Yea me again guys and gals. I have and do use standard primers with light and std loads, also magnum primers with magnum loads or whatever the reloading book says. My question is can magnum primers be used with all and any load with the only difference being spending a few more buck for the primers?

No
If you have a fairly warm load with standard primers and then use a mag primer the pressure will go up and may go up too much.

You would certainly want to run tests before making a change. Velocity and pressure are almost certainly different using magnum primers and accuracy may way be affected either way. Back off your powder charge a bit, work up and see what you get.

If you work up the load with them you'll okay but you may see a change in group size or point of impact. They are not interchangeable with out working up. Usually magnum with ball powder, I don't load anything that needs one full time.

Might be just me but I would be concerned that the initial fireing impluse, if you will, would move the bullet into the barrel and it would stop before the main powder charge ignited. If that happens you could have what amounts to a barrel obstruction, causing a dangerous pressure spike. The right mix of components is sometimes extremely critical and in this regard reloading manuals are your friend!

I agree If nothing else the mag primer used in a small case could unseat the bullet causing poor to no accuracy, if not the barrel obstruction listed above.

quote:

Originally posted by Sam:
If you work up the load with them you'll okay but you may see a change in group size or point of impact. They are not interchangeable with out working up. Usually magnum with ball powder, I don't load anything that needs one full time.

I also use magnum primers with all ball powder. Ball powder is difficult to ignite and when used in a low density load in cold conditions it could cause a double detination which could blow the gun.

You must very careful and adjust you load development.

The only advantage is very cold weather performance.

My AR with 52/55 grain bullets and H335 gets WSR or Wolf Magnum, my 77's with Varget get CCI-400's but my 80.5's with Varget get Wolf Magnum.

quote:

Reply

Most HP shooters use mag type primers (7.5s, 450s BR4s CCI 41, etc with heavy loads and both extruded and ball powders with aplomb.

I see no major issues from standard igniters and magnum versions with standard charges of Varget or RL 15 etc. Most HP shooters do not use ball powders in my exp. Like any component change, drop down and work up-considering ambient temps etc.

Thanks to all who replied info is great and as I say never to old to learn more or a better way.

Primers are a dilemma in reloading. My rule of thumb is: A primer should only start the explosion, not effect or be a part of the explosion (that's the powder's job). Use the least powerful primer you can effectively get away with. Only load testing can determine that.