Thread: AR15 Federal Primers

What primers are people using in their 223 loads for AR15?

Had heap of problems yesterday with no bang action on my reloads, using Federal small rifle primers. Factory ammo of numerous makes worked fine, has to be primers.
I do note that I seen Federal make a specific Ar15 primer so I guess that tells the story there.
Options-CCI, Murom or the Federal Ar15?

I have used thousands of reloads through the ar using fed primers without a problem..

Originally Posted by nzvermin

I have used thousands of reloads through the ar using fed primers without a problem..

+1 & all Fed primers with very very few fail to fire.... ?

May not be the primers, maybe your reloads ?

Your brass too short for your chamber ?

I've had 8 primer failures in 7 years, all of them Fed, mix of small (mostly) and large.
Half of them and those all being AR loads can be put down to loose primer pockets.
The rest bar one are down to reusing a primer after pulling the projectile with a kinetic hammer.
So 1 real failure from thousands of rounds.
Zero failures from Murom, CCI or Winchester.

Never had a primer failure in .223 or 300aac. Used Feds and CCI. Might pay to check your firing pin protrusion.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

+1 & all Fed primers with very very few fail to fire.... ?

May not be the primers, maybe your reloads ?

Your brass too short for your chamber ?

Ok thanks,
That never occurred to me, so some over-trimmed brass? Hammer striking and case having movement=not enough force to detonate.
This might actually make sense as think it was just doing it in my 5.56 Daniel defense but don't think such a problem in Rock River 223 Wylde chamber.

Using trim length from ADI book, what length would you suggest?

Yes, always loved Federal stuff as always Mr reliable

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

Never had a primer failure in .223 or 300aac. Used Feds and CCI. Might pay to check your firing pin protrusion.

Yeah, but if firing pin has worked fine on numerous other brands with no problems why would it be that? In saying that you are probably not wrong but for a different reason that the case is too short.
Have a feeling I was sitting in front of TV with Drill and trimmer a while back and have slightly over trimmed some brass as Greg has pointed out.

If anything other than dud primers probably over sized brass making loose head space or proud primers. Only primer failures I have had were Murom SR. Won't ignite ball powder without hang firing. I use CCI 450 and have never had an issue with them in multiple 5.56 uppers and an .300 blk

Primers were'n t proud, ok so over sizing knocking shoulder back too far creating too much headspace....had a jammed case a while back and real mission to get out, may not have set up properly and lack of quality control in need for mass AR ammo production.....

Get a case gauge. Nothing worse than loading a big batch lf ammo that won't feed.

Biffed the dud ammo in disgust with a big long biff, bit silly in hindsight as making assumption it was primers.
Could chamber check now and pick it up exact cause, ahh lessons learnt!

Yep, have a case gauge. Just laziness and something along the lines "assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups".
When trying to mass produce ammo for semis and pistol you often cut a few corners which is fine until there is a problem in the process and not checking often enough the finer detail....

Given that the reccomendation for AR's is to use small base dies and full length size everything I would be heasant to not fully size your cases and fail to see how you could have oversized the cases. Trim length won't matter as it's the shoulder that determins how far into the chamber it goes not the trim length.

Whatever you do don't change to Federal AR primers as they are harder than standard so more likely to hangfire.

The first thing I would look at is your trigger \ hammer spring as I changed to a tinmey trigger and now have light hammer strikes leading to misfires...

Yup, it's a hard lesson to learn, just make sure you only need to learn it once

I've used Muron primers for a few years, 100% success rate in AR & 3 x bolt rifles, Federal for pistol after failures with Fiocchi and now everything works just fine and dandy.

Originally Posted by MassiveAttack

Given that the reccomendation for AR's is to use small base dies and full length size everything I would be heasant to not fully size your cases and fail to see how you could have oversized the cases. Trim length won't matter as it's the shoulder that determins how far into the chamber it goes not the trim length.

Whatever you do don't change to Federal AR primers as they are harder than standard so more likely to hangfire.

The first thing I would look at is your trigger \ hammer spring as I changed to a tinmey trigger and now have light hammer strikes leading to misfires...

What is a small base die? Skinnier at base for sizing? No problems feeding.
No hangfires, looked like a nice strike on primer. Yes a weaker hammer spring wouldn't help but was firing off Geco, Hornady, factory no problem so the main problem still has to be in my ammo manufacture.
Think might stem back to swapping out dies in a tool head and and not setting back up properly in a rush and had stuck case, not enough attention to detail.

Have a .223 chamber gauge, should I also get a 5.56?
Spare barrel of same would be handy to drop check..