Unknown Primer

[Hondo 60]

OK guys & gals - What Would You Do?

A friend, not knowing the danger, bought a little over 250 reloads in 9 mm.

When several wouldn't chamber, and those that shot gave a 5-6" spread, he stopped & brought them to me.

I even ran them thru a LFC die.
Still wouldn't consistently plunk.
So I tore 250 apart. melted the lead & threw away the powder
(I didn't have any idea on what powder it was)

So now I'm left with an unknown primer.

Here's the big Q... What to do with the primers???
All I know for sure is that they aren't CCI 500s
(I've got lots of 500s & the priming color isn't the same.)

Are they small pistol? magnum? small rifle? I dunno!

 

[MutinousDoug]

They are almost certainly safe to use as pistol primers. If they turn out to be small rifle primers, it's unlikely you could tell the difference on target.
I would load 10 or so and see how they shoot.

 

[Jim Watson]

Assuming they are well seated and you are not going for utter maximum loads, it does not matter much. I loaded 9mm with small rifle primers during Obama Panic I shortages. A lot of USPSA Open guns get small rifle primers to disguise pressure signs from overloaded 9mm and .38 super.

Size them with the decapping pin out of the die and load 'em up. As Doug says, try it on a small batch first.

 

[GLOOB]

to disguise pressure signs

To be fair, they know full well their loads are overpressure. The rifle primer is to prevent primer piercing. Some SPP cups can't handle near rifle pressures.

 

[1KPerDay]

Yep. 9mm Major is by definition "overloaded."

 

[quartermaster]

I would de-cap and chuck them. A little effort would be involved unless you were going to reload them in a progressive, but the cost of the primers is nothing.

Just my 2 cents QM

 

[Jesse Heywood]

If you really have to know, hang a piece of paper from the ceiling and compare the unknown primer against them.

If they were mine I would load them 10% down and work up a load.

 

[FROGO207]

^^^^^^ Yep I would use a starting load and work up to find what works with those primers and load em up. Just like any other component substitution you would make ( this should be done always!). You have plenty to do load development with and lots to load after. Do not over think this.

 

[Walkalong]

Yep. 9mm Major is by definition "overloaded."

True, but the rifle primer isn't the reason. It's just there for the pressure.

 

[joem1945]

Primers are cheap. It's not worth the aggravation for me.

 

[TimSr]

I've have never in my entire life heard of a catastophic failure caused by using a magnum or small rifle primer in a small pistol load. Ever.

Load 'em up low to midrange on the 9mm scale, and the worst possible thing that could happen is they might vary in speed or accuracy, or they don't go off. More than likely, you won't know much difference. If you are plinking or target shooting, does it matter that much?

 

[LiveLife]

Are they small pistol? magnum? small rifle? I dunno!

If you know the color of primer cup, sealant/barrier and anvil color/shape, you may determine the brand of primer but not whether standard vs magnum unless factory used different color sealant/barrier and you have examples to compare. As others posted, using mid-high range lower pressure loads with powders that will still produce accuracy (like W231/HP-38/BE-86) is an option you can use to "buffer" against if primers are magnum primers.

CCI and older Winchester primer cups are chrome/silver in color but newer Winchester primer cups are brass colored. Winchester primers have red colored sealant with brass anvil and blunt tip with small hole at the underside of the tip. Tula primers have chrome/silver colored cups and pink colored sealant/barrier with brass anvil with round tip and large hole at the underside of the tip . PMC primers have brass colored cups and bluish sealant/barrier with blue colored anvil and blunt tip with large hole at the underside of the tip . Magtech primers have chrome/silver colored cups and yellow sealant/barrier with silver colored anvil and pointed tip with small hole at the underside of the tip. I guess you can remove the anvils and further compare them with the pictures below as different brand used different shape/colored anvils but won't tell you whether they are magnum primers unless factory used different colored sealant/barrier from standard primers.

CCI SR primer cup is chrome/silver in color while Tula SR is copper colored and Tula .223 is brass colored. Sorry, can't remember the sealant/barrier colors or anvil shape other than CCI/Tula SR anvils are brass colored while Tula .223 anvil is copper colored.

 

[RussellC]

Nice pics. win small rifle are green where the small pistol, as bds photo shows, are reddish....I cant remember wha color the goo in CCI small rifle is, but have some at home.

Russellc

 

[1KPerDay]

True, but the rifle primer isn't the reason. It's just there for the pressure.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say that it was. It's there BECAUSE the amount of powder already is well over "max." As Gloob pointed out, the rifle primers are a necessity, not to "disguise" pressure signs.

 

[mdi]

In my estimation it's "much ado about nuttin'". Resize w/o the decapping stem, reload and shoot. Primers are no longer cheap nor easy to find so tossing 250 ain't a good idea to me (I'm down to about 1000 Winchester SP primers!). Use starting loads and if the primers are Magnum or Small Rifle there'll be no problems...

 

[Sunray]

Why melt the bullets?
The priming colour means nothing. Highly unlikely to be anything but small pistol anyway.
Like mdi says, I'd have just pulled the bullets pitched the powder and reloaded. Even if they are small rifle, the primer isn't going to damage anything.

 

[Dudedog]

Priming color can help you identify the primer so I think it means something.
Most likely SP but I would not say "Highly" I would put the the odds for SP at about 3 to 1 but I'm not a gambler, and don't gamble with reloading.
That said the hottest would be SRM and while not ideal should not pose a danger given a workup.
I would load start charge and test, work up if desired.
They should be usable.