Any body out there can tell me what the difference is between Winchester small rifle and Winchester large rifle primers? I have inherited both and I load for 22-250, 270, 30-06, 308, 300 Win Mag and usually use Federal or CCI so not familiar with what calibers should be loaded with the Win small rifle and what calibers with the Win Lrg rifle primers. Got any ideas?
Winchester Primers, Small , Large , Whats the diff??
- Thread starter cj53
- Start date
All your calibres use Large Rifle Primers of any brand. 223 would be a common cartridge that uses small rifle primers.
Small rifle and small pistol are of the same smaler diameter, large rifle and large pistol are of a larger diameter. Generally you load the primer for the case type, so 9mm Luger uses small pistol so that is all you use in it, .44 Mag uses large pistol so that is all that will work in it. Same with rifle 308 is large rifle primer 223 is small. There are some exceptions, and the odd calibre that has brass made by differend brands to use different primers sizes but generally your manual will list what is needed for the calibre you choose to load.
If you don't load anything that uses those primers mybe another loader would buy or trade them. Primers will not go bad unless they get soaked so I would not be afraid to buy or use old ones. Powder also lasts a long time but can sometimes go bad after a few decadesso I would be less enthusiastic about trading/buying "old" stock of that.
There are four common Boxer type primers and one shotgun sized used for almost all modern North American and Western European ammo. Winchester, Federal, CCI, Remington, Tula they will all interchange.
Large Rifle
Small Rifle
Large Pistol
Small Pistol
Shotgun 209
Small rifle and small pistol are of the same smaler diameter, large rifle and large pistol are of a larger diameter. Generally you load the primer for the case type, so 9mm Luger uses small pistol so that is all you use in it, .44 Mag uses large pistol so that is all that will work in it. Same with rifle 308 is large rifle primer 223 is small. There are some exceptions, and the odd calibre that has brass made by differend brands to use different primers sizes but generally your manual will list what is needed for the calibre you choose to load.
If you don't load anything that uses those primers mybe another loader would buy or trade them. Primers will not go bad unless they get soaked so I would not be afraid to buy or use old ones. Powder also lasts a long time but can sometimes go bad after a few decadesso I would be less enthusiastic about trading/buying "old" stock of that.
There are four common Boxer type primers and one shotgun sized used for almost all modern North American and Western European ammo. Winchester, Federal, CCI, Remington, Tula they will all interchange.
Large Rifle
Small Rifle
Large Pistol
Small Pistol
Shotgun 209
Get yourself a reloading manual and do some reading, it will cover all the basics of reloading including the difference between primer sizes. One is large, one is small, and they are not interchangeable. Small fits small and large fits large....
Not to be rude, but if you don't know the difference in primer sizes, you have a lot to learn before you start rolling your own. Is there someone you know that is an avid reloader? If so, have a chat with him and ask if he will walk you through the basics and help you get started safely.
Safety first!!
Not to be rude, but if you don't know the difference in primer sizes, you have a lot to learn before you start rolling your own. Is there someone you know that is an avid reloader? If so, have a chat with him and ask if he will walk you through the basics and help you get started safely.
Safety first!!
+1!
large and small (rifle and pistol) primers are universal as far as companies who make them. cci, fed, win, wolf, tula, s&b, etc all make those style of primers.
8 types/styles of primers
small pistol
large pistol
small rifle
large rifle
small pistol magnum
large pistol magnum
small rifle magnum
large rifle magnum
The primer that needs to be used, is not determined by the caliber, but rather by the specific dimensions of the primer pocket in the cartridge case,chosen by the cartridge designer. Both the 223rem and 22-250, are the same caliber, but the 223rem uses a small rifle primer, and the 22-250 uses a large rifle primer. Some cartridges using .243" and .264" bullets use small rifle primers, and some cartridges using .243" and .264" bullets use large rifle primers.
I have some .308 Win brass from Imperial that large rifle primer don't fit in them, too thick .... the primer pocket are not as deep as Federal, Winchester and Remington ... so I guest I will have to use the small rifle primers, just discovered that a few days ago ... I have about 500 of them.
308 Win uses Large Primers.
If primer has difficulty fitting into the pocket, it may be because it has a crimp in it which you need to cut or swage out.
Remotepossibility that the 308 Win you have actually does have small primer pocket -- there's a very minute amount of it around that got some experimentation time with benchrest shooters. Never seen any myself.
My bet is that you have crimps - not rare brass...
No, I did measured the primer pocket, it measure around .090 deep and the average other brass I have like Winchester are about .120/.130
I also did measured the thickness of the CCI large rifle primers I got and they're about the same .130
I can assured you that my Imperial brass aren't crimp ...
paperslayer
Regular
- Location
- Chilliwack
There is small primer 308 brass out there.... lapua makes some fullbore 308 small primer brass... just sayin'
Thought it was more obscure. But if the mic says small primer then that's what it is. Still pretty rare, I imagine. Not sure why anybody would want that. "If it aint broke, don't fix it" would be a good rule for 308.
Makes me think of a large-ish pile of .45 ACP brass I dug up for a buddy of mine ixed in with a bunch of .40 and 9mm. A bunch of us reload together on the DILLON, so I keep all the brass here and my workshop is littered with plastic totes full of the crap labeled for the 5 of us in the "collective." He's the only .45 shooter and when I tumbled them clean and started looking at them I realized they're a mix of small pistol and large pistol primers....
He can bloody well sort them himself. What a nuisance.
- Location
- Near Coldwater, Ont
Gunner, the difference between small rifle primers and large rifle primers is the diameter, not the seating depth. I don't have an answer for your problem other than to tell you small rifle primers are not your solution.
Thanks to all who have replied to my thread. Really appreciate all the responses. I get it now with your info and the fact that I tried a small rifle in the 22-250 case and found it doesn't fit so bottom line is if it fits it will most likely work. The old KISS principle.
Thanks again.
Next stupid question is how does one clean an RCBS case lube pad. The one I inherited is all dirty and gummy and leaves deposits on my cases. Brake clean???
Thanks again.
Next stupid question is how does one clean an RCBS case lube pad. The one I inherited is all dirty and gummy and leaves deposits on my cases. Brake clean???
Thanks Working Man, I will keep investigating on that ... I really wasn't sure what was wrong with these primer pockets .... if I try to insert a large rifle primer, it stick out about 1 or almost 2 millimeters ... strange ...
If I try to get the primer pocket uniforms like all my Winchester, Remington and Federal that I have, I will have to get a lot of brass out ... I'm afraid that if I remove to much the primer pocket might be to fragile to operate properly ... !!!
If someone knows anything about this, please tell me what to do ....
A picture is worth a thousand words.........
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIMER - A PRIMER ON PRIMERS
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIMER - A PRIMER ON PRIMERS
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0
A picture is worth a thousand words.........
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIMER - A PRIMER ON PRIMERS
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0
I can only thank you a lot bigedp51 for this infos, I've been searching for that the past two or three days ....
