Large Rifle Magnum primers in non-magnum chamberings.

"...so many shooters..." Bit of both. The term 'magnum' is and has always been a marketing term.
Magnum primers have nothing whatever to do with the name of a cartridge. They're about the powder used. Some powders are harder to ignite than others. Magnum primers burn a bit hotter for a bit longer than standard primers and are for igniting those powders. You only need 'em if your manual says to use 'em. They help a bunch with cold weather shooting too. Some powders are harder to light in cold weather.
You won't have any issues with your load, but you should work up the load again.
 
H4831 said:
It must be the advertising hype. Otherwise, how could so many shooters get so much wrong information, or lack of information, on primers!
If primers are tested in a lab, some will show more, and/or longer, fire than others. Usually it is the magnum primers that show as being the hottest.
But in real life, there is no real difference between standard and magnum primers, either in rifle or pistols. That is, a hand loader is unable to detect which primer it is, that is in his cartridge.
Some will say that you "Must" use a magnum primer with powder such as H4831 and some ball powders. Let's look at the facts. War surplus powders, including H4831 and the various Hodgdon ball powders, were on the market and hand loaded very extensively, for fifteen years before magnum primers were invented! IMR ball powders had been around a lot longer than that, all being lit with standard primers.
When magnum primers came along, we tried them. And since then I have used them interchangeably in rifles and in 357 and 44 magnum revolvers, and have been unable to detect any difference in the loads, of whether they were fired up by a standard, or a magnum primer.
I have chronographed identical, hot loads, of both rifle and revolver, and was unable to tell by the chrono results, which loads had the magnum primers in them.
Oh well, it gives lots of discussion on the gun nutz!
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And that, Ladies is quoted for truth. Here endeth the lesson.
 
I used to load large batches of 308 Win match ammo (40,000 at a time) Sometimes there was problems in getting that many identical primers of the type I wanted, so we had to use something else.

Going from federal 210M (match) primers to Winchester standard primers added 20 fps to the load. SD was about the same. I would not have hesitated to use magnum rifle primers if I had to. It would do no harm. It would have added slightly to the velocity, but my measuring equipent would not have been able to drop the load by the 0.1 gr indicated.

On the other hand, if I had been loading a large dose of ball powder that called for a magnum primer, I would not have been happy about having to switch to a standard Federal. I would expect ignition problems. I load a 223 round with ball powder that fails to ignite about 1/100 times if I don't use a magnum primer.

If I had to switch, i would use a Winchester primer.
 
I have used standard and mag primers in 45 acp over a chronograph enough (many thousands) times to be absolutely certain that it adds approximately 20 fps with mag primers - no question. I have records of all velocities and SDs.
 
An early experience of mine was with a 270 and H450 powder using standard primers. The results weren't what I expected and Looking down the barrel after shooting there were Particules of what appeared to be unburned powder in the bore. Switching to magnum primers rectified both problems. I have since learned that H450 was hard to ignite but snow I use Magnum primers for ball powder and heavy charges of slow burning powder I will not change.
Neil
 
track said:
I follow what the reloading manuals mention, after all they are the experts, not opinions on talk forums.
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Awww.... Isn't that cute!

And you deal with differences between manuals how, perchance?
Or between different editions of the same manual even?
It's all opinions, until you put load to rifle.

The stuff in the reloading manuals is simply a pretty safe guide, not the be-all to end all. Definitely not the final word.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
Awww.... Isn't that cute!

And you deal with differences between manuals how, perchance?
Or between different editions of the same manual even?
It's all opinions, until you put load to rifle.

The stuff in the reloading manuals is simply a pretty safe guide, not the be-all to end all. Definitely not the final word.

Cheers
Trev
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Differences between manuals?? There's more tahn one? More than likely he only has the one. Why would you need more than one?

Buy one manual, only load using the specified case manufacturer, primer, powder, and bullet. Deviate from this and your #### might fall off. Doesn't matter if you can't get the components, you CANNOT LOAD THAT ROUND!

Why bother reloading if you are going to create cartridges that cannot out-perform factory rounds, better he just sticks to factory. I mean, THEY ARE THE EXPERTS, right?
 
track said:
I follow what the reloading manuals mention, after all they are the experts, not opinions on talk forums.
Click to expand...
OPINIONS!! My friend, many people on here can back up their " opinions" with more facts, real-life experiences, and anecdotal "fer instances", along with scientific background than you could handle. Why, some of them may even be considered "experts" in their own right.

If you have half a clue, you can quickly sort out who's who around here.

Pfft, opinions...
 
The U.S. military uses a lot of ball powders in their ammunition and they use magnum type primers. Basically all single and double base powders are the same and the size of the kernel and the deterrent coating determines the burn rate. Slower burning powders have more deterrent coatings and are harder to ignite and that is why magnum primers are used.

The primer is your spark plug and the powder is your fuel and engines use different heat range spark plugs and different octane fuels .

I have a Winchester 30-30 Trapper carbine with a 16 1/2 inch barrel and if I don't use magnum primers I will have unburnt powder in the barrel. Meaning even barrel length and primer type will effect how the powder burns.

The software Quickload will give the amount of propellant burnt for each listed powder and barrel length and the type primer used is important.

The Sierra reloading manual has a section on primers and it states that magnum primers should be used with ball powders or when large amounts of slow burning powders are used.

I strongly disagree with H4831 statement and if you simply read the front part of your reloading manuals primer types and usage are well explained.

Look at the photos in the link below of the visual primer flash and ask yourself if all primers are the same.
I'm sorry H4831 but lab results and chronograph testing results disprove your statement and the photos below more than prove this.

Primers - Large Rifle Primer Study
http://riflemansjournal.########.com/2009/06/primers-large-rifle-primer-study.html
 
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