Hey fellas-

As you all know, finding primers has been a real pain lately.

I am out Federal MAGNUM large rifle primers and I all have left is REGULAR Federal large rifle match primers.

I want to know if any of you have experienced a significant difference between using magnum and regular primers with around 70 grains of ball powder.

Caliber: 300 WSM
Bullet: 150 gr. GS HV
Powder: Ramshot Hunter - 71.5 grains

Your advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Yes! In the .358x404 IMP The magnum primer got rid of most hang fires I was experiencing. roger

Haha Yes, I imagine that would make a difference.

I'm not sure how comparable it is, however, considering that beast is probably throwing a 280 gr. bullet at around 3,000+ fps.

Impressive knock down power!

I doubt that you'll find any significant difference. The 215 is about the strongest primer on the market, and the Federal Match is one of the weaker in the LR size. This may result in your loads acting as if they had a half grain less powder. If you own or have access to a chronograph you can see the actual difference. In the WSM case with Ramshot powder, I suspect that the weaker primer will still perform just fine.

Thanks, Stonecreek.

I have a chronograph, so I'll compare results with a couple of test rounds first. I planned on doing it anyway, but didn't want to waste a trip to the range if it were going to be a no-go.

Thanks again.

I'd be more concerned with the possibility of hangfires than reduced velocity.....load up a few and go test them.

At least one reloader here has used a grain of bullseye over the flash hole and then added the normal charge and reported the elimination of hangfires....I'm not recommending that but such things have been done with larger cases.

Fed. primers tend to run a bit hotter than say RP. 70gr is just about the cut off where I want to go to a magnum primer. I have used Fed. LR & LRM interchangeably in my 7mmDakota w/ 71-72gr of IMR7828 w/ little to know diff. in vel. but accuracy was better w/ a LR or LR match vs the magnum. If you can not get the Fed. magnum, the RP 9 1/2M is a good replacement. I use them in my 404jeffery.

That's what I was looking for. Thanks Fred!

quote:

but accuracy was better w/ a LR or LR match vs the magnum

I've found std primers to give me better accuracy (normally). I have no trouble with a full case of 7828 in my STW or laods in my 375 H&H. If I was using bigger cases or powders like 1000 5010 I would probably use a mag primer.

The temperatures that the ammunition is being shot in may have an effect. Late seasons in Manitoba will often see temps in the minus 20 to 30 deg F. I've had loads border on hangfires with std primers and by changing to Fed 215 or CCI250 mag primers all problems disappear. In warmer temps you likely will not see much difference.Some of the new powders claim to be less sensitive to temps than older powder was.

Snowman,

Good call. I didn't even think about this issue. I do hunt in very cold climates at times.

Maybe I should just be patient and wait for the correct magnum primers that this borderline load calls for.

It's still 76 degrees down here, so it's not going to allow me a representative test.

Thanks!

Kenati,

I was recently faced with this issue, but it was with a different cartridge firing about 15-17grs more powder. I had the option of switching to regular LR primers to try to improve accuracy, but decided against it because of all the knowledge to the contrary. In rifles that are to be used from the frigid cold of the north to the deserts of Africa, I just can't bring myself to chance something like that. I'd rather change everything else than the primer to get the preferred accuracy.

Just my $.02.

I just went through the same testing with a 7mm wsm. 72.7 grains of mrp and 140 grain accubond. The 210 match was clocked at 60 feet slower and had a spread of 22 feet per second for the string of shots. Grouped just over an inch. The 215 match was 60 fps faster than the 210 and had a spread of 3fps for the string and grouped under .25". Very slight bolt lift on the 215m took it down to 72.5gr and all is good.

Interesting results. Thanks for the info.

Next trip to the range, I'm loading up some 110 gr. V-Max bullets just for the sake of testing a velocity difference between the 210 and 215 primers. I'm using the 110 grain pills because they allow me to use a heavier charge of Ramshot Big Game than my standard hunting rounds (Max between 72 and 74 grains according to Hornady and Ramshot, respectively). I'll post the results later.

Thanks again.

On the short magnum cases, most LR primers are sufficient to ignite the powder charge. In the case of ball powders and/or cold weather shooting, magnums are still the primers of choice. Since you are having difficulty finding Federal 215, have you tried WLRM or CCI250 primers? They will work just fine for igniting your powder charge.

This question comes up from time to time on this forum.

For whatever reason, people seem not to be aware that Saeed did tests on primers, and his tests seem to answer at least some of these questions. See his results at:

http://www.accuratereloading.com/primer.html

For what it's worth, I found that a magnum primer is not needed for the 375 H&H, with heavy compressed loads of H 4350 powder. I use the regular Winchester Large Rifle primer in it.

I have not loaded the 300WSM.

I found that with ball powder in the .223, magnum primers (CCI) gave me significantly poorer accuracy than regular ones (also CCI).