Large pistol primers in 45-70

H

Heddok

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I was curious so I loaded up 20 rounds of 45-70 with a 425 gr cast bullet and 36.5 gr of IMR-4198. This is a light load that I previously chronoed at 1498 fps from my Marlin 1895. 10 rounds were primed with Fed 210 LR primers and 10 rounds with Fed 150 Large Pistol primers.

Today it was +8 degrees and the ammo was at ambient temperature. Alternating between the two I could detect no differences in felt recoil and all went off just fine. No hangfires or any evidence of ignition problems. I was shooting offhand at some gongs so no accuracy testing but I had more hits with LP primer groups and left me with the impression that I wouldn't be able to tell the two loads apart if they weren't labelled.

I did this out of curiosity and offer it just as a small data point. Given that I have 5000 LP primers I may pursue this further with chrono and formal accuracy testing.

Brad
 
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Cool. Handloader's Digest 13th edition has an article about .45-70 Marlin the author used CCI 350 he claimed high pressure signs are more readily apparent compared to large rifle primers.
 
I tried a few Lrg Pistol with IMR4064 and Sierra 168 gr in a .308, powder was old so just a run to burn up some components and break in a barrel
Velocity seemed on par, only thing unusual was there seemed to be more black patches through the barrel, no powder kernels just more soot(?) maybe?
Nothing to compare to as the powder is done, now onto CFE223 with CCI Lrg Magnum Pistol
 
remington jim said:
Billy Why Large Magnum pistol primers ? Because you have them OR ? RJ
Click to expand...

I know where he's coming from with "trying" the LMP primers.

You do it yourself when you experiment with loading components to see how well they will work in a specific firearm.

I use magnum primers in all of my black powder cartridges when using black powder in them, it helps to keep velocities consistent.

Not much if any difference in velocities between the two on larger capacity cases, but there is less fouling as well, so maybe slightly more efficient.
 
remington jim said:
Billy Why Large Magnum pistol primers ? Because you have them OR ? RJ
Click to expand...

thats right J. Had them set aside to go on a gunshow table, so pulled them into active duty instead
actually even tried a few regular pistol in a few 308 loads, speeds were pretty consistent but not much of a test when not compared to anything, just burning up old powder and bullets for s&g's
 
I use lots pistol primers in 45-70, haven't had any issues to date , they do seat shallow but as long as your firing pin protrusion is good no worries. for very light plinking loads I use standard LP primers, for a little hotter stuff I use LP Magnum idea is the primer has a little tougher/thinker cup than standard, therefore reducing the chance of piercing).
 
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