Federal Small Pistol Magnum Match Primers, Solution looking for a problem?

[Alan in Vermont]

I just bought two bricks of the above named primers. They were closeouts at the LGS and I figure they will all go BANG.

But why do we need such an animal? We all learned that magnum primers go with heavy loads of slow powders. We also learned that target loads are usually light loads of fast powders. So where does Match and Magnum fit together?

Is this just some silly way of having a special primer for every occasion? When I look at the sheer quanitity of powders being marketed now I can't help but think that about half of them fill some sort of "boutique" niche created just to relieve the gullible from their money. I've loaded for a lot of years and don't think I've used more than about a dozen powders for rifle/handgun/shotgun combined.

There's two more bricks of them still on the shelf, if I get the spare $$ together I may grab them, at $31 a brick it's hard to argue about the price.

[Jack Stanley]

What's the use of 'em ?? ............ I dunno for sure but I'll take a stab at a guess for ya . Perhaps they are made for shooters using guns like the Pardini or GSP using thirty-two wadcutters . I hear those can be a pain to get accuracy but then Olympic accuracy and can rolling accuracy are two different things huh?

Duzat hep yew eny ?


Boutique powders ??? neat idea , they oughta make some more HS-7 so I can see how Glenn Fryxells loads for the 38 special do . [smilie=l:


Jack

[runfiverun]

well i happen to own a 357 maximum.
it happens to be a dan wesson revolver.
for some odd reason it is a real long case, and takes a small pistol primer.
does it need a magnum primer?
dunno,, but it sure likes it.
at 25 yds it don't much matter, at 200 meters it makes a difference at least in my gun.
my 30 carbine load uses a magnum primer too.

[Alan in Vermont]

I understand the use of magnum primers, thought pointed that out in the original post.

Just don't see a need for "magnum" and "match" in the same product.

[Lloyd Smale]

I got 5k of them back in the primer shortage days when it was all I could get. I burned them up in the ars.

[Moondawg]

They may be a sales ploy. I can't speak for federal's small pistol match primers. I can speak for their small rifle match primers.

I have used federal small rifle and small rifle match primers in my 6PPC bench gun and can see absolutly no difference. I know other BR shooters, to include some shooting rail guns that had the same results. I have heard from people in the know that Federal's match grade primers get one extra inspection step. Someone on the line checks them for missing anvils. Otherwise, except for higher price and box, there is no difference betweent the match and regular primers. Some BR shooters will only shoot federal match primers, just because they say "match" on the box, and they just know they must shoot more accurately. However, they never tried the regular primers against their match to find out. Competitive shooting is partly a mental game. If you are determined that "match" primers shoot better in your gun and you are willing to pay the extra price. than you might shoot better with them. I prefer to save the extra money to buy bullets, and blame the occasional flyer on my lack of a match primer, even though the flyer was my fault for bench error or missing a wind flag change.

[Lloyd Smale]

i was told by federal years ago the differnce is there best primer makers get put on the match line. theres a technique to doing it and some people just do better. Other then that there made with the same compounds and same metals. So if the normal primer maker is having a good day and the match primer guy is having a bad one it can switch around pretty quick. Im one that will attest to the fact they do tend to be a bit better. Ive allways had better luck with cci match small rifle primers in guns that use small rifle and another one is federal match mag primers. In my big guns that primer is hands down the best

[Multigunner]

Seems like consistency of the primer flash would be even more important for a short barrel than for a long barrel. The pistol powders burn fast but have a very limited bore volume in which to burn.
Revolvers would be even more sensitive to variations since the powder that burns in the chamber counts more than what burns after the bullet enters the bore.

With long range pistol shooting having continued in popularity for half a century or more, any slight edge would be worth pursuing.

Magnum primers are best kept for magnum cartridges. Though some prefer the magnum primer or even small rifle primers for greatly reduced loads to insure complete ignition when the smaller powder charge isn't always in optimum position relative to the flash hole.

I tried small rifle primers in .38 Special loads many years ago, when the local shop ran out of pistol primers. The Colt i was using did not have a hard enough hammer fall to do the SR primers justice.

[runfiverun]

i know that cci br primers are exactly the same as thier other stuff.
it is just that particular lot of compound tests more consistent than the others so it goes into br boxes and the price gets bumped up accordingly.

[44man]

i know that cci br primers are exactly the same as thier other stuff.
it is just that particular lot of compound tests more consistent than the others so it goes into br boxes and the price gets bumped up accordingly.
This is usually the reason, it is based on testing a batch. Getting them cheap is always a plus even if you don't shoot the Olympics.
The difference with most shooting will see no difference but they might mean a .002" change in BR groups.
It is amazing how consistent our powders and primers are but CHEAP always sounds better. :drinks:

[Alan in Vermont]

It is amazing how consistent our powders and primers are but CHEAP always sounds better. :drinks:

Ain't THAT the truth. How I miss the days when primers were $9.95 a brick and IMR powders were something like $6.95 a pound.

I don't remember what my first box of primers cost but I seem to remember paying a whole $5.95 for my first can of IMR-4064. Those got fed to a .243 Win. via a Lee Loader that was something like $12.95, mid-summer of 1968. I was no longer tied to ammo that was not readily available in my small town nor was I paying long dollar for it after making a trip to get it.