Are different brands of primer harder than others?

[Sticks]

I need to go out perform a detailed inspection my collected brass from my test firing.

One thing that I noticed when I was policing my brass, the primers that I am using (Remington I think - silver) the firing pin indent seemed very shallow compared to the brass primers from the factory rounds I shot previously. I did have one that required a second hit to detonate.

Are the variety of primers out there have harder/softer impact surfaces?

I only ask this in case I need to take a look at my firing pin and spring for any problems.

I know I am starting a lot of newbie reloading threads, I will stop once I get the hang of this, so please bear with me.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Cupcake]

Yes, as I understand it. Federal primers, for instance, are allegedly softer than cci primer. I guess this should make them more likely to detonate with a weak firing pin spring, but also perhaps more likely to slam fire in some guns. Mind you, "more likely" is still a long-long shot in the dark.

[HotGuns]

CCI primers are known to be about the hardest. Remington and Winchester are softer than CCI. Federal is about middle of the road as far as hardeness.

Some gun that have been reworked with spring kits, lighter triggers, decreased hammer tension have been know to misfire using CCI primers, usally changing to something else has eliminated that problem.

I had a Dan Wesson .357 that was that way. I changed out the spring kit in it to lighten the trigger pull. It would not fire anything with CCI, but it was OK with everything else.

Also,a hotter load will show what looks like a light primer strrike because the primer flattens out with increased pressure.Some are like this right out of the box.

Another cause of what seems to be light primer strikes is too much oil or grease in the channel that holds the firing pin, slowing down its velocity. Most of the time a good cleaning will take care of that.

[Jay6]

Yes, as I understand it. Federal primers, for instance, are allegedly softer than cci primer. I guess this should make them more likely to detonate with a weak firing pin spring, but also perhaps more likely to slam fire in some guns. Mind you, "more likely" is still a long-long shot in the dark.

I beleive they go in this order:

Hardest-softest
Winshester
CCI
Remington
Federal

Also, the soft primers are not really a risk of a slam fire but can make reloading a little sporty if you are not really easy with your press.

[nedrgr21]

That's funny, my most numerous misfires with my Rem 700 were with Federal Primers. Haven't had any problems with CCI.

[Ram Rod]

My best results in my rifle calibers that I do reload for seem to be the Remington 9 1/2 primers. Second best for my reloads are the Federal Gold Medal 210's. But I'm talking rifles here. I've never heard of the "hardness" deal before, and I don't figure it to have any bearing on which primers work best in combination with my powder choice. Interesting thread though....learn something every day.

[dukalmighty]

I use wolf which are hard primers too,I also believe the rifle primers are harder than pistol primers,I might be wrong

[alnitak]

I beleive they go in this order:

Hardest-softest
Winshester
CCI
Remington
Federal

That's my understanding too. I almost exclusively use Win and CCI ... they go bang every time.