Federal 215M alternative

One_Duck_Limit

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I think I may find a Chupacabra before I find more Federal 215/215M primers. I'm down to my last box of 100 Federal 215M and need to find an alternative. What Large Rifle Magnum primer would you recommend for a case using 74.5g of H1000?
 
I think I may find a Chupacabra before I find more Federal 215/215M primers. I'm down to my last box of 100 Federal 215M and need to find an alternative. What Large Rifle Magnum primer would you recommend for a case using 74.5g of H1000?

F210 would work fine. If you feel like you need to stick with magnum primers, my choice would be CCI250, then WLRM.
 
My go to primer is the CCI250, followed in order by 215 /M, WLRM, and 9 1/2M. Surprisingly, last year, I got the best result from 9 1/2M with 215 Berger and RL17 off my .300 WSM.
 
Fenix, I just found 1000 Federal 215 standard (not "Match"). How close are they to the Federal 215M in performance?
 
Myself I really like Remington 9 1/2 primers... I bought about 10 thousand a few years back dirt cheap when a big gun shop closed. I use them in just about everything that takes a large rifle primer..never had a misfire or problem of any kind..sorry to see them go, about 2 K left..
 
I checked the local stores and they have Remington, Winchester and CCI. As far as ES spread goes is there a way to narrow it down without buying and testing?

I've always been under the impression that the threshold for Large Rifle vs. Large Rifle Magnum is 70 grains or powder. I don't know where I heard that or if I just made it up. Is there a rule of thumb on Large Rifle vs. Large Rifle Magnum?
 
I checked the local stores and they have Remington, Winchester and CCI. As far as ES spread goes is there a way to narrow it down without buying and testing?

I've always been under the impression that the threshold for Large Rifle vs. Large Rifle Magnum is 70 grains or powder. I don't know where I heard that or if I just made it up. Is there a rule of thumb on Large Rifle vs. Large Rifle Magnum?

As far as es. all primers are pretty good, but the load as a whole- powder choice, case volume, primer, etc. will make most of the difference. You can use mag. primers in a lot smaller charge weights than 70 grains, and you can get away with standard primers at weights over 70 grains at times. I shoot slow burning powders and often in cold weather though, so I want as much fire in the case as possible and often use mag. primers in 308 and '06 size cases as well as bigger magnum cases.

I will eventually replace the 215 loads I currently use with wlrm primers. I have a couple of bricks of 215's left, but I have 6 or more bricks of wlrm primers. From what I've seen they are the closest. I'm not a fan of the sootiness of cci primers (I do have a couple of bricks of them and use a few though) and the rem mag primer sometimes has a rather rough cup stamping so you need to be extra careful so the cup doesn't catch the edge of the primer pocket. I do use a few of the remmy primers with commercial cases though... I won't use them in a milled out (crimp removed) case though.
 
I have a couple of loads, one 30-06 and one 300WM, that have single digit SD's with Remy 9 1/2M primers. All my concerns with Remy's disapeared with those two loads...

KB
 
Fenix, I just found 1000 Federal 215 standard (not "Match"). How close are they to the Federal 215M in performance?

They are exactly the same. The 215M's go through another inspection process to insure uniformity and are supposedly made by their more experienced employees, but the makeup of them is the same, they will interchange completely.

If you found a brick of them then snatch them up, they're rare as hen's teeth.
 
The CCI 200 LR and CCI BR2 primers have always worked best for me in both Mag. and standard calibers. The CCI BR2 primers are hard to find in my neck of woods now.
 
They are exactly the same. The 215M's go through another inspection process to insure uniformity and are supposedly made by their more experienced employees, but the makeup of them is the same, they will interchange completely.

If you found a brick of them then snatch them up, they're rare as hen's teeth.

G, thanks for verifying, I had read several articles stating they were equal. My hunt pal was in a small N. Az town gunshop and picked up the 215's and a 1000 210M's for me. There are 6 of us who hunt together and we all look for items for each other in our travels.
 
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