Small rifle primers in 40sw
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vagrantviking
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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- High River, Alberta
Only issue might be a weaker spring and a tougher primer. If they go off you should be fine. I use them in several different pistol cartridges.
Only other caveat is that they *may* be a bit hotter so if you are working with +p top end loads or have a gun that's picky about the load you should probably redo your load development.
Only other caveat is that they *may* be a bit hotter so if you are working with +p top end loads or have a gun that's picky about the load you should probably redo your load development.
What "vagrantviking" said. Additionally, you may find that the small rifle primer uses a slightly thicker gauge metal, than small pistol (and need a slightly harder strike) I just measured an S&B small pistol primer and the metal is approx. .010" thick. Also measured a CCI small rifle primer and it is .014" thick. Could be the difference between two different manufactures ? - not sure.
I have also been told that rifle primers are a bit taller/deeper than pistol. Measuring that, with my two examples, didn't prove that to be true.
Guess you could try half a dozen and see how they perform.
I have also been told that rifle primers are a bit taller/deeper than pistol. Measuring that, with my two examples, didn't prove that to be true.
Guess you could try half a dozen and see how they perform.
Those numbers are wrong. The cup face on the thinnest primers I can think of (Fed SP) are still 0.017". Manufacturers use thickness and hardness to address pressure. Stuff like CCI 450 and Rem 7.5 have .025" cups with a hard alloy. It can cause a lot of light strikes even in guns with XP springs. A lot of SR primers are suitable though. I load most all of my bulk ammo with Winchester SR primers (0.021") Everything from .380 to .454 and from .30C to 5.56 in rifles, it all works fine as long as I'm not at max pressure with certain cartridges like .454, I use Rem 7.5 in cases like that.
Large rifle are taller and also always 0.027" regardless of manufacturer as far I have have seen.
Which? Aside from the CCI 400/550 I haven't seen any confirmation of that. Some manufacturers increase the sensitivity of the priming compound so that SR primers aren't so hard to light off but they are usually a different product.
BattleRife
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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- of No Fixed Address
For the last two years I have been shooting small pistol a lot more and 5.56mm a lot less, so my primer supply was becoming SP-light and SR-heavy. I had seen some discussion on using small rifle for pistol applications, so a couple of weeks agao I loaded up some trial cartridges and the chronograph, and headed to the range.
.40 S&W data through a CZ75B. Please be careful with the units of measure.
The difference was less than I had guessed, only with Blue Dot did it look to exceed the margin of error. With Blue Dot the rifle primer increased velocity by 13.4m/s on average (about 44 fps).
.40 S&W data through a CZ75B. Please be careful with the units of measure.
The difference was less than I had guessed, only with Blue Dot did it look to exceed the margin of error. With Blue Dot the rifle primer increased velocity by 13.4m/s on average (about 44 fps).
