I needed primers and Bass Pro Shop had Remington primers. I purchased a box of 1000 Remington #11/2 small pistol primers lot # 5578. I used these to prime 1000 38 Special cases R-P headstamp. These were to be target loads, 148 grain wadcutter with 3.7 grains HP-38. I loaded 50 as a velocity test batch as the lot of HP-38 was new and Remington primers might be different from my usual primers. Velocity was normal, 823 fps in a 4 inch S&W Model 66. I noticed primers were piercing and stopped at 36 rounds, close inspection revealed 15 pierced primers. I inspected the firing pin, it looked normal. Still, I suspected the revolver might be at fault, so I fired the remaining rounds in another 357 revolver. There were 5 pierced primers in those 14 rounds.
I then loaded 50 rounds with the same load and CCI primers. No primers pierced in the Model 66.
Continued shooting with the Remington primers will damage the firing pin. I will have to unprime the remaining cases and reprime with CCI primers. Fortunately another sporting goods store had CCI primers.
Bad Remington Primers
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They are not bad, they are just too thin to be of any use for anything but the weakest mouse fart loads. Had the same issue with Rem 1 1/2 primers. In VERY SMALL PRINT on the box is a warning from Rem to that effect.
They will work for 600fps 38 Spl loads and such. Forget 9mm or 800fps 38 loads, or any other “normal” pressure loads.
Again, they are not bad or defective, just crap primers.
With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.
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Ah yes the fine print, in small black letters on dark green. " Warning do not use 1 1/2 small pistol primers in high intensity pistol cartridges such as the 357 Magnum, 357 SIG, and the 40 S&W"
This is not a "high intensity" load. It is well below standard 38 Special. Speer Manual 12 lists standard pressure 38 Special148 grain solid base wadcutter: 4.1 grains as starting and 4.7 as maximum.
You may be correct about 600 fps loads. I would like to load that low but they gave high standard deviations and poor accuracy in my revolvers. I tried several powders in loads from below minimum to maximum. 3.5 grains with TiteGroup and 3.7 with HP-38 were the sweet spot.
About 10 years ago Remington had primer problems. Some lots had several misfires in 100. They corrected that, but many shooters swore off Remington primers. I think this is a quality control problem, something this obvious should have been detected.
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I have found that newly manufactured Remington large rifle primers are substantially harder to seat than any other that I have ever used. I think they have issues with specifications, and now believe it's across the board for their product lineup, but I'll use what is available.
Thanks for the post. I will know to avoid the small pistol primers.
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I just purchased 1000 Rem 9 1/2 large rifle primers and I am finding them hard to seat. I have started using my RCBS ram prime attachment and I am able to consistently get them just below flush. No trouble with them going bang, just hard to seat. Like Mark, I will use what I can get.
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not the only thing from the good old days that is screwed up now .. but geeze, guys, they made the rolling block, the 722, the 40X, the 870 ... ..
...Remngton ...we barely knew ye ...
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After decades of mashed thumbs using hand tools to seat difficult primers, I have settled on using the RCBS Bench Priming Tool. It is WONDERFUL to use and those "hard to seat" primers now seat with ease. Over the years, many brands of primers have reared their "hard to seat" heads and caused problems. With the RCBS tool, those difficult days have ended.
I know I sound like a commercial but the tool works well. Wish I had one when it was first offered.
With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.
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I have been using the RCBS bench-top primer tool since 1982. I also have the fancy Sinclair hand tool and a couple other hand tools. But…I always go back to the RCBS bench unit, and more recently, 100% of the time.
Tom
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Sold all of my bench mounted primer tools and now use just the old screw-in Lee hand tool. Other than the Argie primers Norma sold a few years ago, I'm still using primers I bought in the early '00's. Sorry to hear you guys are having to fight mis-sized primers.
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I use a Lee hand held priming tool. After I applied grease to the pivot points it has seated the difficult Remington primers just fine. Might be hard to believe but easier than priming in the Rock chucker with the primer arm.
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I have been using the RCBS bench-top primer tool since 1982. I also have the fancy Sinclair hand tool and a couple other hand tools. But…I always go back to the RCBS bench unit, and more recently, 100% of the time. Tom
I recently went to the RCBS bench tool and can't believe how much I like it.
"if it was easy we'd let women do it" don't tell my wife I said that!
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