Pistol primers in rifle cases.

[Ditchtiger]

Getting low on rifle primers,(for me), so as an experiment I used pistol primers to use in .308 with lead slugs and 10 grs. Reddot.
No noticeable difference or pressure issues.
I know the primer is shorter and of a material to be subjected to lesser pressure,
but seems to work fine.
Have only used these in mil. surp. bolt actions and would not recommend anyone follow my experiments.
They shoot good enough that I would not want to be within 500 yards downrange as a target.

 

[rdhood]

Have only used these in mil. surp. bolt actions and would not recommend anyone follow my experiments.

I think probably everybody has tried this! I have a strong feeling that just about any primer will ignite just about any charge as long as it fits the cartridge. One or the other might be optimum, but in practice its hard to tell the difference.

 

[Walkalong]

They should be able to handle that pressure. One way to find out. They will certainly ignite the charge just fine. The other concern is if the firing pin will reach far enough to set them off, but it probably will.

 

[rsrocket1]

I love those loads. I found that 10g Red Dot, Bullseye, Power Pistol and Clays performed almost identically (1650-1750 fps). The "burn speed" of the powder doesn't affect the MV when all the powder is able to burn in the long barrel. However, I've only used LRP's to set them off.

Since you never go above handgun pressures, I think LPP's would be safe as Walkalong said, so long as the firing pin reaches the primer.

 

[Ditchtiger]

The load has been good, used it for several years and many 1000's of rounds.
Fired the LPP ones last weekend, they all fired fine but it was foggy so I was not able to test the accuracy at any distance.

 

[Hondo 60]

I'd be concerned that the firing pin could pierce the primer.

 

[kingmt]

I've done it also but my reason was to find when the pressure started to come up with powder I didn't know what it was.

My concern was that with the extra travel of the primer that it may wear out the pocket faster.

 

[oldpapps]

My view:

Three points to be aware of. Fire, poke and pop.
Fire, will the primer produce sufficient 'fire' to ignite the used powder? If they do, OK here.
Poke, will the firing pin poke a hole in the softer/thinner primer metal? It that happens, that's a no go.
Pop, the more important potential problem of internal pressures being too much for the weaker primer cup and that pressure popping out into your face or there abouts.

So, for very low pressure loads in a weapon that doesn't have a hard pointy firing pin fall, I would have little problem, some but little.

The reverse is problematic in the opposite ways. Not enough fire to get things going. Too little of crush to have consistent ignition. To a much lesser degree, insufficient pressures to seal the primer. (I don't see this as much of a potential problem.)

I have used large pistol primers in a couple of specific loadings.
45-70 to be fired in an original 1884 Springfield with very soft steel. I used soft cast lead and 2400 powder with LP primers. Some of the bullets traveled so slow that they would not stabilize.
A test loading of .308 Winchester using 173 grain cast lead RN. I was looking for gallery level loads. They worked but were still faster than I wanted (guessed at about 550 to 600 FPS).

Would I used pistol primers in anything other than experimental test loads? No. Can they be used? Yes, with reservations and several of those.

 

[dragon813gt]

Large Pistol Primers and Large Rifle Primers and not the same size. There is no way I'd use pistol primers in rifles. The cups aren't as hard and you run the risk of seating them do deep since the pistol primers aren't as tall. I would not substitute one for the other.


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