rifle and pistol primers

[Tom308]

I'm sure this has been discussed and probably cussed before but, I ran out of small pistol magnum primers and was thinking about just using small rifle primers. This would be for a .357 magnum in a single shot rifle. Is it unsafe? What makes it unsafe? I would like to shoot 180 grain rnfp and 200 grain swc boolets. Small pistol mag primers are getting VERY hard to find.

[mike in co]

I'm sure this has been discussed and probably cussed before but, I ran out of small pistol magnum primers and was thinking about just using small rifle primers. This would be for a .357 magnum in a single shot rifle. Is it unsafe? What makes it unsafe? I would like to shoot 180 grain rnfp and 200 grain swc boolets. Small pistol mag primers are getting VERY hard to find.

not unsafe at all. start low and work up. you will not be the first to use a sr in a sp application.

[anachronism]

Remington just put out an advisory that their #6 small rifle primers shouldn't be used for "high intensity" calibers, such as .222 & .223 Remington. I just moved mine over with my small pistol magnum primers, to get some use from them. I started using small rifle primers in .357 magnum during the first great primer famine (not last years), and never stopped. Just redo your load development & you should be fine. I use a lot of WC820 & H110 & am totally happy with the results

[fecmech]

Tom--Here is a thread I started with my experiences with the switch from SP to SR. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=53117&highlight=fecmech

[BerdanIII]

Very good information in the link! I was wondering how pistol powders would react to small rifle primer ignition; it does not appear to be a problem. I'm going to use up some Remington 6 1/2's in a .357; they don't appear to be supported properly in Winchester .22 Hornet brass and some are piercing at the radius at the side of the primer (not at the firing pin). I have primed a few .357 cases and the primers are seated deeper in comparison with the Hornet.

[Tom308]

Thanks guys.
This was about what I expected. I do try to keep safe. I just found about 100 rounds of 9mm I loaded about 25-30 years ago. I make a habit of placing a note with my reloads listing powder, bullet and primer. This bag of ammo looked way to hot to shoot. I separated the components and salvaged the small pistol primers and unique powder. I primed all my empty hornet brass with them and will load cast boolits with unique tomorrow.