Small Rifle Primers for .38 and .357

[Mr_Flintstone]

Ok, so since the Coronavirus buying panic, virtually no small pistol primers are available anywhere, and I only have 150 primers left. I do have about 300 small pistol magnums, but I also have a crapload of Winchester small rifle primers that I use for .30 carbine. Can I use these rifle primers effectively in .38 Special and/or .357 Magnum? Anybody have experience doing this?

 

[Obturation]

Take all of this for what it is, proper loading manuals do list different primers for same loads but listed components should always be used.
With that out of the way, I've been told cci sp & sr primers are the same. I have no way to confirm that but I haven't had any issue interchanging them. I always work my loads up using magnum primers because most of my loading requires them. But I'm happy to use sp,spm or sr in 357 using anything but h110. I've used #41 primers in 454 casull, no issue. I think the main one that doesn't work is lp to lr. They have different cup sizes. Only issue I think that could exist is the power of the firing pin impact, some rifle primers are pretty hard.

 

[TonyAngel]

We used to use small rifle primers in our .38 supers all the time because the titanium firing pins that were so popular would pierce pistol primers. As when changing any components, work up. Just make sure that your guns will set them off.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

Thanks. I’ll make a few rounds up later today. I don’t think there will be any primer hardness issues with my Henry. My S&W mdl 19 will probably be OK too. My Taurus 85 I’m not sure of. I’ll post back any results I find.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

OK. I made 10 test loads. 4.7 gr Unique with Winchester small rifle primers. I shot 4 in my Taurus 85, 4 in my S&W Mdl 19, and 2 in my Henry. Here are the results... The top row are from the Taurus, middle from the Smith, and bottom from the Henry. All made good strikes, and fired with the first strike. They may have been a little stouter than with small pistol primers, but that stands to reason. Rifles usually have to ignite more (and slower burning) powder.

 

[Obturation]

OK. I made 10 test loads. 4.7 gr Unique with Winchester small rifle primers. I shot 4 in my Taurus 85, 4 in my S&W Mdl 19, and 2 in my Henry. Here are the results... The top row are from the Taurus, middle from the Smith, and bottom from the Henry. All made good strikes, and fired with the first strike. They may have been a little stouter than with small pistol primers, but that stands to reason. Rifles usually have to ignite more (and slower burning) powder.
View attachment 903248

Great, now get busy loading!

 

[whughett]

I’ve used LR in 45C.

 

[FROGO207]

I have standardized all my small sized primers to SRM primers for everything but a cheapy clone striker fired 380 pistol that will not set the tougher ones off. I DID however work up loads using the magnum rifle primers so there were no surprises.

 

[TTv2]

Ok, so since the Coronavirus buying panic, virtually no small pistol primers are available anywhere, and I only have 150 primers left. I do have about 300 small pistol magnums, but I also have a crapload of Winchester small rifle primers that I use for .30 carbine. Can I use these rifle primers effectively in .38 Special and/or .357 Magnum? Anybody have experience doing this?

As of last night Cabela's had Federal pistol primers for $40 per 1000. Not as cheap as what others had them for just a month ago, but near everyone is out of primers.

There's nothing wrong with using magnum primers in leiu of standard and I'm actually thinking of stocking only small pistol magnums from now on since I use Trail Boss powder a lot and the magnum primers improve consistency and performance with that wonderful fluffy powder.

 

[mdi]

I started reloading way pre-we and did a lot of experimenting. One was using small rifle primers in my 38 Special loads. I had read that it's best to reduce powder charges and work up, and that worked for for me (158 gr. SWC over Bullseye). Since all my guns were stock there were no FTFs from lighter firing pin hits. Just being an average shooter and maybe a slightly gooder handgun marksman, I noticed no difference in performance with the rifle primed loads.

FWIW; large rifle primers are about .008" taller than large pistol primers. Some can get away with using the LR in LP cases, but some problems can arise because on primers "standing tall" (slam fires, primer protrusion problems). I only tried them in my revolvers, and it worked "OK"...

 

[TonyAngel]

OK. I made 10 test loads. 4.7 gr Unique with Winchester small rifle primers. I shot 4 in my Taurus 85, 4 in my S&W Mdl 19, and 2 in my Henry. Here are the results... The top row are from the Taurus, middle from the Smith, and bottom from the Henry. All made good strikes, and fired with the first strike. They may have been a little stouter than with small pistol primers, but that stands to reason. Rifles usually have to ignite more (and slower burning) powder.
View attachment 903248

Good deal, back up and running. Just don't try to do the same with large primers. Rifle primers are taller.