Large and small, and the four types
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Four basic types
Large rifle, small rifle, large pistol and small pistol, with magnum variants of several. The taxonomy here has two leaves because a bench treats large and small as different stock.
And they differ in more than diameter
Cup thickness and the amount of compound vary between rifle and pistol primers of the same diameter, because a rifle firing pin strikes harder and a rifle case needs more ignition.
So a pistol primer in a rifle case is a real problem
It may pierce, and a pierced primer vents gas backwards. This is not a performance difference, it is a failure mode.
Which is why the tray and the sleeve matter
They carry the brand, the type and the lot, and they hold the primers separated and oriented. All of that is lost the moment they go into a jar.
Loads are developed around a specific primer
Changing brand or type at the same charge weight changes pressure. The identification on the packaging is part of the load data.
And nothing on this shelf carries that
91 clear containers and 221 plain caps, none of which holds a primer oriented or tells you what it is six months later.
The federal position is the same as for powder
Primers are named in the definition of ammunition, and ammunition and its components are exempt from the federal explosives regulations. That describes the licensing scheme and not the material.
Percussion caps sit in the other list
They appear in the black powder exemption alongside safety and pyrotechnic fuses, quills, quick and slow matches and friction primers, which is a different provision again.
Quantities come from the fire code
NFPA 495 and state and local adoption, which vary. This property prints no primer storage figures for the same reason it prints none for powder.
Keep them in the packaging and keep them separate
From the powder, from each other by type, and from anything that could strike them. That is the whole of it and no container we sell improves on it.