What primer do you prefer?

[HotLeadSolutions]

I am shooting CCI Magnums and they seem to work fine. Any problems I need to look out for using a magnum primer with a standard load?

[MoJo]

Are these rifle or pistol primers? If rifle you need to be extra careful approaching max loads. Pistol mag primers have heavier cups and a small amount more of priming compound. Magnum rifle primers are actually "hotter".

In pistols I use them interchangeably. I do not use magnum rifle primers since I don't shoot magnum rifles.

My brand of choice is Federal, I have and will use any good well established brand.

[HotLeadSolutions]

I am talking about pistol primers. Havent started reloading rifle rounds yet.
Thanks for you input.

[Texas Size 11]

Remington primers have always worked fine for my loads (handgun).

[NcongruNt]

I use Federal SPP (#100, I believe) for 9mm, .380, 9x18, and .38spl. There is no specific reason for this, other than they were the only primers I could find when I started reloading. I have a 1K box of CCI #500 SPP sitting on the shelf, but I have yet to use it. I have not had a problem with the Federals yet.

For rifle, I only load .223/5.56x45 at this point. I went through a thousand CCI #400 SRP, but have found that they start to flatten even with moderate loads. I talked to a couple of other reloaders at the range who said that the cups on these are too thin and soft for use in .223. They look horrendous after firing with 5.56 pressure loads - very flat and some cratering. I have switched to CCI #41 (Labeled specifically for 5.56) and will be testing my first batch using these on my next range trip, probably this weekend.

In answer to your question, The only thing I'd be concerned about with magnum pistol primers is use in conjunction with striker-fired guns. Strikers tend not to have quite the same impact force as a hammer-actuated firing pin, and some people will have light strike problems when using ammo with harder primers.

[ghostrider]

In pistols I use them interchangeably. I do not use magnum rifle primers since I don't shoot magnum rifles.

same here

[Gyrogearhead]

Pistol mag primers have heavier cups and a small amount more of priming compound.
In pistols I use them interchangeably.

Thanks MoJo! You just answered a question I've had for some time now. I acquired a large ammo can of CCI primers from an estate sale lot I bought awhile back and have now used up all the regular large pistol primers from that lot. I was wondering if I could start using the large Magnum pistol primers for 45ACP or should just leave them on the shelf.

My next question would be can I use large rifle primers in a normal power 45 ACP load or would that be "Tickling The Dragon's Tail"? The object here being to use up all the available primers safely.

Last night I loaded up a hundred rounds using the CCI Magnum pistol primers and will go to the range shortly to try them out. I'm going to try to chrono them along with some of my regular rounds to see if there's any difference.

I'll post my results here later.

Gerry

[ghostrider]

My next question would be can I use large rifle primers in a normal power 45 ACP load or would that be "Tickling The Dragon's Tail"?

Its not unusual for 38Super users (IPSC) to use small rifle primers, but those are high pressure loads. 45ACP is a low pressure round (~21k psi), so I'm not sure that rifle primers would be a good choice.