While I'd like to think that I am seasoned reloader, I am about to start reloading for my first magnum, a 7mm Remington Magnum. I presently have about 800 Federal Gold Medal Primers (standard large rifle) left and don't feel like spending the dough for another box of the magnum variety.

Can I get by with the regular large rifles, or are magnums really necessary when stepping up to larger case capacities? Or will I be setting myself up for accuracy or ignition "issues" if I take the cheap route?

Thanks

Super Bon Bon

I've asked the same question and compared the two side-by-side (i.e., reg. vs. mag primers) with everything else being the same. I have found very little difference in velocity, accuracy, ignition, etc. The one exception has been H870 which seems to like mag primers, but I don't use H870.

Many of the RL powders carry a comment that magnum primers are not recommended.

Unless you are hunting is very cold weather, the magnum primer is probably not required. If you are, use them for hunting loads.

I have found that magnum primers tend to "blow" groups for me in most calibers. Kudude

My 7 Rem Mag groups best w/ R22 and Fed 215 GMM primers.

I've tried other primers and groups opened up. That R22 is hard to beat as well.

Good Luck!

Reloader

Follow the reloading manuals! Most of them give reloading data plus the type of primer used. I do not use magnum primers in my 300 WM, but do use them for the 375H&H.
Peter.

The 7mag is just "on the edge" of needing a magnum spark.

That said, the Fed210 is pretty hot to begin with, so if you have medium to heavy bullets and decent temperatures, it should be fine. With lightweight, moly bullets in cold weather, I'd prefer to have bought the insurance of magnum primers. JMO, Dutch.

I am kind of new to the reloading sceme, only a year or two under my belt. I just started loading for my first magnum, and I have been told that a magnum primer is like putting one more grain of powder in the case. How valid that statement is I am not sure but it is a little tid-bit of info.

This topic has been "beat" to death on this forum, but I can't help commenting just once more: "Magnum" primers vary from "standard" primers mostly in price. Some brands of "standard" force primers are actually "hotter" than other brands of "magnum" primers.

I load for a number of very large cases (7mm STW, .375 H & H, 8mm Rem Mag, 338-8mm Mag, .264 Win) and use some very slow powders (H-570, H-870, WC 860, WC 872) and have never had any difficulty achieving perfect ignition with "standard" primers with any of these combinations.

While I don't hunt in any particularly cold weather here in Texas, I know that many people insist on "magnum" primers for cold weather use. In spite of that, I am aware of no published tests, demonstrations, or data that indicates the insufficiency of "standard" primers in cold weather -- only anecdotal tales without substantiation.

Bottom line: Your Federal Gold Medal primers are perfectly suitable for any use you might make of them in a 7mm Remington Magnum. This is not to say that there may not be a primer that gives better results; just to say that the better results will not necessarily come from primers labeled "magnum".

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stonecreek:
This topic has been "beat" to death on this forum, but I can't help commenting just once more: "Magnum" primers vary from "standard" primers mostly in price."

And as long as there are new members it will contiue to be beat to death, or some such thing. I have found that most of what Stone Creek is saying is accurate.

There have been, however, some cases where Winchester magnum primers (WLRM) have given me results different than std. Winchester primers (WLR) Have.So far I've been paying the same price for the mags as I have the std. There may have been a $5.00 difference in 10,000 of one type vs. 10,000 of the other. The point is that the cost difference if any is rather small on a per primer basis.

1. Mag primers gave Cleaner and more complete burning with powders like IMR 7383 and WCC846. Far less or no residual unburned powder

2. With Mag. primers there was a reduction and elimination of delayed ignition in my .358X.404 IMP using both gas checked cast a jacketed bullets. The click booms disappeared but not completely with light loads of 7383. roger

Depends on the powder, you can get by fine w/ std. or match primers as long as you stay away from really slow ball type powders, H870 & AA8700 for example. Good caliber, reloading really makes it sing.

For any powder charge UNDER 60 grains I use standard LR primers, mostly Winchester. For any powder charge 60+, I use Federal 215. Never a problem, even in cold weather.

The original marketing claim made for magnum primers was that they gave more consistent ignition of slow powders in very cold weather. The claim is supported by data in the CCI Technical Bulletin #100, which is partially quoted in Ackley's book.

I have tested magnum vs. standard primers in a couple of different 30-06 size cases, and, so far, have been unable to detect any increase in peak pressure when using magnum primers. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen. I'm saying that I've looked in a couple of places, and haven't found any evidence, so far.

FWIW, I spent 3 days in a class with the managers of the FC rimfire and centerfire factories. I asked the rimfire manager's opinion, and he thought that you wouldn't see any difference in performance with standard vs magnum primers in cartridges 30 cal and down.

Primers are selected for their heat or pressure range of which there are three, A, B,C.
The norm is if you are working at the top end of a round's pressure and change the primer you need to change the powder charge as well. Class A large rifle primers such as Federal 210 and Remington 9 1/2 will create 6% less pressure than class B primers and work well with powders such as IMR-3031. Class B primers such as Large rifle CCI-220 will produce 6% less than Class C and works fine with IMR-4320. Class C such as Federal 215 and CCI-250 produce 6% more than class B and work well with IMR-4350.
Primers have different lengths of burn time so create more pressure. Some of the things that dictate a certian type primer are, extremely soft bullets or hard bullets, bullet seating depth, powder selection by burn rate and amount of powder in the case. I have found sometimes I can use a lower powder charge and a magnum primer and incerase the accuracy. Shoot the 7 MM with the standard rifle primer and it will shoot well.

I tried CCI 200's in my RUM and got hang fires which were not at all pleasent. I switched to CCI 250's and the problem was solved.

I still use those CCI 200's in my 243 and in a 270 with no problems.

Magnum primers are not choosen because of cold weather, but for the type powder and case load. In magnum, or larger cases the powder and charge are selected for that case capacity. There has been left over powder in some cases where large rifle primers were used with a magnum charge as the primer did not burn long enough. I don't use CCI primers because of a lot of reasons, but the powder charge can be adjusted to suit the large rifle primer in the 7MM and work well. I know people who shoot 270s, etc with magnum primers all the time insisting they are a lot hotter and so on and so on with out really knowing whay they are selected in the first place. Work with your powder charge and the Federals will work ok.
The military uses the same primer in the M-16 at the north pole or in the Jungles and they work great. When they went to W-748 powder in the 60s in the .233, the standard primer worked in all temps. Primers can make one big differance in accuracy.

In my 300 WinMag I use standard large rifle primers as I have better accuracy with most loads, which would indicate more regular ignition. As you can see by previous posts there are a lot of variables that most of us cannot measure or which would not be obvious without a lot of shooting in very controlled conditions. However, the 300 WinMag is a relatively short case. In my very long cased 416 Rigby with 100+ grains of powder I always use Magnum primers and Federal 215's give just slightly better accuracy than CCI 250's in my rifle.

I had a big problem using CCI mag SR primers in a 454 casull, changed to WSR and the problem disapeared. CCI woulden't light the powder! don't know why but it would loge the bullet in the barrel and when I took it out there was unburnt powder. Switched primers and no more mis fires.

I had ignition problems in a .223 at cold temperatures (0 degrees F) with H335. I actually had several bullets stick in the barrel because the powder was not burning completely. I switched to magnum primers and the problems went away. Ball powders are harder to ignite and may take a stronger\longer flame to get complete ignition. Pick the rigth powder and bullet combination and you shouldn't have a problem with standard primers. If you hunt in cold weahter test a few when its cold to make sure they'll ignite.

I failed to note before that one of the hang fires or delayed iignitions in the 358x404 was with a healthy charge or 4064 and std WLRs.when reloaded with WLRMs we had no delay.

I'm rather surprised that more of you haven't posted about this primer related, large capacity case type of event. Surely there are more than just two of us who have experienced this.

It would seem to be a safe rule of thumb that Large bore Large capacity cartridges dictate Higher Temperature,Longer Burning,and or Greater Energy Release primers than those primers which we consider standard(whatever that is). This is not always because of the powders burning rate as evidenced I believe by the 4064 occurance.

The term MAGNUM after the word primer varies in reality from one brand to the next. roger

Elk hunter I don't know what piss poor powder you were using to have bullets stick in the barrel, but as the old cajan would say, I garontee the several hundred military rounds that I popped off in 40 below weather at full auto didn't look back. The rifles and bulets stayed outside all night! The powder was W-748 with standard primer. I grew up in Western Colorado and have shot in 45 below out there and never had a round not go off. Some people can bullshit the weak minded but those that have been there and did that know better. Magnum primers are simply made for certian powder loads in certian cases. They can be used in any rifle. The Eskamos in Alaska use mostly 30/30 lever action rifles and never have any problems with them and it gets damned cold where they hunt. They use standard factory ammo in the old 30/30 and down the polar bears with it all the time.

From Roger:

quote:

I'm rather surprised that more of you haven't posted about this primer related, large capacity case type of event. Surely there are more than just two of us who have experienced this.

A lot of us just use Fed 215s and Rem 9 1/2Ms across the board in anything that uses a Large Rifle Primer. Be it a 308Win or whatever. That way it is just one less thing to be concerned about. Achieving good accuracy with one or the other is never a problem, so that is also a non-issue for Hunting.

I remember significant discussions on this in the old Gun Rags and Reloading Manuals many years ago when the Mag Primers initially came out. At that time, there was a difference between Standard and Magnum Primers. Lots of discussion concerning "Brisance", "Burn Duration" and their measurement.

I have had delayed ignition in my 7mm RM with standard primers.I don't remember which powder I was using maybe IMR7828.I only use Mags now.

I generally use Magnum primers in Magnum rifles and std primers in std. calibers, and I have never had a misfire in a rifle with one of my handloads, and that is in probably 45 years of reloading..

Wish I could say the same for my pistol reloads...

Blob,

I was using H335 in my 223. I talked to Hogdon and they told me to seat the bullets deeper, add more powder and use magnum primers. I think the bullets were popping out of the neck before enough pressure built up to push it down the bore. The bullet stuck in the throat, and the gas went around it (through the rifleing grooves) and out the muzzle. It left a significant amount of carbon residue on the case necks and the base of the bullet. A third of the powder did not burn completely and was left in the case\chamber. I went to the new primer, added a 1/2 grain of powder, seated the bullet .02 deeper, and it worked. It still didn't shoot very well and I switched powders soon after that. It never burned very clean. Who knows, maybe I got a bad can of powder. H332 worked a lot better.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Atkinson:HELLO
I generally use Magnum primers in Magnum rifles and std primers in std. calibers, and I have never had a misfire in a rifle with one of my handloads, and that is in probably 45 years of reloading..

Ray, just for shits and giggles , in what camp would you put the 6mmx.270 IMP or 25-06 IMP? magnum or standard? How would you classify the 6.5 or 350 Remington magnums.

I think some Kudus belong to the guys who establish that there are boundry conditions and what they are or appear to be such as the std. vs. Mag. primers.

As an overwelming example look at the work that Clark is doing. It may not be my cup of tea, but the man is sure making a point.

Because of my inquisitive nature and my afinity to experiment I have had click bangs in my 48 years of reloading and probably will have one or two more. I will than share that information with the brotherhood. roger

Super Bon Bon! did you get your answer? roger