I'm gonna tell on my self. Pooh pooh it if you want but there is pretty good logic behind what and why I did this.
I use Wolf primers exclusively. The reason? #1: They are cheap. Reason #2? They work, and they work well.
I got to thinking one day though, why not test them against other brands across the chronograph? See what you see. So that is just what I did. Only two other brands on hand, Winchester & Federal. Now, I had the Federal for a couple of reasons. #1, they were cheap when I bought them. (Are you seeing a pattern here?
)#2: they worked in my M625JM and I dearly love to shoot that gun!
Well, back to the testing. I believe that I was using 2400, that part escapes my aging memory, but the cartridge was the 44Mag. I used the three brands of primers with that powder and was pretty surprised with the results. We all know that magnum primers are not NEEDED for 2400, right?
The Federals had the lowest velocity of all three brands of primers. A close second was the standard Wolf primer. Here is what I got out of that, those two primers were about the same for "hotness" or brisance. The other thing that I noticed was that there were wide ES and large SD numbers to go along with it. That told me those two primers were not doing a very good job of getting all of the powder to burn. Maybe your conclusion would have been different, that's fine, this is my story!
So, I switched to the Winchester primers. Anyone remember what is on the outside of their packaging? "For standard AND magnum loads" (Or something to that affect!) When I switched to that primers, the velocity went up, the ES went down and so did the SD. I immediately thought, hey, that is getting the powder to burn better! (Again, your conclusions may differ, this was mine!
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Then I did the unthinkable! I took some Wolf Large Pistol MAGNUM primers and used them with 2400!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sacrilegious! What came next was a real eye opener too. I got the exact same velocity, the ES numbers were so close that it was almost scary followed by the ES and SD numbers matching to a tee as I got with the Winchester ones.
Here was my conclusion from this unscientific test, I was going to use magnum primers with 2400, needed or not because I am kind of a numbers guy, and, in this cartridge, with this powder weight, with the bullet I was using, from my handgun, they gave better results than standard primers.
Others have done the same thing only in reverse. Like ArchAngel and his beloved HS-6. I am guessing that he tried standard primers with HS-6. I suspect he even used standard primers and found that the results weren't up to his standards. That is why he uses only magnum primers, well, me too, when he loads HS-6 in any caliber. 380 to 45Colt and beyond.
So, I guess this is kind of a long post but.............to me..............this is part of the fun of handloading. Reloaders won't care too much, they just want ammo and they want it now. Handloaders are different. They play around quite a bit!
