Hello, I've got a question maybe some of you knowledgeable people could help me with, have you used 308 Winchester small rifle cases to load reduced and subsonic loads for plinking,I've sent email to hodgon haven't heard back yet.thought I'd use them if it's safe because all you can find mostly right now are small pistol and rifle primers, I bought some starline small rifle primer 308 to load. Thanks for any help and advice
Small rifle primers in 308
- Thread starter 40WHAT
- Start date
CoalCrackerAl
Member
Load with the same data as always. My son ran into 6.5 CM with small primer pockets. They shoot just fine.
Thank you for the information, I'd read on other forums that the powder in reduced loads might not ignite properly with small rifle primers , I know that bench rest shooters use small rifle primers but their loads are usually full power loads or mostly filling the case, im thinking about loading some light loads for just casual shooting, I've got a Mohawk 600 308 and it kicks like a mule with factory loads.
CoalCrackerAl
Member
He loads with green and red dot for reduced loads. They shoot softly. I do the same thing with 30.06 and for my Mosin 91/30. It's brutal on me with factory loads.
I’d sure try em. If I didn’t have 300 new large pocket Lapua, I’d probably be after some small pocket starline… might anyway…
CoalCrackerAl
Member
40WATT you picked a great forum to get help with your reloading and other gun related items. Welcome on board. 
For what it’s worth, and I am not saying it’s a good idea and good practice!, But, a lot of the guys that I know that runs small primer 308 are also running it above Max pressure, sometimes by a long ways, and the small primers aren’t as apt to blow.
rdnktrkr
Member
It is my understanding that the cases that are SRP will withstand hot loaded rounds for more reloads therefore competitors and people who reload near and over max prefer them and in some cases pay a premium for them, I personally don't like going over max so LRP brass is not a problem for me. I've also been told that ball powders prefer magnum primers and have always loaded that way weather small or large primers.
Blue68f100
Member
Years ago I had both SR & LR brass in 308W. The SR was some special Match brass that had a larger capacity than std. I saw a difference between the SR depending on powder used and temp. LR is preferred if your shooting in extreme cold with ball powders. SR works fine with most powders, with ball powders being the odd one out. And then it depends on the temp in which ball powder is used in. If your shooting a extruded powder I would not expect any difference. I prefer the SR over the LR in these hard to find LR primers shortage. The SR hold up better to pressure vs the LR. The extra meat around the pocket keeps the pocket from expanding resulting in loose primers.
I knew a guy that claimed he used sp until it got loose, then reamed the pockets to LP size and continued to use them for hunting purposes… dunno, but might work with good brass…
AJC1
Member
If your using an easy to ignite powder in normal or warm temperatures I think you'll be fine. Usually you'll find the data you want in the cast load data. I do not recommend trying to shoot jacketed with that data. The one exception is the load, which you can Google which was developed for old war horses using mostly red dot.
AJC1, thank you for the information, I'll be using aac5744 ,imr4198,leverrevolution and few others I found at the hodgon website, I'm following the loads exactly except I will be using small rifle primer in small rifle primer cases, using the starting loads, I'd read online that small rifle primers might ignite the powder in reduced loads as well as large rifle primer ,these will be reduced loads for low recoil, I'm using the small rifle primer cases because I bought some recently and small rifle primers are all that's available right now, be glad when large rifle primers are available again,I did see today that someplace had large pistol primers
I played with it a bunch, SRM LR LRM with the flash hole drilled out. 71/2 rem brs worked good had old Match brass at the time. If I remember right it was all with Trail Boss (unicorn dust) and primer didn’t matter much except for trying to stay below 1100fps or so to keep Subsonic with a suppresser.
AJC1
Member
I think your extruded selection including 4198 will be fine.... I'm suspicious of how the lvr powder will work out... I have loads as low as 21 grains with a cast 168 currently loaded for testing with imr4198. 24.0 was very easy shooting so less would obviously be less. I think I'd start your experiment with 4198 and follow it to its logical conclusion. Never ran aa5744 but it's supposed to be a great powder. It sure is spendy.
I agree.
A little hot, yea, some do. Way over? Not smart. The case head is what we need to worry about.
Y'all be careful out there.
Small rifle primers work just fine with stick powders in .308, may have to tweak the load a hair. Ball powders in cold weather can start getting dicey with standard standard small rifle primers. Just have to try it out.
I doubt you'll have any issues with your mid pressure loads going from large to small rifle primers, might need a tenth or two more, might not, depends.
I doubt you'll have any issues with your mid pressure loads going from large to small rifle primers, might need a tenth or two more, might not, depends.
I got answer from hodgon, as they do not have any load data using small rifle primers in 308 they do not recommend it, that just means they've never done it, doesn't mean it won't work or isn't safe , I told them they might want to look into putting a load or two in their next manual. I'm still gonna try a few loads with reduced charges and see what results I get, let y'all know
AJC1
Member
Srp have less brazillance than lrp. And you may find yourself in a position of high sensitivity to powder position. Probably need to check a few powder forward powder back as you test.
