easy to ignite - i.e. 'soft' primer

Just off the cuff, I'd say the ones that aren't nickel plated would tend to be "softer." Winchesters is what I mostly have and they used to be plated many years ago but now they're just the color of the native material (bronze if I'm not mistaken). I've used to use CCI's and they seat hard but I couldn't testify as to them being any harder.

could well be an astute observation, I've read that some European ammo makes have 'hard' primers, PPU in particular. I've shot some of that ammo in my Makarov it shot/grouped well - but no way to determine primer hardness. I can say that I've never seen any primers branded that label. unsure it would pay to ship just primers to the US.

I have always used(and will continue to use) Winchester primers. I've only deviated from that twice.....for a time I couldn't find the Winchester primers and bought a brick of Wolf SP primers. The Wolf primers worked out pretty well....no complaints. The other time I went with some CCI SP primers and that didn't work out well at all. Using the same guns that ignite Winchester primers 100% of the time I had a 30% failure rate with the CCI primers......too damn hard or defective, one or the other. So I stick with Winchester primers

Softest I've found are Bench Rest or BR primers.

I haven't tried them myself but have read in several places that the Federal primers are softer thanothers

The only primers that use a harder cup are #34 & #41. These are mainly used in firearms that have a floating firing pin such as, AR-15, M1A/M14, and M1 (Garand) in order to reduce the chance of a slam-fire.
That being stated, I've used many different brands of primers and only noticed firing pin impressions which vary upon the firearm being used, bolt-action, single shot, pump action etc... Pressure spikes may give a false firing pin impression.
Never gave it a second thought as to cup hardness, as long as it ignited the powder properly.

Marlin 45 carbine said:

seems the audience is dwindling on this forum but nonetheless hope I get some responses. what is the softest or easiest to ignite primer in your experience?
I have a reason to ask this as I may be called upon to custom load some ammo in future. I've used several diff primers w/no problems igniting but have read in distant past there are different hardness primer cups. last I loaded was for a buddy who was planning a camping trip last fall and wanted some warm loads for his S&W J frame .38 which I obliged with 158 gr cast over a stiff charge of Red Dot, a 4" barrel so good match. he tried out some before hand of course, indeed were 'warm' using Lee's 'max charge' data. they're known to be on the safe side.

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Hey Bud:
Been loading S&W shorties for a long long time. I would never use Red Dot for those. I found in short Colts and Smiths the 148 hard cast are far more accurate. I found a place for awesome cast bullets GT Bullets dot com who casts hollow points. Remember if it does not say +P on the piece over time can be an issue.

I have purchased .41 cal. bullets from GT and found them to be of high quality.

chill1955 said:

Hey Bud:
Been loading S&W shorties for a long long time. I would never use Red Dot for those. I found in short Colts and Smiths the 148 hard cast are far more accurate. I found a place for awesome cast bullets GT Bullets dot com who casts hollow points. Remember if it does not say +P on the piece over time can be an issue.

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hey bud - remember I said 'some warm loads for a camping trip' - I loaded 12 of them and he (and me) fired 6. whacked a steel plate right soundly. Lee's data is known to be conservative so I'm sure all is well. I'm doubtful hollow points would expand much if any at the lower velocitys of those rounds.
the 1 full bottle and a bit more than half pound of another of red dot I 'inherited' when my gunny brother-in-law croaked some years back has kept me shooting my 2 .357s plus 3 other pistol chambering handguns loaded with cast from mastercast and extreme with as good results as the Bullseye I previously used and can't beat the price.
6 grs under a 125 gr cast SWC in y .357 rings gongs fine, no reason to change back to BE. I load round nose in the others, semi-autos all.
thanks for the advice though and good shooting.