Hi guys, got a question. I am getting my boys a Marlin xs7 in 308 and was planning on reloading some shells for them as well. Primers, as many of you know are scarce as hens teeth and are the reason for my question. I can't find any regular large rifle but I do have access to 900 Winchester LRM primers. The question is, can I use this primer in place of a regular large rifle primer being as it is a Magnum primer? I have IMR 4064 powder and Hornady BTSP 150 grain bullets. I was planning on using 40 or 41 gr of powder as this is the median load I was looking at. These guns will be used for hunting purposes and not trying to drive tacks. The load I was looking at used federal 210M primers with a Federal brass and 150 gr bullets. The brass I will be using are Federal, Winchester, Remington,and Hornady. Will this load be safe or do you see any problems with it or using a variety of brass?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

I don’t see a problem with the use of those primers. Those primers may or may not produce erratic loads but you won’t know until you test them. I would recommend that you back down your test loads by another grain of powder and work your way back up. The problem I have with your adventure is the mixed bag of different brass. Not all brass is equal in grains H2O volume from one manufacture to another. This may create a problem for you, I don’t know.

I concur that the 'variety of brass' issue will give you an accuracy problem. There's a quite a difference in volumes; you might find yourself shooting patterns rather than groups.

I'd suggest settling on whichever brand you have the best supply of. Nothing discourages a kid faster than being unable to shoot a decent group - you might even want to consider buying him a few boxes of factory ammo until the brass piles up a bit.

As far as the primers go, I seem to recall that WLRM primers are the hottest of the bunch. One article I read said that WLR standard primers are about the same as CCI 'magnum' primers. They might work for you, but I'm not a big fan of magnum primers even in 'magnum' rifles, with the exception of the very high volume cases such as the Weatherby magnums and some ball powders.

mixed brass definatly messes with accuracy i had 2 winchester cases mixed with 3 remington cases and didnt realize had 3 holesa touching then 2 to the right and high about 4 inches high and right took a bit to figure it out as i thought the brass had been sorted .

If you use the magnum primers, start at the bottom and work up from there. Some people contend that magnum primers are worth a grain or two of powder. Not sure if that's right or wrong, but magnum primers are made to ignite a lot more powder than the .308 holds. Start at the bottom and see what happens. As has been suggested, you might get erratic ignition and therefore erratic performance.

The much bigger problem is the mixed brass. Do not do this. Even a very small difference in internal capacity can lead to very different points of impact and in more extreme cases overpressure loads.

LWD

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it. I'll seperate the brass as advised and go from there.

Thanks again,
Rob

My experience using various brands of .308 cases together has been a little different. I use a rather mild load, (43 grains of 4064, Rem 9.5 primer, and Nosler 180 grain partition) and get very good hunting accuracy, and very good killing power as well.