i am surprised....... i never gave it much thought, but i'm surprised that the primers fit. you'd think that the primer companies would make them different sizes to help avoid this exact situation..... that sure seems like an obvious safety measure for the manufacturer...

Ol Joe is absolutly right. I switched from pistol primers to rifle primers in the 38 specials I fire in my Ruger#3. Why you ask? I developed primer leaks not so much from high pressure but from the heavy fireing pin strike on the thinner primer metal. Now if you don't mind a little hot gas in the face use what you got. Ware glasses. roger

I'd pull the bullets, save the powder and use the primed cases to scare the cat.

Been there, done it, and got the T shirt. I did it to a .243 and other than inconsistant ignition, no problems. None were pierced or leaked. Beleive it or not the groups were darn near as good a with rifle primers.

Accidently loaded some pistol primers in some 6.5x55 loads



I read that pistol primers are thinner metal and not as strong as rifle primers



Should I take the ammo apart and remove the primers or just shoot them?



These must be older Winchester packageing because the word pistol is barely noticable on the box . They are Winchester K4003p , No7-111. I wrote Pistol in big letters with felt pin on the box for next time.

243winxb has a good point about the risk of gas etching if the primers leak. This happened to me when primers were being pierced. Only one piercing was sufficient to rough-up the the firing pin. Then the pin had to be removed and dressed.

I would pull the bullets and scare the cat with the primed cases.
Ron