Federal Primers

[YABA]

At a gun show I accidently bought 2 types of federal primers... small pistol 100s and small pistol magnum 200s.

Is it ok to use these magnum primers to load my .38spl, 2.7 gr bullseye 148gr wadcuttures?

Thanx for any input

[klausg]

YABA- it depends...if you switch anything in your recipe around, prudence pretty much demands that you back off your charge and work up again. Yes you can use small pistol magnum primers in a .38 SPL, but I would start all over again with load development. Hopefully this answers part of your question.

-Klaus

[oso]

My situation is different but may be sufficiently analogous to share my experience. I have a batch of 38 Special Large Primer cases. With Win Large Pistol (WLP) primers in these vs Win Small Pistol (WSP) primers in a small primer case I need about 0.3 grains more W231 with the WSP for comparable performance with 144 grain cast WC.

[YABA]

Hello...anybody else have experience with this ??

[looseprojectile]

YABA
I used to shoot a lot of .357s in a ruger BH. Used small rifle primers to keep the primers from flattening too much. Used a lot of .38 spec. cases. This was with 2400 or H 240. Had to have a heavy crimp to keep the compressed powder from squeezing the boolit out .
To answer your question. In most good quality .38 special guns 2.5 grains of bullseye and 148 grain lead boolits wont get you into trouble with any primer that yuo can get to seat flush or lower. Bullseye is very fast powder and can get nasty quick if you step on it. The heavier guns will take a lot of use and abuse.
Happy shooting

[Goatlips]

YABA, I only shoot Black Powder in my Cowboy action .38's, and I switched from Winchester standard to CCI Magnum small pistol primers, to get a little more oomph in my rounds; as you know we just stuff in as much BP as we can, and .38 cases are lots cheaper than .357 (and can use a better boolit with more lube). Seems to work.

Goatlips

[YABA]

So I loaded up a couple handfulls of .38 spl with the magnum primers !! Fired a few rounds of it no problem then I took 3 of each standard primed and magnum primed loaded the cylinder fired them all to see if therer was any noticable difference in recoil... non that I could tell. Then I shot a full 1500 of PPC with several cylinders of the magnum primed mixed in and still couldnt tell any difference

So I guess now Im wondering does felt recoil relate directly to to pressure in the barrel... or is there any relation at all ??

Opinions ( Im sure theres got to be lots )