What is the difference between magnum primer and regular?

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Sig_1959

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What is the difference between magnum primer and regular? I am also trying to find out who sells small pistol primers in Ontario? Looks like Lebaron is always out of stock.
Thanks
 
very little. With the primer shortage alot of guys are using magnum primers in place of reg primers with not difference. I have been doing this with my 9mm and just finished a box. No noticeable difference, so i never bothered to chrono the rounds but apparently there is a little more velocity.
 
Use what your manual says, if you are to use magnum primers in standard primer loadsI would use the starting load myself but have never tried and don't suggest it.
 
Stony said:
Use what your manual says, if you are to use magnum primers in standard primer loadsI would use the starting load myself but have never tried and don't suggest it.
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i would love to but you try finding small pistol primers now adays. I bought the magnum primers, and started working up my loads again but guess what I ended up using the exact same load. There is no noticeable difference, and no signs of pressure, as I am already using light loads. The chrono could prolly tell us the truth, and there are many articles online that desribe slight differences.

Don't be scared to try something outside of the manual, just be sure to work your way up from the bottom. There are alot of guys using loads that are outside prescibed limits in manuals with no harm. COAL is something I play with quite abit and sometimes my manuals would disagree but I adjust my loads and work them up. Just use common sense if you have some, if not you should stick to the manual.
 
With rifles, I have never noticed the slightest bit of difference in pressure, or anything else, regardless of what the primer was.
The loading charts and information never used to even mention the primer. For any given calibre, the standard loading charts showed three things, kind of powder, weight of bullet and powder charge. Most of them showed only one charge of powder. That is, no starting load, just the standard, or what they now call "maximun," load.
I loaded for quite a number of years with this type of loading charts. Then any company that printed loading manuals got lawyers involved, and every kind of caution, for real or imagined dangers, was written into them. The newer reloaders think all this is written in stone and and won't improvise, or try anything else. I really don't see how they can enjoy the hobby of reloading.
 
A couple or three years back John Barsness wrote an article about pressure testing with primer changes. He was doing it with gunmaker Charlie Sisk using Sisk's piezo pressure monitor. If I recall, they used 3 different primers including one magnum primer using identical loads otherwise. The pressures recorded varied from just below 55000 psi to nearly 70000psi. This from memory as I'm not inclined to go digging through a few hundred magazines to find the article. What really caught my attention was their statement that they could see no visual difference in the fired cases to indicate that great a pressure difference. Can't recall if they did much checking with micrometers following eyeballing.

I'm a bit leary about thinking there is no difference as a result of the article and prefer to do a new work up whenever I change a component.
 
sig 1959 you may wish to try elwood epp's just north of orrilla for the pistol primers and to my limited knowledge the difference between magnum and regular primers is about 3 to 4 grains give or take of powder depending on which powder you are using.
 
stocker said:
A couple or three years back John Barsness wrote an article about pressure testing with primer changes. He was doing it with gunmaker Charlie Sisk using Sisk's piezo pressure monitor. If I recall, they used 3 different primers including one magnum primer using identical loads otherwise. The pressures recorded varied from just below 55000 psi to nearly 70000psi. This from memory as I'm not inclined to go digging through a few hundred magazines to find the article. What really caught my attention was their statement that they could see no visual difference in the fired cases to indicate that great a pressure difference. Can't recall if they did much checking with micrometers following eyeballing.

I'm a bit leary about thinking there is no difference as a result of the article and prefer to do a new work up whenever I change a component.
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This is pretty outrageous my freind. The SAMMI specs for 9mm are 35000psi. I don't know what caliber has pressure that high but they seem pretty ridicuous. I understand they prolly weren't loading 9mm at those pressures but regardless of caliiber, or what kind of powder you are saying pressure increased by 15000psi for a magnum primer. So by this statement I should be cutting my powder charge in half as a magnum primer could increase my case pressure by 15000psi. I have not changed my loads. I am goin to have to ask you to look back at your articles, because this is not possible.
 
64A-5 said:
sig 1959 you may wish to try elwood epp's just north of orrilla for the pistol primers and to my limited knowledge the difference between magnum and regular primers is about 3 to 4 grains give or take of powder depending on which powder you are using.
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Again this is not likely as I have been shooting 4.5 grains of bullseye in my 45, and 5 grains of powerpistol in my 9mm, and have used magnum primers in both without noticing any pressure signs or performance differences. I know what 3/4 grains does to my wrist when I load up some +p hollowpoints.

Lets stick to what we know and not what we have heard guys. I am not trying to be a #### or tell a newb to do something dangerous but if you scare him away from using magnum primers he may not get to shoot his gun till next year sometime when we see some primers. Although it is prolly hard to find magnum small pistol primers anyhow cuz all the reloaders who have some sense have bought them and are using them right now.
 
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It was a rifle cartridge that was being pressure tested by Sisk and Barsness. A 300 Win Mag specifically. I mentioned it only to show the extremes that may be encountered with primer changes although I would not expect anything like that degree of change with a pistol primer. Sorry to bring confusion by not making it clear. Pressures were 55,800, 63,800 and 70,100 using CCI BR2, Federal 215M and WLRM respectively. The article is in the June 2004 edition of Handloader.
 
The American Rifleman did a similar test years ago with the the 30-06 being test cartridge of choice. They got variations of 10,000 PSI with primer swaps, often with no coresponding increase in velocity on the chronograph.
 
H4831 said:
With rifles, I have never noticed the slightest bit of difference in pressure, or anything else, regardless of what the primer was.
The loading charts and information never used to even mention the primer. For any given calibre, the standard loading charts showed three things, kind of powder, weight of bullet and powder charge. Most of them showed only one charge of powder. That is, no starting load, just the standard, or what they now call "maximun," load.
I loaded for quite a number of years with this type of loading charts. Then any company that printed loading manuals got lawyers involved, and every kind of caution, for real or imagined dangers, was written into them. The newer reloaders think all this is written in stone and and won't improvise, or try anything else. I really don't see how they can enjoy the hobby of reloading.
Click to expand...

+1

In my 300 win mag, I use whatever I have in my stash. I've never noticed any kind of difference.
 
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