Magnum Primers???

NorthernCX

NorthernCX

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I've got a bunch of reloading to do, and a brick of primers (yes, an unopened brick), but the primers are magnums and I'm reloading for 3 non-magnum calibers. Namely, 7mm-08, 30-06 and 45-70.

How much difference are the magnum primers going to make? Can they safely be used in all three of those calibers? They're Winchester, I haven't been able to find anyone else that needs/wants them, and I haven't been able to find standard primers anywhere in my travels in the last year or so, so I'm thinking I'm stuck with them.
 
I use CCI250's in both my son's 7-08 and my 30.06 all the time. So long as you work up the load slow you should be just fine. On your colder hunting days the mag primers will likely be the better choice.
 
as long as you work up your loads, you're fine- the magnums are really menat for "heavy " charges and ball powders as they burn "hotter" - mof, they're RECOMENDED for ball powders- IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW HOT YOUR NORMAL LOAD IS- if it's near the top end of the spectrum, you MAY experience pressure signs, and you need to back down- if it's a medium or light load, you should be fine-if memory serves, winchester went to a magnum formulation a while back now,for everything- which makes sense, as they were loading ball powder almost exclusively anyway- ww748, 760, etc- if you have the LYMAN manual there's a section in the back( the part that NOBODY bothers with) that does a study in 30/06 on the difference between standard and magnum primers in 10 shot strings- or there used to be- it showed the difference in pressure with just the primer strength changes- you could get a "spike" if you didn't drop the powder back a notch WITH HOT LOADS
 
Thanks, that sounds like what I was thinking... I'm starting with the 'Start Grains' loads and working up from there to begin with.

These wouldn't have been my first choice, but I bought them about a year or so ago when NOBODY had primers of any sort so I bought these (cleaned the guy out; he didn't have ANY primers left when I was done) hoping they'd either be useable or tradeable.
 
Changing componants, when starting over like you intend is sometimes a good idea! You may find a sweet spot with these mag primers that you never got with standard.
 
i use ww748 powder for ALMOST everything and i'm SUPPOSED to use MAGNUM primers- but MAGNUM primers are 3 dollars more/thousand- therefore i use standard-i'm cheap that way-and with winchester, like i said, it doesn't matter anymore
 
A gun store sold me a couple bricks of magnum Winchester LR primers when I wanted regular. I have been using these in the same loads for some time now and have seen no difference in performance. I had also used regular primers with powders like Win 748 and no difference there either. Shoot away.
 
hk33ka1 said:
A gun store sold me a couple bricks of magnum Winchester LR primers when I wanted regular. I have been using these in the same loads for some time now and have seen no difference in performance. I had also used regular primers with powders like Win 748 and no difference there either. Shoot away.
Click to expand...

X2. I have never noticed the slightest differnce, in any load, whether I used a standard, or a magnum primer.
 
To those people who get so concerned about magnum primers, like have to have them in cold weather, must have them for ball powder, have to use them for large magnum rifles, need them for large doses of H4831, etc, how do you think the reloaders got along, with all the above conditions, for all those years before magnum primers came out? And how about all the factory ammunition, how did it manage to shoot in extreme cold weather?
So, when did magnum primers become available to handloaders? As compared to the metalic case shoooting world, magnum primers have only been available for a moderately recent time.
Here is a copy from Jack O"Connor's book of the Rifle and Shotguns, copyright 1961, showing primers available to the handloader. Where do you see magnums?
primer006.jpg

Here is a copy of the Ellwood Epps catalogue of 1962-63, showing the CIL primers. Oops, no magnums!
primer004.jpg

And here is a copy of the 1964-65 Ellwood Epps catalogue, showing the CIL primers. Oh happy days, handloaders can have joy for ever after, because they can now get CIL magnum rifle primers!!!!!
primer005.jpg
 
Guess I'll go ahead and use the magnums...

H4831, the only reason I got them is because that's all that was available and I figured (apparently rightly) there'd be some way to use them. And the reason I asked was to find out if there was any real difference in pressures that I should know about before I started loading them up. I'm going to have to use them in my wife's new 7mm-08, and don't want to get off on the wrong foot by blowing something up in her face (an exaggeration, but you get the picture).

I'd rather look a little foolish and be careful than not be careful and look stupid.
 
Magnum primers in all my hunting guns except with anything cast.They are recommended for ball powders and sub-zero weather conditions............Harold
 
For what its worth, Handloader magazine had an informative article on the development of the most accurate .308 load for a Sako-TRG - probably the best I have ever read in terms of what was done to identifiy the best combo of handload components - systematic and very scientific. In any case, the most accurate primer tested was CCI250 - yes, a magnum primer, and yes - even more effective then the Benchrest Primers tested (e.g., F210M, BR-2, etc.). Powder used was Varget.
 
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