Help- Remington 6 1/2 primers

toomb

New member
guys

i'm confused and need some help. i value your opinions. my father in law stopped by today and dropped off a brick of rem 6 1/2 primers. ( he is a pretty good guy ) i am loading for a 221 fireball. i've been using winchester primers. in researching these, i find that there is a lot of debate about the use these with 223, 222, and 17 fireball. in fact remingtons website warns against the use of these primers in the above calibers. it states that they are more for 22 hornet, 218 bee.

there is no mention of 221. anyone have any experience with this? thanks

chris
 
toomb....i'd follow the footprints of the experts....but now you can tell the little woman ya hav to get a hornet or bee because her daddy started the wheel roll'n....
 
You will not have any trouble with the 6 1/2 primers in the .221 FB unless you are loading to high pressures and needed the thicker primer cups offered in the CCI BR4's or the Remington 7 1/2's.
Read this article on primers and pressures and you will see the differences.
http://www.jamescalhoon.com/
 
Well i would like some more input as well, since all thats coming into this area is 6 1/2's. After reading the primer report it look like i'm close enough to the 40,000 (41,300) to get away with them in my .223, i'll have to load some and see. blue
 
I have been reading all I can on this subject. I bought 5000 of these and didn't realize that there was a manufacture recommendation against using them in 17, 222, 223. I still haven't loaded them, but here is some things I have found. Remington web sight does have a warning not to use them use 7 1/2 for the above mentioned calibers. I have a bunch of loading manuals ranging from 65 - 90 era and have found a few loads listed in 223 published loads. Also some loading manuals have a primer cross use chart and have them listed along with all other small rifle primers with no warning. I personally called and talked with a Hogdon reloading tech. last week. He told me they are fine to use in a 223 I did tell him I was using a Hodgdon published load of Varget. I never got thru to Remington. I did also read the article from Calhoon mentioned in venatic's post. So are they ok or not. I still haven't used them. I have reloaded for 30 years and read allot of data and stay safe. I always start at a START load and work up looking for pressure signs. I haven't found many of my Personal rifles or pistols to be the most accurate at max loads I strive for the most accuracy I can get out of a gun.

I have another question that I don't understand. Since looking at this subject I see all over the internet warnings about primer piercing in a AR 15 while some say the 6 1/2 are ok to use in a bolt action. Why? I would think since gas is used to operate the action there would have to be slightly less "Pressure" in a automatic action, in theory. I no there is not a noticeable difference in chronographed loads.
But as I said I haven't used the 6 1/2s Well thats my2 cents it may not be worth 2 cents.
Sparky
 
I believe its recommended due to the floating firing pin in the AR which is not the case in bolt guns. I have three Lee auto primers and they say use only CCI and Winchester primers because if there is an explosion it will not be powderful enough to hurt you if wearing safety glasses well I have used pretty much ONLY Remington and Federal and never had any problems my point being sometimes you have to read thru thru lawyer-ese. I think the not using Rem 6 1/2's are in that category.
 
Rest assured if you use remington 6 1/2s in a small bore the fast pressure spike will pierce the primer Remington made the 7 1/2 primer because the 6 1/2 wouldn't work in the 17 rem. I would be careful using them in the 223 and would definately not use them in any of the 20s and 17s. The 221 may be ok if you pierce a primer it's not usually the end of the world.
 
thanks for the responses. i also bought 2k wolf small rifle primers....they have a similar warning. now what to do? anyone want to buy 3k primers? lol. thanks again guys. chris
 
I have and do use rem 6 1/2 in two 222's and one 222 mag and have only had piercing with a hot load of N530 in the 222 mag, as a matter of fact in my 222 vls 6 1'2's are the only ones that will work
 
i'm gonna load some and see what happens. i've gotten better accuracy towards the lower end anyways. thanks for the replies.
 
I ordered 5000 Remington 7 1/2,s from Midway they had them in stock yesterday for 45 bucks. My 223 loads are not hot but I dont want to worry. I know for a fact I have used the 6 1/2,s back in the 80,s with out a problem in a Remington 78 sportsman. I sure wish I had that rifle back. If I only had a bolt I would load and check often for pressure signs. but if the AR ever slam fired. Oh well its only money
Sparky
 
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