Hi Folks.

I haven't posted here in several years, but figured it would be a good place to get some input.

With the shortages on reloading components, you can imagine my delight to discovered a forgotten box of 1K small pistol primers in my primer stash. But they are magnum (CCI #550's actually).

I have been searching the interwebs for information on using the SPMs in 9mm reloads and it doesn't seem to be much of an issue as long as one isn't pushing the upper limits.

I have also in the past used SPMs in some .38 spl loads and didn't notice any ills.

My standard 9mm load for the past year or so has been a 147 grn coated bullet over 3.2 grn's of Titegroup with a CCI #500 primer. It's a good practice round and mimics my purchased competition rounds. I had a dry spell of Titegroup and substituted 3.8 grn's of Unique which seemed to work very well.

I have looked over a couple of threads here and from what I can gather, since I'm not loading "magnum" powders (slower burning), I should be fine.

But, as stated earlier, just looking for some input.

I appreciate your time. Thanks and best wishes.

My guess, for what that might be worth to you, is that if you load just a tad under max recommended load you should be just fine. You can expect a little more vigorous burn from the magnum primers, but with a fast burning powder I would expect the same thing that you do, very little extra pressure. Load a few, check for pressure signs, then go and be happy.

Go for it. As said, just don't be on the high end. Right now, and will be for quite a while I guess, I am using small rifle in my 9mm and I have a brick of the Tula for .223 loads and I may have to get into them at some point.

Even on the high end of the recommend loads, there's enough of a cushion that magnum primers won't make a difference. They will work fine and I doubt that you will even notice a difference.

Aren't the rifle primers about .010 taller than a pistol primer? That's how it is with the Large rifle primers.

Negative. Small rifle and small pistol are identical in physical size. Large rifle are a tad "taller" than small pistol and will often protrude above the base of the case if used, which can be very bad.

A few years ago I did my own tests to confirm what I'd heard at the time. I used HS6 and 135 grain plated Extreme RNFP. Velocities tended to be about +25 FPS. On another thread others confirmed that SPMP were fine and didn't present erratic E/S or excessive pressure signs.

Now for the caveat. As a reloading instructor I don't recommend any recipes other than those listed in powder manufacturers documents.

Smiles,

Small pistol magnum primers can be used in the 9x19, but if it were me and my standard primer load was already at maximum safe levels, I'd back off the charge weight just a bit and work back up to maximum. No need in damaging or destroying a perfectly good firearm or bringing harm to myself.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA