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Magnum Primers - In Non-Magnum Loads?

hermiemhermiem Member Posts: 261 ✭✭✭
edited June 2012 in Perry Shooter Competition Shooting and Reloading Forum
Here is a good example for keeping your eye on kids when they are reloading with you.

About a week ago my wife's grand nephew came to spend a few days with us. During his visit we went to the range, cleaned the firearms and reloaded. We loaded some .38 Special, .357 Magnum and 9mm Luger rounds. We were loading the 9mm's when I had a phone call I had to take for business. The kid told me that we were getting low on primers. He knew where they were at and I just told him to get another box or sleeve out. After we were done reloading the kid went home with mom and pop. When I was putting the reloading items away I noticed that there was a new box of Small Magnum Pistol Primers that were opened. Bottom line is that about 10 of the 200 9mm Luger rounds that were reloaded have Small Magnum Pistol Primers. The problem is that I have no idea which 10 they are. Is this a safety concern? And if so do I'm guessing that I'll have to pull the bullets on all 200 rounds?
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Comments

  • dcs shootersdcs shooters Member Posts: 10,870 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Shoot them. The magnum primers won't raise the pressure that much.
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  • CapnMidnightCapnMidnight Member Posts: 8,038 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yes, I agree.
    W.D.
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  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'd want to know how hot you are loading with regular primers and what gun you are shooting. More than likely it will be hard to tell that 10 out 200. Not such a big deal to pull a couple hundred bullets.
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  • AmbroseAmbrose Member Posts: 3,209 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Unless your loads are at the top end pressure-wise, you won't be able to tell the difference and I would shoot them. Above all, don't let this glitch taint the time you spent with the nephew!
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  • hermiemhermiem Member Posts: 261 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Nah - He's a really good kid - particularly the way kids are today. He's like 12 or 13 - really don't know for sure. He's in Boy Scouts and has worked all the way up to be a "Life Scout." (That was my highest grade I got to myself.) He's going for "the big bird" - Eagle Scout. Then when he is old enough he said that he wanted to join the Explorers. (I didn't even think that they had that group anymore.) He's great on the range - safety first! Jumps right in and gets good and dirty "cleaning the iron." Basically he's a great kid. I'm not going to mention it to anyone - other than him. (His Dad would go nuts on him and Mom will want him to give it up if they found out. (Not worth the hassels.)

    Thanks for the advice - on 2 counts!

    Best Regards,

    Mike




    quote:Originally posted by Ambrose
    Unless your loads are at the top end pressure-wise, you won't be able to tell the difference and I would shoot them. Above all, don't let this glitch taint the time you spent with the nephew!
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  • FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,279 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by dcs shooters
    Shoot them. The magnum primers won't raise the pressure that much.


    +1 WITH THE EXCEPTION of temp sensitive powders. Back off at least a grain of powder if you are shooting near or max loads in very hot weather.
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  • nemesisenforcernemesisenforcer Member Posts: 10,513 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It seems nowadays that there's less difference between magnum and standard primers than there used to be, in other words, standard primers are now "hotter" than they were years ago and the need for magnum primers has been relegated to cartridges burning a large charge of slow burning powder in a relatively narrow tube; the best example are the Weatherby magnums.
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  • perry shooterperry shooter Member Posts: 17,105 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree that unless you are at MAX load with standard primers you will not know the difference. Winchester primers are marked Standard and Magnum on the same Box.
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  • Laredo LeftyLaredo Lefty Member Posts: 13,451 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The worst those mag primers did was make some +P ammo. If your gun is a modern one go ahead and shoot'em.
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  • B17-P51B17-P51 Member Posts: 2,248 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Several years ago I aquired 6000 SR magnum primers. I have FINALLY used them up in a .223 load of 24.0 grs of Accurate Arms 2230 powder with a 55 gr FMJ in military cases. Switched to SR standard primers with no other changes and had.......no other changes. Same POI same Pressure sigms (none) and same cheap fun. Blast away!!!! As stated earier I agree with other posters that with Max loads of FAST powders could pose a problem.
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  • RCrosbyRCrosby Member Posts: 3,808 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    One more vote for the critical question being how warm the loads are in the first place. Since I rarely play with loads that are max, or even close to max, I don't worry about primers that much, but I did do some chrono work once with a SBH. Velocities with 22 grains of 2400 and standard primers (CCI 300) were virtually identical to velocities obtained with 21 grains of powder and CCI 350's. I used the two loads interchangably.
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  • king_predatorking_predator Member Posts: 37 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by hermiem
    Here is a good example for keeping your eye on kids when they are reloading with you.

    About a week ago my wife's grand nephew came to spend a few days with us. During his visit we went to the range, cleaned the firearms and reloaded. We loaded some .38 Special, .357 Magnum and 9mm Luger rounds. We were loading the 9mm's when I had a phone call I had to take for business. The kid told me that we were getting low on primers. He knew where they were at and I just told him to get another box or sleeve out. After we were done reloading the kid went home with mom and pop. When I was putting the reloading items away I noticed that there was a new box of Small Magnum Pistol Primers that were opened. Bottom line is that about 10 of the 200 9mm Luger rounds that were reloaded have Small Magnum Pistol Primers. The problem is that I have no idea which 10 they are. Is this a safety concern? And if so do I'm guessing that I'll have to pull the bullets on all 200 rounds?

    A year or so ago when primers were in severe shortage, all I could find was small pistol magnum primers for loading of 357Sig....I went ahead and loaded 50 rounds at about 5% below max and there were NO signs of high pressure. I then preceded in loading the entire batch of 500 rounds and shot them all in two days worth of training. No issues whatsoever!
    I would vote that you go ahead and shoot them as long as you have a modern autoloader...which you probably do. Just my 2 cents worth
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