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Member Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 425 Location: Maine

My experience with Promo mirrors that of Samuel's. Worked ok in 16 and 20g weenie loads, but not very consistent in 12g. Clays/claydot simply work better for me, and are worth the price IMO.

Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 74 Location: MO Ozarks

I'm with Sam on Promo. I find it kinda dirty and temperature sensitive. And it does not have to get that cold for the problem to show up either, especially with Fiocchi primers.

My next powder buy will be ClayDot 8# jugs. If it burns as well as Clays, thats where I'll stick.

Alliant powders are made in the US (Blacksburg, VA) and Clays is made in Australia. I prefer to buy US when I can anyway.

*Last edited by 16gaugeguy on Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:16 am; edited 1 time in total*

Which Fiocchi primer are you referring to? I used to use the Fiocchi 216 primers for my winter league trap loads because they had a high brissance. They were about as hot as a Federal 209 primer but far cheaper to buy. I used them with my 1-1/8 ounce, #7.5, 1180FPS Green Dot loads. These loads were designed to crack the icy frozen clay targets we so often had to break. They did the job superbly, even for the handicap events and for fast shoot off targets.

The 216 is a tad bigger than our standard domestic 209 primers. I seperated the hulls I primed with a 216 to avoid problems. Other than that, they performed excellently for me.

PS: I should be using the 616 designation here. 216 is wrong.

Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 74 Location: MO Ozarks

The Fio 616, current 209 primer version. And I have not had any problem with primer size. They seem to be identical with the Win 209 in size.

Well, then they have changed something. I do know they are or were offering a 215 primer as couple of years back which is both cooler and a bit smaller to match our domestic primers. The old 216 primers are several thousanths bigger and will stretch primer pocket so a domestic 209 will be loose.

I still have several thousand of the old Fiocchi 216 primers left, so I've not been keeping up on the matter.
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I just googled Fiocchi primers and I've been stating 216 instead of the correct 616 designation. According to some of the info posted, it remains a slightly bigger and hotter primer than the domestic 209.

However, the newest Fiocchi catalog offers only the 616. The info states it is now a standard 209 sized primer. So we are talking about two different primers. the old 616 is bigger and hotter as well. The ones I still have are the old ones. They are among the most consistant primers I've ever used. I can't remember one misfire of squib load while using them. I'm betting Fiocchi dropped the old 616 and redesignated the 615 with the old number to keep sales up.

Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 596 Location: 17603

16gg,
The only problem I've had with the Fiochi 616 is that it's a hard cup, on one or two elderly guns I've had insufficient firing pin hits to ignite. Rio's are similarly priced, and softer enough to alleviate the problem. They are however, I believe a bit hotter, and not as ballistically consistent as the Fiochi.
http://www.armbrust.acf2.org/bargainprimer.htm
Cheers,
R*2

I've heard the same thing about the 616 having hard cups, but I've never had a problem. Of course I shoot trap with two well maintained Perazzi models with excellent and well maintained locks and firing pins, an MX8 and a TMX. Well maintained locks and pins always help matters.

I've never experienced firing pin nose damage from any 616 either. I have damaged the pins of a Winchester 101 Diamond Grade when using a bad batch of CCI 209 primers with extremely thick, hard primer cups. This happened nearly a dozen years ago though. Since then, Alliant bought CCI and the QC has improved quite a bit. the latest CCI 209 primers I've been using are excellent.