Magnum Primers?

[deerhunter61]

I am relatively new to reloading and since it has become quite difficult to get reloading supplies I have a question relative to primers. I stocked up a while back on primers and when I did I went ahead and bought some magnum primers for two of my rifles. I have not reloaded much for them because I am deer hunting with rifles that are not magnums so I have barely touched the Magnum primers. I am running low on Large Rifle primers and have not found them to be in stock any where so my question is what would happen if I used Large Rifle Magnum primers when I run out of Large Rifle primers in rifles that are not magnum rifles?

Also if I can finally find some large rifle primers that are not the ones that I used working up my loads how much would they affect my groups?

Thanks,

 

[Ben Shepherd]

The magnum or standard designation in primers has nothing to do with wether the caliber is a "magnum" and everything to do with the specific powder you are burning.

Check your manuals carefully and you'll see what I'm talking about. As a general(not absolute) rule, ball powders get lit by magnum primers, and extruded or 'stick' powders get lit by standard primers.

What powder(s) are you using?

 

[loadedround]

You can use magnum primers in non magnum rifle and pistol loads. The magnum primers will just give you a slightly hotter flash or burn. Most recommendations are to take your standard load and reduce it by 5% and work it back up watching for the usual pressure signs plus your grouping. Another advantage of magnum primers is that they will give you a hotter spark in sub freezing weather.

 

[Grumulkin]

Different powders sometimes show a preference for primer but I've not found ball vs stick to be a significant determining factor. Of more pertinence would be the particular cartridge you're shooting.

From using CCI, Federal, Winchester and Remington large rifle and large rifle magnum primers in a wide variety of cartridges with a wide variety of powders I know that in cartridges the case size of 308 Winchester and larger you can use them interchangeably with the exception of Remington primers. If the load was worked up with Remington primers, you should reduce the load by 1 or 2 grains and work back up since Remington primers seem a little cooler than the others.

 

[sonier]

ive used small pistol, and small pistol magnum for my 357 mag. non of which i could determine best accuracy, it shot all of them fine and reliable