Magnum Primers Question

[ingmansinc]

I just bought small pistol primers and picked up the magnum in error. I load average of min. and max. They should be fine, right?

 

[ingmansinc]

I just bought small pistol primers and picked up the magnum in error. I load average of min. and max. They should be fine, right?

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

If you mean that you load in the middle between min and max, they will be ok. They will raise pressures some, but not enough to worry about. They may make a difference in group size too. Could get worse, could get better. Try them and see. It depends on what powder that you use too. Ball powders are better ignited by magnum primers, but since you said that you are in the middle with your loads, I have to assume that you are using another type of powder. Ball powder loads shouldn't be reduced much below maximum, and always follow the manuals recommendation.

 

[ingmansinc]

I am always interested in the experience of others. I have been reloading for a year now with good results, but here is an example of what I am doing. 38/357 158gr SWC, the manual list min. 3.5gr. and max. 4.5gr., I load 4gr. Universal. I shoot at 25yr on 8" target. What do you think? Will the small pistol mag. primer work?

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

You won't have any serious trouble with a load like that other than possibly (like I already mentioned) variances in the performance of your loads accuracy wise. I have used magnum primers lots of times in place of standard primers, when that was all I had on hand, and I've never had any trouble. You will see the most problems when you are working with high pressure rounds and top loads. FWIW

 

[ingmansinc]

Thanks for your help with my questions.

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

Your welcome.
I used to live in your neck of the woods. Most of my reloading equipment came from a store in Altamonte Springs about 27 years ago. Where are you located at?

 

[acl864]

I recently loaded up a mild load of W231 in 38 Sp. with Magnum SP primers instead of regular SP. I was very confident that they were safe loads. I shot 6 in my M19 and noticed that one of the cases was sticking. It was split completely down the side. I put the rest of the box aside for disassembly and BOLDLY notated in my load book that this load was potentially unsafe. There could be other explanations for the split case- but I wasn't willing to take the risk for the sake of 30 minutes time to disassemble the remaining loads.
You may or may not be OK switching to Magnum primers. I've done it before with no ill effects. I've had this experience which may have been a case of excess pressure in a mid-range 38 sp due to a primer change to Magnum SP primers.

For what it's worth.

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

While I won't say definatively that it wasn't the primers, I'd bet a box of your favorite doughnuts that it wasn't. I'd bet on bad brass. I have some pretty reliable sources of info that say the switch should cause a couple thousand pound jump, which certainly isn't enough to split brass, even at top end load levels.

You chose a wise course of action though, and I commend your restraint in not firing anymore until things can be checked. I don't know if you polish your brass in a tumbler or not, or even if at all, but I have had certain types of polish weaken my brass enough, that I had some similar results to yours, back when I first started using my tumbler.

 

[ingmansinc]

Originally posted by Gun 4 Fun:
Your welcome.
I used to live in your neck of the woods. Most of my reloading equipment came from a store in Altamonte Springs about 27 years ago. Where are you located at?

I live in Longwood. We moved here in "88". What was the name of the store Alt. Sp.?

 

[acl864]

Originally posted by Gun 4 Fun:
While I won't say definatively that it wasn't the primers, I'd bet a box of your favorite doughnuts that it wasn't. I'd bet on bad brass.

I agree- I think it was the brass too. I've rethought the load and relooked at my data. I still think it probably is a safe load. But I wasn't wagering donuts. I had one of my guns and some body parts on the line

.

 

[danski]

A case split can occur with just a few reloads or dozens and dozens. If it was nickel case, the liklihood of a split is greater because nickle produces a "brittleness."

In 40 years of shooting and reloading, I've had dozens of case splits. And my friends have had the same experiences. If you're within bounds of loading data it should cause no problem. Still, good advice to back off your load a bit when using Magnum primers.

Just as an aside, remember that in the cap and ball days, the firings were in "bare" chambers.
No brass to first absorb the letoff.

Danski

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

Originally posted by ingmansinc:

Originally posted by Gun 4 Fun:
Your welcome.
I used to live in your neck of the woods. Most of my reloading equipment came from a store in Altamonte Springs about 27 years ago. Where are you located at?

I live in Longwood. We moved here in "88". What was the name of the store Alt. Sp.?

It was the Sports Unlimited on 436 just west of Casselberry, on the south side of the road.

I lived most of the 4 plus years there on S. Wymore Rd., about 1 mile south of 436.
Ileft there in the spring of '85.

 

[ingmansinc]

The store that you are talking about is no longer there. Where are you at in Michigan? I lived in Angola, Ind. in the 70's before moving to the South. I spent a lot of time chasing salmon up and down the west shore of Lake Michigan. We would troll with down riggers about 8 miles off shore in approx. 200 ft of water. That seem to work in the early fall and of course adjustment had to be made for water temp. etc. Made a lot of trips to Ontario back then also. It was a great place to live, but we really enjoy the south and would never leave.