Small rifle/small pistol primers

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celtgun

New member
Have a large number of small rifle primers, low on small pistol.
Would small rifle work OK for 38 Special/357 Mag loads on the low end.
Intend to load a basic target load behind 148gr HBWC.


Pray and Shoot Daily.
Lee Jones(Celtgun)

Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute's warning.
April19,1775
 
C

Coffeeshop123

New member
CAUTION: The following post includes procedures which deviate from published loading data. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The Firing Line, nor the staff of TFL assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.

Yes and no. Yes, they will work; I accidentally bought some small rifle primers about 20 yrs. ago (package was on the wrong part of the shelf) and, incidentally, I was loading .38/.357 at the time. The thing is that they're more powerful, being designed to generally ignite a larger powder charge, so I'd be careful...reduce your powder charge a little. I won't say by how much, as it's not a good idea to deviate much from published loading data. Just do the usual things you'd do like when you're working up a new or maximum load, like watching for signs of excessive pressure (lots of recoil, cratered/flattened primers, hard to extract cases, etc). As I'm sure you know, funny things can happen with even small changes. that being said, yes, they're usable, just be careful and have fun!
 
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SL1

New member
I agree that you can use them safely, so long as you stay away from high-pressure .357 Magnum charges.

However, you should remember that the rifle primer cups may be harder, and coud be too hard for your hammer spring to reliably ignite them. I would try a few in empty (just primed) cases to make sure that my gun would be able to handle them properly before I loaded any rounds, so that I wouldn't end-up pulling a bunch of bullets, later. By the way, my Security Six handles them fine. But, some revolvers even have trouble with magnum small pistol primers, especially if they have had a "trigger job" that involved some lightening of the trigger pull.

SL1
 
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alland

New member
Yes they can be used safely, just start low and work up the load like normal. I have been using small rifle primers in 38 Super major loads for 20 years.
 
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