Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22H piercing cci primers

Does anyone use cci small pistol for 22 hornet? I had a brick given to me, and they are piercing every few rounds and look dented inward. 12 and 12.5 Lil’ Gun and 45gr sierra sp, same results. Normal looking Winchester small rifle primers with same load fired same day shown above the cci’s in pic. Are the CCI’s that much softer?

Rifle has no history of piercing primers. If it matters, these CCI primers are probably 20 yrs old.

I switched to CCI small rifle mag primers.Seems velocity is more consistent w/LilGun.

.22 Hornet is "supposed" to use rifle primers, a lot of people get away with using pistol primers and claim better accuracy, but it appears your rifle hits them too hard. Just switch back to SR primers or even SRM.

I've used quite a few CCI spp's in my Ruger M77 Hornet. Never have had a pierced primer.

My normal coyote load is 13.0gr Lilgun, a 45gr Barnes XLC, and a CCI spp.

Using a 52gr Speer Match and 13.0grs. Lilgun, I found the Rem 7 1/2 gave the best accuracy.

The primers are telling you what you need to know - don't use me.

Either use them for pistol loads, sell them, or give them away before you etch the bolt face of your rifle.

drover

"Rifle has no history of piercing primers. If it matters, these CCI primers are probably 20 yrs old. "

Hard to tell without seeing the firing pin. Yet I still question the firing pin geometry. I have had a couple CZ527's in 204 Ruger that had pierced primer issues w factory ammo. In the case of these 2 rifles the firing pin was sharper or more pointed than I would I was looking for. In the case of these two rifles I polished away the point to offer a slightly more generous radius. This reduced the length of the firing pin by .006" or so.

You may just prefer to go back to the SR primers & leave your firing pin alone as this is your only time you have experienced issues w pierced primers.

You should be using a std small rifle primer such as the CCI 400 , Fed 205, a Rem 6 1/2, or . The small pistol primers have a thinner .017 cup, as where the ones I mentioned have a 0.20 cup or 0.225 for the fed. Check this out.

https://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0

Thanks folks, all great information. Thanks grovey for the link, very informative reading. All you need to know about primers is right there. I will not use the cci small pistol’s, and will switch back to cci 400’s. This rifle is a CZ 527 built in 2007, for reference.

I have two hornets and shoot them quite a bit. Both shoot this load very well
Win cases
Fed sm pistol primer
13.2 lil gun
Various 40 grain bullets

The Hornet’s small capacity makes primers a significant factor in loading. Same with the Bee. With Lil’gun in the Bee with the Speer 45 SP, the WSR is my better grouper followed by the Rem 1 1/2 (small pistol). The CCI 450 and Fed 205 don’t play near as well. (#15 Little Dandy rotor/ @ 13.5 gr L’G).

Ironically, in my Hornet with 55 gr cast GC bullets, L’G gives the best groups with a light: 5.4(?)/#5 rotor charge, but any primer other than the CCI 450 really open the groups.

Go figure. Moral : play with primers in the small capacity cases.

With cast bullets on the mild side using fast-burning handgun powders, I get the same result with small pistol primers as small rifle primers. If I am going for full power stuff, I stick to the thicker primer cups. No point in taxing the gun.