Small Pistol---- Small Rifle Primers

Radar

What is the difference between them,someone had a topic about them awhile back and i tryed to search it but never found it.The reason im wondering is because i have some spilled primers in a ammo box i droped,seems that the lg pistol and lr rifle in their 1000 rd boxes stayed ok but i had a few 100 rd primer boxes of the smalls that slid open and i mic and checked them but found no diff.

XXCross

Dimentionaly they are the same externaly. The cup is thicker on the rifle primers. Best NOT to use the pistol primers in a rifle ctg and the rifle primers may not fire reliably in a pistol with a light striker. Now you know.

Hawk Carse

I shot a good many small rifle primers in 9mm during the shortage when I wanted to save my Federal small pistols for my .38 revolver. No misfires. They are commonly used by IPSC Open shooters in their overloaded .38 Supers.

A mix might give you some funny sounds but if you are not pushing the maximum you will likely be ok.

Do not load a modern rifle round with something that even MIGHT be a pistol primer. Now if you had a .32-20...

Radar

I would be useing in 38 spl or 357 mag , guess i could try a few in the 38 unloaded and see if they go off.

RCrosby

As others have suggested, cup thickness and amount/type of priming compound are the differences; external dimensions being essentially the same. Thinner cups in higher pressure rifle rounds may be an issue and thicker cups may give inconsistent ignition in handguns due to weaker striker fall. If you haven't already, check the underside of the primers; sometimes the shape of the anvil will vary and the underlying foil may be a different color.

perry shooter

BE careful in loading straight walled pistol cases with just a primer and no powder or bullet . The case will not develope enough pressure and the primer will back out this will tie up the cylinder and then it will not rotate. then you will have to stick a steel rod down the bore and tap the case back onto the primer. No damage but a big PITA. . Many people do it ONCE not many do it twice[:o)]

Rocky Raab

With a few hundred mixed primers, I think I'd just toss them. Primers aren't scarce any more, and $3 a hundred versus the possibility of damaging a gun makes the choice easy - for me, at least.

Then thank your lucky stars the whole thing didn't go off when you dropped it. They could be scraping you off the nearby walls now ...

jonk

I'm cheap, I wouldn't toss them.

If your pistol will cap them off, use starting loads only and you'll be fine, so long as it is in reasonable sized cartridge (don't use in a .32 acp for instance).

In my case, I'd use them for mild cast bullet loads on rifles. Like my M1 carbine with cast lead and 4 gr of Red Dot (doesn't cycle, but is a very accurate little load at 25-50 yards). Lots of cast shooters use pistol primers- seem to give more consistent results in medium cased rifle rounds, pressure is within the primer's spec, and loads are similar to pistol loads.

Radar

Thanks Guys,i have been doing some sorting,as RCrosby said these have a diff color primer and are not the same brand,if im not sure i put them in a can and will throw them out or use for weak loads in the 38. Guess i wont loose much as some of the boxes have a price of 60 cents and 40 cents. Been awhile since i bought any primers i guess and i will be needing some sm pistol after this winter only about 600 left. [:(]