S&B Primers are no longer imported so name your favorite SP & LP primer

wvsig

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So I was reading today that S&B is no longer importing or producing pistol primers for the US market. So gone are the days of sub $19 per 1000 S&B primers from Cabelas. I am sitting on about 15K SP and about 10K of LP but will need to find a new preferred brand.

I have used CCI and find them to be hard primers to detonate. I got more light strikes with them vs anything else. I have never used them but have been told Winchesters are soft and reliable but I almost never see them in stock and when I do I see them for $28 a box.

So what are people using and what are people paying these days for primers?
 
I’ve never gotten light strikes with CCI; the harder primers are the military ones, IE the #41, #34 etc. Their regular Pistol and Rifle primers are high quality. I’ve used tens of thousands of them

I’ve always been told Federal primers are soft and can cause slam fires but I’ve never seen it first hand
 
I prefer CCI because they seem to seat easier and are cleaner seating (no crushing) on a Dillon press but I also use Winchester. I have heard of people having problems with CCI but I never had. Federals have a rep for being easy to pop but gawd, they are expensive. Mike Overlay's suggestion might be your best bet.
 
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I’ve never gotten light strikes with CCI; the harder primers are the military ones, IE the #41, #34 etc. Their regular Pistol and Rifle primers are high quality. I’ve used tens of thousands of them

I’ve always been told Federal primers are soft and can cause slam fires but I’ve never seen it first hand

The hard primer issues I had with CCI were only with particular guns and it was early in my reloading days so it could have been user error.

I might end up buying a few boxes of each and testing them with my guns with hammers that are lighter sprung.
 
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I mainly use Winchester primers for pistol loads. I use the CCI #41 and #34 for 223 and 7.62. Here lately I have been using Federal GM205MAR for precision 223 loads, but they are pricey. I've used CCI for just about everything at one time or another, never had any problems with them.

I pick my primers up at the local gun shows, there is a vendor there that sells the Win primers for $30 OTD. The last show, however, I found an individual with a table, he was selling stuff from an estate and had Winchester small pistol primers for $15 a box, so I grabbed a few. I want to stay stocked up in case we have another "big scare" like we did a few years ago.
 
Well that’s terrible news. I’ll buy American, hope they’ll get the prices down.



They come in packs of 150 instead of 100, not sure I can get my head around that.

They work great. I have used just about all types. The European stuff has been just a good as all the CCI and Winchester stuff I have popped off. Should have stock piled the fool out of Wolf and Tula when you could get them for $80.00 shipped on the 5 thousand.

Fiocchi even come in a nice wooden box when you get them by the case
350-445SMPCASE.jpg
 
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Mind if I ask where you read that? My GOOGLE-Fu must be weak today as I can't find any info on that.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/what-happened-to-s-b-small-pistol-primers.840948/

We were burning daylight, so went straight to the horses mouth.
Used the Contact button on Sellier and Bellots website, here's email reply:

"We are not importing S&B primers at this time, we actually haven’t imported them at all in 2018 - they were discontinued at the beginning of the year.

Sorry!

A.M. (abrreviated responders name, didn't know if public forum decorum would dictate otherwise)
Magtech Ammunition Company, Inc.
9100 Wyoming Ave N, Suite 515
Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
1.800.466.7191 toll free
1.763.235.4000 phone
1.763.235.4004 fax"

Well that was fun while it lasted....
 
Academy carries S&B ammo under their Monarch house brand. Too bad they cant get primera thru the same agreements
 
Didn’t realize Magtech owned S&B.

But glad I grabbed like 8k when I did. I’ll be good for a while.
 
Yeah, guess there is no need to panic about it, but they were soooo cheap.
View attachment 96064

Yup in the same boat. I would just buy a ton of them each time Cabelas put them on sale because I was getting them for $80 for 5 boxes. $19,99 a box and then using $100 gift cards I paid $80 for. At $16 + tax I bought every box I could get from the local store.
 
Yup in the same boat. I would just buy a ton of them each time Cabelas put them on sale because I was getting them for $80 for 5 boxes. $19,99 a box and then using $100 gift cards I paid $80 for. At $16 + tax I bought every box I could get from the local store.
Haha exactly what I did. Bass pro is cutting out those 18-20% off gift cards.
 
had nothing but problems with S&B primers, pistol and rifle. When I worked gun shows with a friend who sold nothing but ammo and components, all he sold was WW. Could get anything on the market but all people wanted was WW. I use Federal GMM primers in all my pistol loads. Used to use nothing but FGMM primers in rifles but have been using Rem BR and CCI BR primers in my bench rest guns. CCI BR primers seem to seat tighter especially in well worn brass.
 
Softest to hardest was generally

Federal
Winchester
Remington
CCI

CCI has that nice round edge to help insert into the pickup tubes
 
had nothing but problems with S&B primers, pistol and rifle.
You certainly aren’t the only one to report this, I’m just thankful that they’ve been great for me.

Just for info, was your issue with running them through the press, getting them to seat well, or not going bang?
 
Looks like Brownells has Winchester for $278.99 shipped for 10,000 with coupon M8Y.
 
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