The question: Was the introduction and sale of Dominion primers a one and done deal? Are they still available?
The story:
A recent hobby, Cowboy action Shooting, has opened a whole new chapter in my reloading experience. On the surface it seems simple, just load to about 750 fps and you're good to go. However, for calibers such as 357 and 44 Rem Mag, these velocities are a bit lower than most manuals have for a starting load. At the end of the day, or along the way is more like it, I discovered that the primer brand can make a big difference. Not that any one primer is the best, but a specific load may work better with one primer than another.
I chrono my loads to check for proper (and complete) ignition. I compare velocities and am looking for loads with good stats, low Extreme Spread (Es) and Standard Deviation (Sd).
The data has been interesting, and puzzling, to say the least. Changing the primer can make a huge difference. Average velocities can change 30+ fps and Es can change from 100 fps to 40 fps, with only a primer change. In the 44 Magnum, switching to using a Remington 2 1/2, (Trail Boss and a swaged Speer LSWC), raised my average velocity by app 35 fps and I had about a 40% decrease in the Es and Sd. Significant difference in my books. BTW the other 2 primers were CCI, LP and LPM. Interestingly, because the Rem 2 1/2 rarely wins any of these tests, I felt compelled to repeat it, same results.
In the 357, I had a very decent load, but it seemed to work better in some brands of brass than others. No matter what primer I tried, it was always a somewhat lesser performer in Federal brass. A CCI SPM worked best in GECO, a Federal SP primer worked in Blazer brass, and so on. Bottom line, I couldn't seem to find a perfect match for the Federal brass.
Then, as luck would have it, my brother gave me 900 Dominion Small Rifle primers. Small rifle primers are very similar to Magnum Small Pistol primers, depending on brand. Somewhere I read that the CCI SPM primer and their SR primer are the same. I tried the Dominion SR primer in the Federal brass, and it was a charm. Average velocity of 800 fps, Es = 30 and Sd = 8.5.
I'm using up my stash of 132 gr cast bullets that were just too cheap to pass up, and 4.2 gr of Universal powder (almost like Unique). The bullets came in boxes of 1000, marked 54820, that's it. They are hard(ish), app 14.3 BHN, and half (at least) are light or undersized. I weight sort and visually inspect, if I don't, I end up cleaning lead out of the gun(s). I just use the culls to cast other bullets.
In the mean time, it would be nice to know if I can find anymore Dominion SR primers. Unfortunately I never found a load for the Dominion LR primers I bought.
Apology; Sorry for the Sunday morning ramble.
The story:
A recent hobby, Cowboy action Shooting, has opened a whole new chapter in my reloading experience. On the surface it seems simple, just load to about 750 fps and you're good to go. However, for calibers such as 357 and 44 Rem Mag, these velocities are a bit lower than most manuals have for a starting load. At the end of the day, or along the way is more like it, I discovered that the primer brand can make a big difference. Not that any one primer is the best, but a specific load may work better with one primer than another.
I chrono my loads to check for proper (and complete) ignition. I compare velocities and am looking for loads with good stats, low Extreme Spread (Es) and Standard Deviation (Sd).
The data has been interesting, and puzzling, to say the least. Changing the primer can make a huge difference. Average velocities can change 30+ fps and Es can change from 100 fps to 40 fps, with only a primer change. In the 44 Magnum, switching to using a Remington 2 1/2, (Trail Boss and a swaged Speer LSWC), raised my average velocity by app 35 fps and I had about a 40% decrease in the Es and Sd. Significant difference in my books. BTW the other 2 primers were CCI, LP and LPM. Interestingly, because the Rem 2 1/2 rarely wins any of these tests, I felt compelled to repeat it, same results.
In the 357, I had a very decent load, but it seemed to work better in some brands of brass than others. No matter what primer I tried, it was always a somewhat lesser performer in Federal brass. A CCI SPM worked best in GECO, a Federal SP primer worked in Blazer brass, and so on. Bottom line, I couldn't seem to find a perfect match for the Federal brass.
Then, as luck would have it, my brother gave me 900 Dominion Small Rifle primers. Small rifle primers are very similar to Magnum Small Pistol primers, depending on brand. Somewhere I read that the CCI SPM primer and their SR primer are the same. I tried the Dominion SR primer in the Federal brass, and it was a charm. Average velocity of 800 fps, Es = 30 and Sd = 8.5.
I'm using up my stash of 132 gr cast bullets that were just too cheap to pass up, and 4.2 gr of Universal powder (almost like Unique). The bullets came in boxes of 1000, marked 54820, that's it. They are hard(ish), app 14.3 BHN, and half (at least) are light or undersized. I weight sort and visually inspect, if I don't, I end up cleaning lead out of the gun(s). I just use the culls to cast other bullets.
In the mean time, it would be nice to know if I can find anymore Dominion SR primers. Unfortunately I never found a load for the Dominion LR primers I bought.
Apology; Sorry for the Sunday morning ramble.
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