I have a question regarding the use of small pistol primers vs small rifle primers.

If one is shooting the 44-40 in pistol and rifle
can either primer be used in each other or do the loads for the pistol have to have pistol primers and the loads for the rifle have to have rifle primers?

The Thompson contender says to use rifle primers when reloading the .357 Maximum,
what happens if you use pistol primers instead?

Is there really a big difference between pistol and rifle primers?

The issue would be the hardness of the primer cup. When fired in the rifle, the 44/40 could develop higher chamber pressure and that coupled with a heavier firing pin strike could possibly pierce the primer. The harder cup on the rifle primer may cause miss-fires in the handgun. I guess my point is that I would use the rifle primers in the handgun but not vice-versa. Good luck. Paul.

My Lyman, Accurate, and Hodgdon manuals all show large pistol primers for both pistol and rifle applications.

Large pistol only. LR and LP primers are the same diameter, but LR primers are taller. The primer pockets in your .44-40 brass are likely dimensioned for LP primers. If so, use them exclusively. If your brass is dimensioned for LP primers, then you might find that LR primers will not seat flush with the head of the brass, leaving a small portion of the primer protruding from the primer pocket.

If loading higher pressure loads for your rifle, you may wish to switch to LP magnum primers, which typically have a harder cup, thus resist primer perforation better at higher pressures.

quote:

Originally posted by bluemule1:
...If one is shooting the 44-40 in pistol and rifle ...

I recently read an interesting "old" article where a guy was trying to see if he could cause Cartridges in a Tubular Magazine to "Chain-Fire". He was hammering on Live Primers seated in a Case, with various shape Bullet noses. The bulk of the article is way to long to convey here. But..., he did have some Pistol Primers ignite with Small Meplat Bullets that managed to sit slightly skewed in the magazine tube. That allowed the edge of the Meplat to ignite the Pistol Primers.

I do not remember him having the same issue with Rifle Primers, but that could be wrong.

What I got out of it is to use Rifle Primers in rifles with Tubular magazines and to use w-i-d-e Meplat Bullets.

If you are using a Single Shot rifle, I doubt Pistol Primers will hurt a thing unless you run the Pressure above where it should be for those Primers.

Best of luck to you.

I prefer to use small rifle primers to load for the 22 Jet revolver.