary between different cartridges, bullet weights, and powder loads. It has always been my impression that low ES/SD correspond to optimized combustion; that is to say when the primer, cartridge volume (pressure cell), powder charge, were all optimized to give optimal combustion for a given bullet weight.

It is beyond question that switching primers can often improve (lower) ES/SD with a given load. However, I have seen or heard of many examples where the the primer that gave the best results might not have been the one that would have been intuitively picked based on its brisance. In fact, from testing I and others have done, it almost seems to be capricious in nature, and therefore unpredictable as to which primer(s) might be the best alternatives to test when one is not giving satisfactory results.

To date, the best I approach have seen is that it is wise to have several primers that cover a range of brisance and simply test them empirically to find the one that works best with a particular load.

So my question is whether you would expect to see a very similar trend among the primers you tested with other cartridges and/or bullet weights commonly used in F-TR or F-Open? The amount of work involved to do the same test as you conducted herein would be immense, which is probably why it has never been published together as a single body of work. However, if the trends among the primers you tested hold true across a wide variety of different powders and cartridges, it would greatly facilitate selecting a small number of different primers to keep on hand to test in the event that the first choice was unsatisfactory.

On the other hand, if some of the primers that gave poorer results in your testing with a specific .308 load gave much better results with a different cartridge/powder/bullet weight, it would be much more difficult to make any general predictions that might allow a reloader to keep a stock of only two or three types on hand, one of which would be likely to give satisfactory results over a wide range of cartridges and powders. I guess what my question boils down to is whether you think the range of primer performance you observed in your test here would carry over to other cartridges and powder selections. Any thoughts? Thanks again for the excellent write-up and work!

By: Randy Cullinan

Randy Cullinan — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 17:25:29 +0000

Where are S&Bs sold without paying to special shipment?

By: Laurie Holland

Laurie Holland — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 11:48:52 +0000

A good question Clive! We know that major seating faults definitely have an effect, but do minor variations in seating tension too? I suspect they have a minor influence, but that’s hunch not science! One (minor) reason that small primer brass may be better than many standard LR types is that it usually noticeably easier to seat SR primers and to get good ‘feel’ on their contacting the pocket floor.

By: clive

clive — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 06:30:49 +0000

Hi Laurie, your comment re S&B’s slack fit raises my question. How critical is the primer seating mechanism? Sometimes I hand seat with a Sinclair tool and sometimes I seat using the press. When I use the press the primers are seated harder.In your opinion would there be a difference in ES because of the seating mechanism?
Thank you,
Clive.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 01:23:08 +0000

Are Winchester primers still undersize?

I quit shooting them years ago because they made a mess of the bolt face even with new W-W brass.

By: David Lawson

David Lawson — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 01:22:59 +0000

I have never looked at primers apart from reliability. This another thing to consider in shooting.

By: Laurie Holland

Laurie Holland — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 18:45:27 +0000

The Murom KVB-7 or KVB-7M should be the Wolf LR-M under a different name. (Depends on whether the ‘M’ in the Wolf name is for Match or Magnum.) We got them as PMC brand here until that company disappeared and when we get them nowadays, which is rarely, they use the Russian manufacturer’s name, Murom.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 18:29:14 +0000

I know everyone has a favorite, and although they’re really tough to get, I would really liked to see the Wolf LR-M in that mix.