Rifle Primers Six Month Review

[ronlaughlin]

It has been about 6 month since i started using large rifle magnum primers in my rifles. The adapters, and breech plug were purchased from Precision Rifle. In the time since the purchase i have shot near 600 rifle primers. A little experimenting was done, and i ended up modifying a TC Omega breech plug so it could utilize the PR adapters. The flash hole was enlarged to 0.032", and the primer socket was made deeper so an o-ring could be utilized. The flame channel was left at 1/8" diameter. About 400 shots were taken through that breech plug.

It surprises me that the flash hole never eroded. Actually the flash hole would only accept a 0.031" gage after about 200 shots. Well..since the flash hole didn't grow, i decided to drill it a bit larger in preparation for the upcoming winter. Today the modified breech plug has about 490 shots through, but the flash hole is now 0.034". The magnum rifle primers don't erode flash holes. It kinda seems the 0.034" flash hole has my rifles shooting a bit more accurate than the 0.031" flash hole.

Three different brand magnum rifle primers were tried. The Federal 215 primer is the one i kinda settled on. It always ignites, and the soot it makes is soft. The flame channel can be cleaned by using a 1/8" drill twisted using just finger tips.

This morning i took my hunting rifle up shooting. The rifle is an Omega X7, and it has a 1X Nikon scope mounted so for to satisfy our muzzle loader regulations. Before the rifle was loaded, the barrel was fouled by firing 5 shotgun primers through a breech plug without a flash hole, into a wad of rags. The shotgun primer plug was replaced with the rifle primer plug, and the rifle loaded with 110g Blackhorn, 300g Deep Curl, crush rib sabot, and Federal 215 primer. The first four shots were taken at 93 yard, and they all hit in the red.










Then a move was made out to 202 yard, the elevation turned up 6 moa, and three shots taken in a breeze blowing from right to left.