Seillier & Bellot Primers

[Okanogan]

Sellier & Bellot primers are not really main stream reloading resource but I thought I would pass on my experience with them. I bought some LR & LRM S&B primers this summer after reading online that one bench rest shooter had obtained very good velocity standard deviation using S&B LR primers. I tried them in my 300 WM this summer and found the S&B LRM primers gave me a little better SD than the CCI 250 primers and significantly better than WLRM I was testing. (S&B LRM tended to deliver a slightly lower fps than CCI 250 primers and significantly lower than the WLRM)

I went to the range today to test some 300 WM loads at lower temperature with the intent of gaining some data for comparing H1000, RL26 and R23 sensitivity to temperature variations. Local temp was about 20F. All the loads with S&B LRM primers had a noticeable delay where I could feel/ hear the primer strike before the round ignited. I eventually quit testing loads with S&B LRM primers after a failure to fire from one round that visibly appeared to have a solid primer strike on a properly seated primer.

Similar loads with CCI primers had no noticeable hang fire today or other problems so even though I only fired 25 rounds with S&B LRM primers today, I believe my experience appears to indicate significantly greater temperature sensitivity with S&B primers.

For long range hunters, I thought this data point may be of interest. Others may have different experience.

 

[baldhunter]

I had a similar experience.They seemed to work fine with single based powder,but when I tried them with double based Reloader-22 in a 300 Win Mag,I had hang fires too.I have had the same thing happen with CCI-200 LRP with a light load in a 300 Win Mag.I was thinking you need a hot long burn to get the double based powder going.

 

[DocDoc]

My guess is that the hangfire is due to the retardant on the double base powders that might make them a little more difficult to ignite. Apparently RL-17 and 26 have more than surface retardant to give better temperature stability.

 

[Okanogan]

Powder selection may something to do with the hang fires. I was shooting RL23, RL26 and H1000 yesterday in the cold. The delay seemed most noticeable with RL26, which was also used in the round that had the failure to fire. The CCI 250 primed cases I fired only used H1000 and RL23 and I did not notice similar delay problems with them.

 

[Dosh]

Oka, thanks for the info, have noticed piles of the S&B primers at Cabelas. A friend's dad who works there said they aren't selling well compared to Federal and Remington.

 

[ShootnMathews]

I bought a brick of S&B LR primers when supplies were low. Now I have not shot them in sub freezing temps, not that I can remember anyways, but I have shot about 700-800 of them under H4831, Varget, H & IMR 4350. I have noticed no issues with hang fires and only had one that I can recall failing to fire. I noticed no change in my drops out to 750 yards but I did notice that they seemed to group slightly better at 100 yards than my 210M. I have shot them into the high 30's temps with no problems.

The only thing that I can actually say bad about them is they must be ever so slightly smaller in diameter that 210M primers as the S&B primers took less force to seat and on some of my older brass I actually found a few pieces where S&B primers did not fit tight enough to stay in, yet a 210M fit plenty snug in the same piece of brass. I wouldn't hesitate to use them for plinking and practice.

The only reason I continue to use Federal 210M primers is that out of an uncountable amount of them I've fired, I can count the ones that failed to fire on one hand. So when that trophy of a lifetime is in my scope I have NO doubts about whether it will go bang or not.