Precision Rifle Large Rifle Vari-Flame

[Cal45]

I wanting to know if anyone here has used the Vari-Flame adapters and modified breech plug in a CVA Optima V2. I recently had them rework my breech plug and send me 10 of their large rifle primer adapters as well as their decapping tool for range sessions. It's been too hot to try them out except for firing off a primer to make sure it worked. Just wondering what the good and the bad of this ignition system are.
Cal45

 

[ronlaughlin]

The adapters are very well made of Stainless Steel. As such they are quite hard. Because they are so hard they do not marry well to breech plugs, and consequently they allow a lot of blow by. Myself i have lots, and lots of experience using them. By modifying CVA, and TC breech plugs i was able to utilize the adapters for thousands of shots. By doing so i learned the adapters wear very well, but don't seal well. What i finally resorted to was using o-ring to allow for a good seal, and eliminating blow by.

The system works. Ignition is reliable. One thing i found interesting is the magnum rifle primers do not erode flash holes at all. What i did was drill out the flash holes in the breech plugs to 0.034", and there they stayed 0.034" for over 1000 shots. This is not possible when using 209 primers. The 209 primers erode flash holes like miniature sand blasters with each shot, and will wear flash holes from 0.028" to 0.037" in three, or four hundred shots.

The issue with these adapters is they don't seal, and thus there is always blow by, unless one takes steps to eliminate this poor seal.

 

[ronlaughlin]

The primer socket in the standard Omega breech plug is shallow; much of the primer is unsupported. In hot weather if one is using near maximum loads the pressure on the primer gets to be such, there is blow back right through the primer.

The adapters using large rifle magnum primers seem to be able to withstand pressure a way better than the shotgun primers, and do not leak. Using the adapters in an Omega rifle allows one to use maximum powder loads without suffering blow back through the primer. Using the adapters, allows one to shoot in hot weather without blow back through the cup. It seems the adapters are plenty stronger than the cup of shotgun primers.