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6.5cm and wolf primers

Jas1984$

Private
Minuteman
Mar 23, 2019
52
23
I recently built a 6.5cm and have a decent amount of large primer brass but not a lot of larger primers, I do however have a buttload of wolf magnum small primers left over from when I use to load a lot of .223… I have been looking at getting some alpha brass, any reason not to go with small primer brass and use the wolf primers I have instead of trying to stick with only large rifle brass?
I figured this will open up my options as to what primers are available so I can keep shooting.
 
Go with the SRP brass if that’s what you’ve got. Brass is vastly easier to find than primers these days.
 
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Does the 6.5 you’re building have a small firing pin that will play well with the small primers? Or do you have a large pin that could pop the small primers?
 
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Does the 6.5 you’re building have a small firing pin that will play well with the small primers? Or do you have a large pin that could pop the small primers?

Hmm I didn’t think about that… It’s built with a Origin action and I haven’t read any problems with them shooting small primers but maybe I missed something when I was researching them. Any ideas?
 
Does the 6.5 you’re building have a small firing pin that will play well with the small primers? Or do you have a large pin that could pop the small primers?
After some more reading the Origin does have the .062 firing pin so I should be good with both large and small primers. Figured I would post my findings in case anyone else needed this info.
 
Hmm I didn’t think about that… It’s built with a Origin action and I haven’t read any problems with them shooting small primers but maybe I missed something when I was researching them. Any ideas?
After some more reading the Origin does have the .062 firing pin so I should be good with both large and small primers. Figured I would post my findings in case anyone else needed this info.
Sorry, didnt see the quote notification, yeah, the origin will be fine with the small primers.
 
Sorry, didnt see the quote notification, yeah, the origin will be fine with the small primers.
No worries at all… probably put my order in here soon for some brass and give the wolf primers a shot, hopefully they work good cause I have like 6k left over from awhile ago.
 
I’ve had problems with Wolf SRP’s with my 6.5. I tried using some 2009 ish vintage wolf KVB223 primers with a few powders and had consistent hang fire issues with them.
No problems using those same primers in 223/6.5 Grendel, but they did not work with the Creedmoor.
 
I’ve also read mixed reviews on using them in larger capacity cartridges with hang fires. The kvb556 is suppose to have a magnum charge and may do better, worth a shot.
 
I’ve had problems with Wolf SRP’s with my 6.5. I tried using some 2009 ish vintage wolf KVB223 primers with a few powders and had consistent hang fire issues with them.
No problems using those same primers in 223/6.5 Grendel, but they did not work with the Creedmoor.

Hmm, these are just the normal small rifle magnum primers so i guess we will see… if I have issues they will go to my Grendel then since I don’t really load for my 223 anymore. If they don’t work I will keep my eyes open for some 450’s or I know where I can get some cci 41’s too which are supposed to be right inline with the 450’s.
 
I’ve also read mixed reviews on using them in larger capacity cartridges with hang fires. The kvb556 is suppose to have a magnum charge and may do better, worth a shot.

I’m hoping since these are the small rifle magnum primers that they will work... if not I will keep my eyes peeled for something else.
 
FYI Wolf magnum primers have the same charge as the regular, the difference is that the cups are harder.
 
FYI Wolf magnum primers have the same charge as the regular, the difference is that the cups are harder.

Good to know, I knew about the harder cups but thought the charge was a little hotter. I will give them a shot and see how they work out. The reason I wanted to use the alpha brass is due to the larger flash hole unlike the Lapua so maybe there will be a slight difference there but I’m doubtful.
 
From my reading up on them there are actually three variants of Tula-Wolf primers. Small rifle, small rifle magnum, and small rifle 223. Which is about as confusing as they could possibly make it. SR and SRM are same compound, different cups, and SR223 actually has a hotter charge.
I’m now using CCI 450’s or fed 205M with Peterson brass which I think is also small hole. Pretty reliable but not 100% in my rifle. I’ve had maybe two 450’s fail to fire out of a few hundred I’ve loaded.
 
From my reading up on them there are actually three variants of Tula-Wolf primers. Small rifle, small rifle magnum, and small rifle 223. Which is about as confusing as they could possibly make it. SR and SRM are same compound, different cups, and SR223 actually has a hotter charge.
I’m now using CCI 450’s or fed 205M with Peterson brass which I think is also small hole. Pretty reliable but not 100% in my rifle. I’ve had maybe two 450’s fail to fire out of a few hundred I’ve loaded.

Them darn Russians lol… as of right now I have 200 pieces of alpha on the way, maybe I will go ahead and order some cci 41’s while they are available, something as 450‘s just a harder cup from my readings.
 
....some primer references folks might find useful.

...although not applicable to the OP's question on 6.5CM usage, take a close look at the "NOTE #1" in the "Primer_Specs.pdf" document. YMMV
 

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I’m now using CCI 450’s or fed 205M with Peterson brass which I think is also small hole. Pretty reliable but not 100% in my rifle. I’ve had maybe two 450’s fail to fire out of a few hundred I’ve loaded.

you can also expand flash hole to 0.080''. probably will be better. I would do that if I had big cartridge with SR primer... my lapua 223REM brass are all with 0.080'' flash hole from factory.
 
from different sources i saw that those primer are among the hottest: CCI BR4, fiocci, S&B, federal 205, winchester wmr, remington 7.5.
but the difference is small...
 
Them darn Russians lol… as of right now I have 200 pieces of alpha on the way, maybe I will go ahead and order some cci 41’s while they are available, something as 450‘s just a harder cup from my readings.
I'm sute alpha is great of course, but I did a little bit of research when I decided what brass to run in my 6.5cm(have always used lapua) , and I found that starline had the most consistent case volume out of any of them. There were a few other categories where starline did really well. I did get starline and have used it just for my 6.5cm and have been pretty happy with it. On its 4th firing I think right now for most of it, and still great. It gets annealed and full length sized every time though too. Just thought I'd share that.
 
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you can also expand flash hole to 0.080''. probably will be better. I would do that if I had big cartridge with SR primer... my lapua 223REM brass are all with 0.080'' flash hole from factory.
Im almost wondering if the bigger flash holes will help in this scenario. I know the wolfs have had some problems with hang fires, I wonder if a bigger flash hole would help with this or not. Either way I will be testing the bigger flash holes, don’t have any smaller flash hole brass to test against but if they work with the bigger flash hole that will atleast tell us something.
 
i dont know, but some powders need hotter primers.

like in this video:

author did a good job to investigate what causes the problem. not for flash holes, but for different powders with different primers.
 
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i dont know, but some powders need hotter primers.

like in this video:

author did a good job to investigate what causes the problem. not for flash holes, but for different powders with different primers.


No…..just no.

He couldn’t repeat his failures consistently. The video before he had primers performing fine and the same ones were the worst in the second video.

There’s far too many non primer/powder reasons for hang fires that he didn’t even explore.
 
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you are right about lousy testing, but a lot of people have problems with small primers, when they are popular in 308 palma and 6,5 CM. this is a common problem.

maybe not with this powders this guy tested, but generaly in lower temperatures are SR primers problematic. using SR primers in big cartridges is looking for problem where you are not needed, imho.
 
you are right about lousy testing, but a lot of people have problems with small primers, when they are popular in 308 palma and 6,5 CM. this is a common problem.

maybe not with this powders this guy tested, but generaly in lower temperatures are SR primers problematic. using SR primers in big cartridges is looking for problem where you are not needed, imho.
I consistently shoot 6.5 cm SRP in zero-ish temps and have never had a hang fire or misfire. Now, I've only done it with Reloder 16, but with CCI regular and CCI 450s. It's not much info, but there you go.
 
I consistently shoot 6.5 cm SRP in zero-ish temps and have never had a hang fire or misfire. Now, I've only done it with Reloder 16, but with CCI regular and CCI 450s. It's not much info, but there you go.

What brass are you using if you don’t mind me asking? From most of my research the guys having problems with the 450’s are using starline and lapua which both have the small flash hole from what I can tell. Maybe I’m chasing something that isn’t there.
Either way I will probably be testing n555, H4350, rl17 and staball with the wolf primers and some 450’s I found along with alpha brass.
 
What brass are you using if you don’t mind me asking? From most of my research the guys having problems with the 450’s are using starline and lapua which both have the small flash hole from what I can tell. Maybe I’m chasing something that isn’t there.
Either way I will probably be testing n555, H4350, rl17 and staball with the wolf primers and some 450’s I found along with alpha brass.
Lapua and Alpha. More Lapua than Alpha, though. I'm in Western MT, so it is plenty cold here, but Reloder 16 is really temp stable. Probably the most temp stable powder I've tried.
 
Lapua and Alpha. More Lapua than Alpha, though. I'm in Western MT, so it is plenty cold here, but Reloder 16 is really temp stable. Probably the most temp stable powder I've tried.

For sure, I’m in Colorado and travel to Bozeman, Montana pretty regularly to help out on our family farm.
No luck here with rl16 but I have plenty of the other powders I listed before so we will see how it goes.
 
hell at this point Id be happy to buy any primers in bulk even , if they were Chinese made almost making wolf like a premium brand .
 
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I've shot close to 700 rounds of 6mm Creedmoor in Lapua brass (SRP) with WIN StaBal with CCI 400 with no issues. I've had hang fires with Rem 7.5 bench rest, but I have yet to have a failure to fire.
I've loaded up some with KVB-223 and WIN SR to try this weekend. I'll report if I have any issues. I'm also waiting for some CCI 450 to arrive.
 
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