Using magnum primers when not called for

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casey b

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I had a friend give me some 45 bullets that he reloaded the other day. He has been reloading for a long time and had the recipe with the bullets. The only problem was he used magnum primers. Will these be safe to shoot or should I break them down and put regular primers in them?
 
If the charge of powder is a mid range pressure load or less it should be ok.
What is the powder and charge and caliber being loaded?

NCsmitty
 
Yeah if it is a light load it will be ok. But if you don't know the charge he put in them, I wouldn't shoot them.
 
It was 9.8 grains of AA #5 And a 185 grain hornady xtp bullet. I found this recipe in the hornady hand book but it is on the high end The primers were federal magnum primers.
 
I use Winchester Large Primers (WLP) for both .45ACP target loads and .44 Mag loads with no issues. The Winchester Pistol primers state on the box that they can be used for both regular and magnum loads.
 
The other day, I bought 1K of Federal magnums for my S&W .40 because my store was out of regular sp primers. I will shoot them with 5g of W231 under a 180g bullet. Since I have been using small rifle primers with this same load, I feel safe. But 5g is the recommended starting load in Lyman #48. I'm probably not going to go any higher. I'm thinking that your rounds will shoot just fine...maybe a little louder.

Historian
 
casey b, I checked your load at the Accurate site and it looks like the listed Max load is 10.2gr with the 185gr XTP. That's a little less than 5% off max with the load that you listed.
It will be a stiff load but should be safe in a firearm in good condition.
I would try a few rounds and see how they shoot.

NCsmitty
 
i would think they would be fine. i loaded up some +p loads that were shooting 1156 fps with 230 fmj's. they were hot enough to ruin the cases. but the (polymer) pistol was fine. and, NO, i will not share the load. to much chance of a problem. i wont even shoot them again.
 
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