Can someone suggest the best primers for the 454 casull? I'm using BR-4 CCI and I've had a few not detonate until fired again. This is not the only time I've had some trouble with the 454. I posted in the hunting section and had some responses to a different question a bit ago. Not a repeat here. Thanks guys...

Not in a 454, but I've had good luck with Federal SR primers in those cases that use them. Just what was available at the time. I have heard that CCI primers are tougher. We will see as I just got a K of small pistol for use in my 38's and 9's.

I sure don't want tough.... I want no primer pops but sooooft would be good. Always goes off. Never had an issue with any caliber that runs LPP but 454 seems hard to ignite at times. Well, with the CCI anyway.

Are there heavier hammer springs for the super RedHawks out there?

Absolutely. If you aren't the first owner of that gun it may have had light springs installed somewhere along the way.

I almost exclusively use Federal small rifle match for my 454 and Federal large pistol magnum match on everything else in the straight-walled cases.

I've never used small rifle match Gary. Are they softer than the CCI?

Remington 7.5

That's what the test data from FA is built around as well as the old factory loads. The springs need to be changed. When I started shooting he 454, no one in my area carried the 7.5s, I used CCI exclusively, never any problems.

Thank you Glenn. I'll order the springs from ruger Monday morning and get primers today while I'm out. Thanks for the help everyone who replied

I've never had a problem in my FA or my SRH using Rem 7.5 primers.

I use CCI primers. No problems.

I went down this road with my 454 Redhawk conversion. Did all the mechanical stuff on the gun but still had click-no-bang 2 out of 6 when shooting DA CCI 450's. No problem SA. Rem 7.5's were better but still had a few cnb. Fed 205's always go bang. Light up a case full of H110 or Lil'Gun no problem

I had several issues when using WSPM primers in 454 Starline brass. I would have at least one mis-fire per cylinder. When checking the round, it was always a light strike on the primer. I measured the thickness of the Winchester primers and compared them against CCI-550 primers. The CCI primers measure .001" to .002" thicker than the Winchesters. I have since switched to CCI primers and haven't had a mis-fire since; it has been 7 years.

My Redhawk wouldn't reliable ignite the Rem 7.5. Switched to CCI's...so far 100% reliability.

l am gonna go out on a limb by saying l have been unable to tell the difference between small pistol and small rifle primers...During the ''Great Primer Shortage''a couple years ago l could not find small pistol primers anywhere.. That meant l could not shoot any 357mags in IHMSA or 38 special wadcutter loads for plinking.. What l DID have were small rifle primers from my prairie dog 223 loads..With an upcoming IHMSA silh match l decided to try some small rifle primers along with some H110 and Sierra .357 170gr FMJ silh bullets. l made up ten rounds each using Rem SR primers and Federal SR primers and off to Shooters l went. l can say as a personal user/tester l could find NO DIFFERENCE between the sr and sp loads..0ver the next few months l fired maybe 3 thousand rds using sm rifle primers in 357mag and 38spcl cases.ln the 357 cases l shot my standard silh load using 110 and 2400 pdr. ln 38spcl l shot my standard 3,5gr Bullseye and a HG#50 148GR WADCUTTER.. l also fired quite few 5gr Unique 158gr SWC loads.. l fired these 38/357 sr primed loads in a variety of S&W handguns. My big Nframe Mod27 and 28. An old K frame Model 14,Even my 40+ yo Chief Special. All these guns are bone stock from S&W. No heavy or lite after market springs in any of them.. Of all the three thousand rounds firec with small rifle primers in my 38/357 cases l had NOT one misfire.NONE. ZERO..My take on this little experiment is l saw no difference between sr and sp primers...

l would do it again any time-- using sr primers in sp 38/357 cases..


However l will NEVER go the opposite way and load small pistol primers in RIFLE cases

I also had to go to small rifle primers in my small pistol cartridges, for the same reason. I also had zero problems with my 38's or 9's. I had to use WLP primers for my 7-30 Waters due to primer shortages here, but those loads run under 40K

Which leads me to wonder about springs when primers fail to fire.

I hope I am not straying too far here. I picked up a S&W 625PC in 45 acp late last year. Being the hopeless tinkerer that I am, I picked up after market springs and goodies, a copy of Kuhnhausen, and set about research.

My 625PC is a moon clip gun. As such, I learned that various clips would produce different headspace dimensions. I also read about and experienced different levels of reliability based on whether I had seated the primers via my Dillon progressive v. using a dedicated hand priming tool. In this gun, with really light springs, if the primer is not crushed ( bottom rim flush in pocket, anvil pressed properly) properly into the base of the primer pocket, the first strike can act to only seat, and not ignite. I saw this repeatedly, by varying the brands of brass and the seating method. My unscientific conclusion was that if the primer strike seats the primer and ignites, this would not be as consistent as a primer that was properly seated and not moving.

Accuracy and reliability are a function of consistency and tolerances, imho. I agree, springs can make a difference. But I also think that folks need to examine headspace and other gun tolerances, and their reloading techniques to ensure that every step is accomplishing what they think it is.

Craig

just like Gary said,...I'm using Federal small rifle primers for my Casull and .44 magnum-Fed large pistol,...I do have lighter springs in my super redhawk and redhawk and the Federal primers will ignite everytime-I had always used C.C.I. and started having the problems you mentioned when I installed lighter Wolff springs-but with the Federals-no problems at all,....john