Small primer-v- small mag primer

[Captain Quack]

What about small rifle magnum primers? my wife has a .38/.357 and I shoot 9mm. Would they be safe? With the shortage I'm trying to use what I have on hand from the old days before I quit reloading.

Captain Quack.

 

[Walkalong]

Probably, at less than max loads, pistols may have issues setting them off.

 

[Captain Quack]

Oh I always run low or medium loads. 115 for the 9mm and 148 for the .38/.357.

Captain Quack.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I load .30 Mauser pistol cartridges for Black Powder Cartridge matches using my C96 pistol.
I usually use CCI small rifle primers and CCI small pistol magum primers, 1.0cc Triple7 FFG, .312 85gr XTP bullets. I want my loads to fire, eject the empty, cock the hammer, feed the next round, without the bolt impacting the bolt stop.
Awhile back, I ran out of small rifle primers and switched to small pistol for one match (20 rounds). Failure to eject and failure to feed. There's that much difference between small pistol primer and small rifle primer.
I have since found out CCI small rifle primer is equivalent to CCI small pistol magnum primer. So I will presume that small rifle magnum primer would be a step up from small pistol magnum primer and two steps above small pistol primer.
Bottom line: be very cautious substituting primers during this drought.

 

[Bottom Gun]

I think it's very interesting that CCI says their SPM and SR primers are interchangeable. That's quite helpful.

 

[Walkalong]

I'm not sure that's correct, does anyone have that straight from CCI?

 

[Bottom Gun]

I'm not sure that's correct, does anyone have that straight from CCI?

I assumed that John Barsness got that info from CCI before he published his article but you make a good point. It's worth checking twelve year old information in case changes were made.

I've substituted CCI and Winchester SR primers for SP primers quite a few times in the past with good results in various calibers. I am, however, unsure if SPM primers will work in other applications.
I have some Winchester SPM primers. Does anyone know if they can be used in moderate rifle loads?

 

[Bottom Gun]

I have zero experience with magnum primers. I never used them in my .357, .44 or .338 Win Magnum loads as I never saw the need for them. I was recently given a small quantity of Win SPM primers and have been researching them a bit, which is why I’m following this thread. This brought a past experience to mind.

A while back, I was experimenting with some varmint loads in .357 Sig and loaded some 90 gr HP bullets with AA#9 powder, which is my powder of choice for this caliber. I was expecting velocity to be in the 1600 fps range but was shocked when my chronograph read velocities in the 1100-1200 fps range, much slower than velocities I was getting with heavier bullets using this same powder.
I suspected I was getting incomplete ignition due to the slow burn rate of AA#9 coupled with the barrel length of the P226 and P229.

I thought a faster powder might solve this issue and tried some loads using Bullseye powder.
That was exactly what it needed. I started recording velocities in the mid 1600’s as I had previously expected.

Thinking back on that experience, I’m now wondering if using a magnum primer with that 90 gr/AA#9 combination might have also been a solution to that incomplete ignition issue.

 

[AgPilot]

Have used SRP in the with 9mm and 38/357. No issues. Used both SPP and SMPP in My 357 revolver. Can’t tell the difference. Normally only use what I’m supposed to on Primers but played around with some loads to see.
Depends on how good of striker your pistol has is what I’m told. The revolver always seems to pop em off good. Shot over 100 rounds this morning in My 9mm Sig with SRP. Only issue is they don’t seem to eject case as far. They were on the low end of charge. Gonna up the powder to see how they do. Very accurate tho!