Primers for Dillon 550b Press

D

Dead-Nuts-Zero

New member
Have used up most of my supply of Magtech & Federal primers which have worked perfectly in my Dillon 550 in both sm & lg pistol.

I want to make another large purchase of 25K or more to save a few bucks on sm & lg pistol primers. I load all major name stamped brass in 380, 9, 38, 40, 44. & 45.
Anyone know of a specific brand primer that could be a problem? Looking for the best deal I can find.
Any comments on Fiocchi primers?
 
D-N-Z, I've used about all the major US brands of primers in my Dillon press without issue. Years ago, I did get a batch of Fiocchi large pistol primers that routinely cracked on firing. They did not pierce, but actually cracked upon firing. I did not discover this immediately, and some damage to the breech face occurred. I have not experienced anything like this before or since with any other manufacturer's primers in many years of reloading. Perhaps that was an isolated situation, but I have not used Fiocchi primers since....
 
The last batch of Winchester Large Pistol primers I bought were tight in most .45 ACP brass. So much so that I won't buy them again. Fed, CCI and Rem all work fine. The small Win worked fine.
 
Fiocchi primers aren't easy to come by. Midway shows 'em as 'mixed availability'. Otherwise, primer sizes are made to fit SAAMI spec cases. And that's all American made brass. Your press won't care what brand you use.
"...Looking for the best deal..." Usually best to buy components locally. Mind you, Midway is showing a No hazmat fee deal for CCI primers. 5,000 LP or SP runs $149.99.
However, it's an adage that if you change any one component, you should work up the load again.
 
I recommend either CCI or Winchester....

A number of buddies have tried Remington, Fiocchi, S&B, Chedite and Wolf ...and all had various issues.

Federal are really soft..so I don't like them
 
I have and use CCI, Remington, Winchester and S&B. While relatively new to reloading (<3 yrs) I haven't experienced any problems with any of these, even the much maligned S&B.
 
No problem seating any primers. The only primers I have had issues with with was Wolf. The batch I had had about a 10% failure rate. After 21 failures in 200 loads I just pitched the remaining 800.

I am loading mostly S&B sp, S&B sr, CCI lp, and Win LR right now.
 
In my 550B I have used:

CCI Large and Small Pistol - No problems experienced.
Remington 1-1/2 and 5-1/2 - No problems experienced.
Winchester Small Rifle - No problems experienced.

I was recently loading some 45 Auto and tried some Winchester Large Pistol and they all jammed up in the tube and did not work to say the least. I suspect they are on the large side of standard as I was able to use the same primers to load 45 Colt on the Single Stage Press without issues.

I heard on the Internet that Dillon has recommended the Remington Primers specifically as being 100% in their machines.
 
Dillon has not recommended Remington primers...( I don't know where this stuff comes from...)..??
Click to expand...

The Internet, it comes from the Internet. ;-)

That is why I prefaced my comment that way. I did read a post a while back, may have been here, maybe somewhere else, that a user contacted Dillon after having troubles with another brand they were told Remington primers were slightly smaller and would work better to which the user reported success.

Were just talking here friend, relax.
 
I have used CCI, Federal, Winchester, Remington, and the Russian Wolf primers. The only issues I had were with the Wolf which were harder to seat. My go to are the Winchesters for .45 acp and .44 magnum.
 
I've used CCI, Winchester, Federal, Remington, Tula, S&B and Fiocchi in large and small rifle and pistol over the years.

In 30 years I've only had a problem with one batch of Winchester Large pistol primers back during the last shortage that would jam up in the tube, I traced it to anvils that weren't seated completely in the cup. I never had that problem before and haven't had it since.

The only other thing I have noted is that the S&B Small pistol primers I have used have had a sharper angle on the cup as opposed to a curve that made them a little more difficult to load into the primer tubes.

Koz
 
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