Primer question

I have been looking at the pet loads sticky and notice Winchester Large Pistol primers are what almost all use. I happen to have shot up my supply and am in need of the next best suggestion. And why are Winchesters the "gold standard" as it were?

I have used CCI for many years then swiched to Federal and have had no problems. CCIs are a little harder than Federal. Most of the reloaders at my club use Federals maybe its just the area you live in that like Winchester.

If you can actually CHOOSE what primer you will use, you must live somewhere the rest of us haven't found yet. ANY BRAND of large pistol primers sell immediately. I like Fed the best but have no objective reason why. It takes a lot of group testing to distinguish primer effects, and a dud primer in any major brand is really rare these days. I now use whatever I can find...even bought some CCI magnum primers when I couldn't find anything else.

I use Winchester over federal and cci because its a stronger firing primer and does better burning the bullseye powder. The federal and cci are standard primers, the Winchester is rated for standard or magnum loads.
I get good results with federal and cci but have more unburned powder to deal with.

I've used Wolf, CCI, and Winchester in large pistol. All of them have worked fine. Wolf can be a bit oversized and more difficult to seat.

I have a buddy that was using wolf to reload last week and had 3 or 4 pop in his press. I have access to federal match magnum large pistol and will use. Come to think of it, I did get a lot of unburned powder with CCI.

I have used W-W primers ever since I had my first Dillon press. At that time Dillon recommended them for best feeding in their priming systems. I've found no need to change brands.

Over many years of reloading I've used about every primer known to man. The only problems I've had were with CCI in my Dillon 550B, but others were OK. The only ignition problems I've had were with my K-38, shooting double-action and having misfires. I forgot that with double-action the hammer travel is less than with single-action, so it needed a softer primer. Federal cleared up that problem.

Sandy