magnum pistol primers

bwa

Gentlemen,Under what circumstances are magnum primers necessary, or at least much to be preferred over standard large pistol primers?

drawn

When following load data that requires magnum primers. Especially if your new to reloading.

ericthered

Almost never. I have talked to a lot of guys who reload, and magnum primers just increase the velocity something like 25 to 50 fps. The problem is that you can mix them up accidentally with normal primers. This can push a load into overpressure. I never use magnum primers for anything, it makes things more complicated for no particular reason. On the other hand, if the manuals REQUIRE a magnum primer for that particular cartridge, then you're stuck.I knew a guy who had a friend make him some hot loads, and they had big overpressure signs. Turns out the the friend had used his usual load but put magnum primers on by accident because it was 357 magnum ammo. Easy to get confused with lots of loads in your personal list.Hope that helps.

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thats'me

Iconoclast

I have seen little benefit to using them even when the loading manuals specify them. But have never loaded any of the really big handgun rounds (e.g., .454 Casull, etc.), so there may be a practical use. Regular primers work just fine in .44 Mag for me.

Nate

FYI, the 454 uses a small rifle primer, need a little more power to get all that power to touch off.