I made my first serious mistake today while reloading 50 rounds of .223 ammo. After I finished I realized I used CCI #500 Small Pistol Primers by mistake instead of the CCI #400 Small Rifle Primers. I measured each with a caliper and they are identical, so now what? Can I safely shoot my rifle using the Small Pistol primers?

No. Your pressure curves and ballistics won't be where you need them. Not knowing the .223 I am not sure if this creates a hazardous condition - it probably does! Get a bullet puller and disassemble all rounds loaded like this. You can salvage the bullet and powder. Fire the case and primer only so that you can SAFELY punch out the pistol primer. Then reload correctly.

Guess what? Everyone does this. That's why they make the tools to solve the problem. At least you recognized the problem. The most important thing though is to not imperil your or anyone elses safety while undoing your mistake.

-KaibabMD

Since the small pistol primers would produce slightly less flash, rather than more, and since the .223 is a fairly low capacity round, if it were me I'd take it out and fire a round, field strip the rifle and make sure the bullet exited the barrel. Fire another round, see how it feels in comparison, check again and if everything is clear I'd use them as a 'shoot em up' round. the powder in a .223 is pretty closely packed, the small pistol primer is just slightly less powerful than the SR primer. Again, if it were me, I'd shoot a few one at a time and listen/feel for any odd sounding/feeling rounds.
If you'd done the reverse, used SR in a pistol load, then I'd worry.
The gun won't blow up, but do check the bore between shots the first few times.
Of course the safest thing would be to break them down, squirt a dab of WD40 in to kill the primer, let it sit for a day and decap, but I honestly don't think it will make a huge difference.
If you decide to shoot them monitor for 'hang fires' if you pull the trigger and nothing happens (which I doubt) keep her pointed downrange for a minute or so and wait.
i honestly don't think you'll see much difference.
RD

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Got a Phd from Hard Knocks U

I concur with kaibabmd...pull down the ammo and start over. Pistol primers are made of somewhat thinner cup material, and rifle pressures will likely blow some, most or all the primers. Not a chance I would take. In reloading, there is no such thing as too much caution.

I assume you will be shooting these in an AR. You're facing potential slam fires here, as well as blown primers. Sure they might go off without a hitch, but not worth the risk. Pull them and start over.

DO NOT FIRE THAT AMMO. the SPP can't be guaranteed to handle the pressures generated by the .223 round. You really don't want to compound the loading problem by shooting your mistake even though you caught the problem.

BTW, you can safely deprime the cases with live primers just go slow and as always, use eye protection.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

You said that perfectly AA!

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It's around here somewhere!

The cup thickness of small pistol primers is thinner that the rifle counterpart. Handguns just don't have as heavy a firing pin strike. Since handguns run at a reduced pressure the thinner cup is not a problem. But use it in a load that produces rifle pressure - watch out. Even the 454 Casull uses rifle primers due to it's working pressure.

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Dick

Thanks for the opinions so far. I think to be safe I will just break them down and start over. I sent an E-mail to CCI asking them the same question. I will post their response when I get it. Lesson learned...keep rifle and pistol components in separate containers, double check everything.

As others mentioned, break the ammo down. 50 is not many at all with a inertia hammer.

Don't waste the primers. You can deprime and save them just don't slam the press hard. Wear safety glasses. I have deprimed many cases with none going off. You can save your powder also.

PS: WD40 is not guarantee to deactivate a primer

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Still Running Against the Wind

50 small pistol primers are worth less than $2.00. Let it go. You can recover the bullets, cases, and most of the powder. Then fire the primers and deprime the brass. Do it right next time. Consider this a very cheap lesson about a potentially dangerous situation.
And you already knew the answer, didn't you?

There are a few stout pistol loads that use a sr primer. It is harder and holds up to higher pressures better.
Do as the above have said and pull the loads.

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Front sight and squeeze

Just finished pulling the bullets and recovering the powder. Will work on the cases tomorrow. I appreciate the quick replies. I will post any response from CCI...probably won't be until Monday. I am sure they will say not to fire the rounds also...just from a liability standpoint, if nothing else.

I have deprimed live primers a number of times and never set one off (yet). In addition to eye protection, I remove the lid from a 50 cal. ammo can and hold it between myself and the press - just in case.

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6/23/2022

Quote:
One thing that can happen is the rifle firing pin can perforate the bottom of the pistol primer cup. This can damage the firing pin and sometimes erode the breech face of the firearm. The pistol primers have a thinner cup bottom than a rifle primer. Also, CCI pistol primers typically have less priming compound (or a different formula) than a rifle primer. Thirdly our pistol primers have a 'shorter' overall height than the rifle primers. They may seat too far into the rifle case primer pocket and result in a misfire. Linda OlinCCI/Speer Technical Services2299 Snake River Ave.Lewiston, ID 83501

There ya go.

Hobie...I learned something new, always a good thing.

I received this answer today from CCI:

"The bullets need to be pulled and powder dumped. Then fire the primers in a well ventilated area and decap.

The CCI 500 pistol primers have a thinner cup bottom and firing pin perforations will occur. This can damage your firearm."

Lesson learned...no phone calls while setting up to reload!

And don't beat yourself up too much. I had to dump a bit over 2 pounds of Accurate 2520 once because I didn't pay attention to the "only one can of powder on the bench at a time" rule and emptied my powder measure full of WW296 into the 2520.

You can safely de-cap those live primers as long as you don't slam the de-capping pin into the primer. Wear eye and ear protection and go slowly.

Don't ever mess up like this again Mister.

Hobie

I reload several calibers and use all types of primers and many powders.
To avoid problems, I clear the bench of all items and place just the needed powder, cases, primers, and bullets on the bench. Then I double check each item to assure myself. Nothing else is placed on the bench until the reloading operation is completed. Then all components are put away.
ALWAYS double check your components before starting.

best, nrb

You made the right decision!!!! no way 50 rounds of ANY ammo is worth a potential safety problem.

50 is not TOO BAD

try 500 9mm and then notice you used the wrong line in the book for the powder you used.

guess it was meant to be when i bought that bullet puller 15 years ago

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BIG GUNS & FAST CARS!!

As long as we're sharing screw ups here's one I did a few weeks ago. First time ever and I've been pulling press handles since 1992.

I was making some midrange .357s to use in IDPA. My routine is to run them through the Turret press and place them in a load block. I stop at the end of each row of 10 and weigh that charge just to make sure the powder hopper isn't loose or something like that.

Well, at the end of one row after dumping the powder in the scale pan I went and refilled the safety prime.

I assembled that round and was halfway through the next row when I saw the powder still in the scale pan.

I was able to find and tear down the powderless one but it was still hair-raising.

Gentlemen Please,

Safety rules were set and established because they are all written with the BLOOD OF OTHERS. Please do not add YOUR BLOOD to lessons that have ALREADY been learned.

Reloading has a STRICT set of RULES, follow them to the Letter.

Trying to save a few primers is a VERY foolish risk.

If you catch a mistake on a Progressive, clear the shell plate and start over.

Wear Safety Glasses ALWAYS.

Only 1 powder at the bench.

DO NOT store primers and powder together.

No Kids, Pets, TV, or other distractions while reloading.

Keep the press and press area CLEAN.

If you made a mistake, DO YOUR PENANCE AND UNLOAD THE AMMO.

FOLLOW THE RECIPE EXACTLY.

ONLY FOOLS TAKE SHORTCUTS WITH THEIR SAFETY.

STAY SAFE, others probably NEED and LOVE YOU.

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NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

I would also add no phone calls....that's where I got messed up. Fixed my mistake, lesson learned.