S&B Pistol primers any good?

A

axis223

New member
I found 1000 Sellier and Bellot pistol primers for 24.99 and was wondering if they are any good being that cheap?

will be using for 9mm luger.
 
I picked up 12,000 a few months ago when cabelas had them for $17/1000 and free shipping on orders over $50.

No problems so far.
 
Ran about 5,000 so far on a 10,000 order. They are a little harder than CCI's, and not as easy to pick with the tubes because the edges are more square but the they run fine in OEM Glocks. Some of the guys have trouble with lighter firing pin springs.
 
Picked up 5k when they were on sale. I used about 3k with no issues. They were on sale again so got 7k more. I used them on a 9mm and 40.
 
They work fine for me. Though after I used the last brick I just use small rifle for all small primer loads I use. I have been doing it for years. It keeps thing simple, and prevents a small rifle round from getting a small pistol primer. That happened once a few years ago. Cost me a firing pin spring in my Savage.
 
I suppose that any commercial primer will work just fine, if all you want is casual shooting, and you aren't concerned with on occasional inconsistency or a failure to fire once in a while. I still have misgivings, and choose out of simple prejudice to not use anything from foreign sources like that, and I even kind of worry about fiochi, even cleaning up after a bunch of plc loads when I was young broke me of foreign shores ammo.. let me point out that even witches is ripped to shreds in reviews quite often, if even one of the world's top ammomakers can't get it right, I'm not going to use something that worries me.

Can I use my old cliche? This stuff is cheap, friends. Ten more dollars, an extra penny a round, and I get a little more piece of mind, and at my age, when worrying is about all there is left in life, a little peace of mind is important.
 
Never again

I've had enough trouble with them that I won't buy any more. I've purchased about 7,000 and fired at least 1,000. My new G26 would only fire 4 of 10 on average. Even tried the next stronger striker spring with no improvement but I have learned you can re-cock a Glock without ejecting the miss-fired round. Usually goes bang with the second strike but not always. I also shoot an old Ruger P89 with traditional hammer strike. Usually 1 of 10 will require a second hammer. Had two rounds that never did go bang. Hit so many times the primer punctured.
The bricks I have are labeled "small rifle, small pistol" so they are probably on the hard side. Although I did burn through a brick of CCI small rifle in 9mm reloads without a hitch. Bought the S&B's at Cabela's on sale. I will spend the extra cash for CCI from now on. Didn't mind the dud rounds at first because it was good for checking poor trigger pull or flinching. The fun in that has worn out.
 
I got S&B primers when they were on sale at $20 and picked them up at the store. I have shot about 2300 in pistol and 100 plinking in 223 in the AR. The only things I have really noticed is the pistol Nato round crimp brass that I had cleaned up the primer hole and had been fired w/ CCI were a snug fit. I also felt the S&B brass to be a tight fit. I did have my de-prime pin poke a hole through a spent primer and I am fairly sure it was a S&B primer. Otherwise I have not seen any negligible performance differences.
 
I use a Lee Classic Turret Press and have taken extra effort to make sure the S&B primers are fully seated after so many miss-fires. Really lean into the handle when seating the primer. Even loaded a couple hundred rounds going back to my trusty RCBS hand primer with same dismal results.
The primers are labeled 4,4 SR BOXER. Also, across the top band of the package printed, " for rifle, pistol, or revolver cartridges." There are possibly lot numbers? 14/15, 33/15, 5/15, and 133/15 stamped on the different bricks. Thought the first 2 numbers may have represented the week of the year 2015 until I found the 133/15 batch.
I will get through these S&B's but in my 40+ years of cartridge reloading, I've never encountered such iffy primers. CCI are my favorite flavor but I've used them all and never had a single dud until these S&B's.
 
They are flawless.
The only troublesome primers I have ever encountered were russian Murom nontox. Regular Muroms are fine. The other is Fiocchi - it's too weak! Reliable but weak. Subtract 10 from PF...


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I once upon a time thought I was having primer issues with 9mm loads. The manager of the LGS that also happens to be a reloader gave me the cure for my problem. A primer pocket reamer that I used in a cordless screwdriver. Turns out more and more 9mm are being crimped.
 
I bought 2000 S&B small pistol on sale at Cabelas. I had 2 FTFs on good strikes in the first 300 or so. I also had problems loading them into .40 CBC and Herters cases. A few range buddies who bought them at the same time from Cabelas are also experiencing an abnormally high rate of FTFs with them. Maybe it was a bad lot but I put my remaining 1700 at the bottom of my stack.
 
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