9mm with small rifle primers

If both are readily available, I can't imagine a reason to choose rifle primers.

I loaded up 50 .40’s and 6 had Srp. I hope they will be ok. But I guess I was counting on it. Maybe the bullet will fly out before the powder ignites.

I've loaded a lot of rifle calibers using pistol primers. Now, they were old, low pressure rounds like 38-40, 32-20 etc.

But as long as you aren't using max loads, and your gun will pop the primers, you should be fine using srp instead of spp. And here is another thread where many people have used srp in liue of spp https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/171816-small-rifle-primers-for-9mm-minor-load/

I went through thousands of round of 40S&W using Winchester small rifle primers without issue. If your load is at or near max you might back off and work back of just to be safe but I never found it made that much difference in my 40S&W loads.

The shadow knows.

durachoke said:

Given the current primer situation

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durachoke said:

By choice? What made you choose small rifle?

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As the OP mentions, in this day of limited component availability, sometimes you have to take what you can get. There have been a number of posts recently of handloaders having to work with odd combinations of components... because that's all they have.

mcb said:

If your load is at or near max you might back off and work back of just to be safe

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All things being equal, I would probably stay away from high energy powders like TiteGroup as well... instead working with something a little more forgiving, like Unique.

durachoke said:

By choice? What made you choose small rifle?

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At the time new primers were going for about $24/1000 I was able to buy Winchester small rifle from my shooting club for $15/1000 I bought two sleeves (10k) and used most of them in 40S&W.

Charlie98 said:

All things being equal, I would probably stay away from high energy powders like TiteGroup as well... instead working with something a little more forgiving, like Unique.

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I was using Titegroup at the time and never saw much change at the chrono when I made the switch from Federal small pistol (saved those for the revolver). I was not pushing it as I only had to make Major but I was pushing 180 gr bullets to ~960 fps.

mcb said:

I was using Titegroup at the time and never saw much change at the chrono when I made the switch from Federal small pistol (saved those for the revolver). I was not pushing it as I only had to make Major but I was pushing 180 gr bullets to ~960 fps.

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Well... the OP was talking 9mm, too. I've had issues with pressure spikes in 9mm myself. I would not take a max charge of TG and switch to a different primer, for example, without working it back up... and even then. To this day, I refuse to use TG with 147's...

durachoke said:

I know it's possible, depending on your gun and firing pin, but I'd like to hear if there are any who given both primers being in stock, would choose the small rifle.

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It also depends on which type of rifle primers.you plan to use...Rem 7.5 and CCi #41 have thicker/harder cups which resist piercing. Maybe your pistol will set them off..... maybe not. Federal SRP are usually good-to-go.

I've loaded some pistol calibers, including 9MM with SRP. I've used up over 2K of the Rem 6 1/2 in 32 ACP, 380, 40 S&W, 38 Special and 9MM. They worked just fine, and I didn't have to worry about using them in 223 Rem.

I have tried CCI SRP in 9MM, but they were harder to set off and wouldn't fire in my striker fired pistols. They did work fine in carbines.

The Rem 6 1/2 is for the Hornet round which is low pressure. They do work fine in most any round where the max pressure is <40k.

Burned thru 20,000 s&b 4.4 sp primers in the ar's and 9mm's. Box says to use for rifle/pistol/revolver's. Most of the ar loads with nothing more than h335/blammo ammo. The s&b primers went bang every time I hit the loud button. Same for every load I shot in 3 different 9mm's.

Don't know if I'd use sr primers in a revolver, semi-auto's no problem.

Fine Figure of a Man said:

If both are readily available, I can't imagine a reason to choose rifle primers.

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Lots of guys loading 9 Major use rifle primers for one thing.

Just loaded up the last of my 500 Remington 6 1/2 SRP in 9mm. I haven't had any issues like light primer strikes or anything like that. The 6 1/2's are pretty useless unless relegated to small pistol duty.

Loaded 200 rounds of 9 with a CCI #400 small rifle primers, extreme 124 plated round nose and 5.5 grains of Silhouette, all went bang with no problems.
Increased charge to 5.7 on 15 rounds with no signs of pressure. OAL was 1.150. Tested with Glock 17,34 and a Sig 365. Accuracy was great.
Ill set up chrono next time.

Pressure signs in the primers are going to show later than what would be useful using 400s. Chronograph is definitely the way to go when working up with those primers.

I tried CCI srp in my 9mm, .40, and 380. No problems with 9mm and 40, but lots of ftf in my 380s with CCI srp and spp. This would include my trusty LCP as well as my Diamondback and Spectrum. I even pulled the 700x from some and replaced with Titegroup, no difference. Replaced the CCI srp and spp with Federal spp and all went bang. I've never had problems with CCI until now, they've always been my preference, but I think they may be having QC problems lately with spp. I can't complain about the srp's since they're not meant for 380 and they've worked fine in my .223. But I'll be using Fed or Win in my 380s for the near future.

I read threads like this and cringe. Not because I believe it unsafe but because I would gladly trade SPP for SRP to use in my 223 loads.

I have been using rifle primers in pistols since the 1994 primer shortage.
Biggest problem is you will get some high primers putting large rifle primers in some pistol cases and it's worse if you don't clean primer pockets.
Some striker fired guns have trouble setting off rifle primers.
If a pistol can't set off a rifle primer, loose it in a boating accident.

milsurpguy said:

If a pistol can't set off a rifle primer, loose it in a boating accident.

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Or just use the correct primers.

Never had any trouble with Winchester and Federal small rifle primers in 9mm.
CCI BR 4 are hard but if hand seated will fire in a hammer gun.

On the other hand Wolf and RP small pistol were not 100%.