I Made a Stupid Mistake

[MDC]

Priming a batch of 45acp and had to refill the priming tool. Out of about 250 cases, 11 are now primed with magnum primers.
A while back, I traded a local guy some large rifle for these large pistol. Half of the box he gave me are magnum. I should have payed attention, but what are my options? Deprime, toss them and start over? Down load to minimum? Any way to tell a difference in CCI primers without dropping the hammer on them? I normally load these pretty stout (200gr Mihec HPs over 6.2gr Universal) but no way I'd trust that now.
My job requires all my fingers and my eyes. I'm really ticked off at myself right now...
I know the right answer, my body parts are worth more than $8 worth of primers.

[Jeff Michel]

I've done it several times over the years and never seen the slightest difference, but maybe an expert can weigh in on the subject.

[redhawk0]

Take no chances....its not worth it. Pull the bullets, dump the powder then pop all the primers and start over....its the safest....SAFETY FIRST.

redhawk

[tranders]

As long as your loads are not towards the upper end of the load data you will be fine.

[georgerkahn]

MDC -- with no disrespect, I believe you acknowledged being cognizant of the answer to your query, to wit: "I know the right answer, my body parts are worth more than $8 worth of primers"! And, I'd suggest redhawk0 is "right on", as well. However, I have made the same switch -- interestingly both of CCI brand, as you have. The box of primers I had -- wasn't, and a shooting session was imminent! So, I reckoned the cup size being of prime concern, and, pistol primers in regular and magnum sizes being identical, "why not"? Of concern to me would be which powder you used, as well as how much. Mine were the ubiquitous 4.3 grains of Alliant Bullseye, under a my-cast H&G 68bb. In *MY* experience, the was NO difference in shooting my Colt stainless series 80 .45acp! At the time, it seemed the POI moved a tad higher, and to the left on target, but I'm not a good enough shot to not discount that fault being none other than me :).
If it were me, I'd shoot 'em. IF you can isolate those 11 with the magnum primers, perhaps darken their primers with a magic marker, and use them as warm-up and/or for spotters?
BEST!
geo

[Dan Cash]

As long as your loads are not towards the upper end of the load data you will be fine.

+1 on the above. Unless your load is on the edge of insanity, the magnum primer will not cause any harm, nor will it have any observable effect on performance.

[pworley1]

Unless you were at the max load there should not be a problem. I regularly use magnum primers in 45 acp.

[dverna]

Lower the charge to starting level and shoot them for practice

[rond]

You are right at the max load but I don't think the pressure will increase that much. If I knew which ones were the magnum primers I would shoot one and see what it looked like.

[LAGS]

Why Pop the Primers and waste them.
I have had similar situations over the years.
If in doubt, pull the bullets, drop the load a little and reseat the bullets.
But if you dont want to use the Magnum primers for some reason, like the primer cup is harder and you are afraid of Misfires.
Then just run them thru the depriming cycle after you pull the bullets, and save the primers.
If you de-prime them slowly, there is little danger of the primers going off.
I have done it many a time, and have yet to have a primer go off.
But take all safety measures that you can, like wearing safety goggles. clear your bench of any thing like primers and powder that can cause a fire, and sometimes I drape a towel over the die and press when in the De-priming stroke.
Remember it wasn't too long ago that we couldn't find primers.
I had to Scrounge primers from one caliber to load another.

[Texas by God]

delete

[Dan Cash]

Confession time; I have used Magnum Rifle primers in the .45 ACP before. A true Non- Event. As said, if your loads are sensible to begin with you'll be fine.

Now, you are flirting with disaster. #1. A large rifle primer will boost a 830 fps load to upwards of 100 fps in the . 45 ACP. 2. Large Rifle primers are taller than large pistol primers which results in the primer standing proud of the case head when seated. A slam fire can and will occur with attendant excitement and entertainment. DO NOT USE ANY LARGE RIFLE PRIMERS IN .45 ACP AMMO.

[Texas by God]

Fair enough. What I should have said was that I've gotten away with it during primer shortages.
Large pistol Magnum primers are ok. Do not use LR primers in pistol. Thanks, Dan.

[jdfoxinc]

No LRP were used or harmed in the OP 'S thread.

[atr]

As long as your loads are not towards the upper end of the load data you will be fine.

I agree.

[D Crockett]

Take no chances....its not worth it. Pull the bullets, dump the powder then pop all the primers and start over....its the safest....SAFETY FIRST.

redhawkI would rather pop the bullets dump the powder and redo the primers than get hurt. like redhawkO said SAFETY FIRST it just not worth the risk D Crockett

[JBinMN]

The way I understand your OP, you are not sure which of the 250 primed cases have the 11 LPMP.

If it was "me", I would just load the lot with low end of the range of the powder you want to use.
( I have experimented with LPMP in my .45 using lower end of the load data range loads using Red Dot/230gr 2R & TC, BTW, and had -0- issues. I rarely shoot any max loads & usually stay at least 0.1 gr. below for safety reasons, anyway, so I am/was not overly concerned. YMMV of course.)

Or, you can de prime the lot of 250 & then use them in a firearm caliber that you can "know" will be safe to use either LPP or LPMP. For example a Ruger SRH or the like with a powder that would not have too much difficulty dealing with them. ( If it were me & I did that depriming option, I would use my SRH & 2400 powder, or even H110as the powder, if concerned about LMPP & 2400, since H110 is usually recommended to have LPMP primers & substituting the LPP in the rest of the rounds would likely cause less pressure.)

All YOUR decision of course... At YOUR own risk.

Unless, of course.... you would like to send the primed cases to me & I will load & shoot them & then send ya 250 cleaned cases in return.
;)

G'Luck ! with whatever ya decide!
:)

[MDC]

I think I'll just deprime them and load them in some 357 light loads. Or i could shoot some wax bullets in the back yard. Not the first or last time doing something stupid. Just glad I realized what I did.

[dimaprok]

I would shoot it and move on. I use rifle primers in my GP100 just because Its cheaper and haven't had any problems.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[fatelk]

I think there's some confusion about whether you actually loaded them up yet or not. I think some people are assuming that you have primed brass that's ready to load, and others are assuming that you loaded them up with a near max load before you caught the mix-up.

If the latter is correct, I would take the safe route and pull them. If the former, I would load them up with a lighter load and shoot them without the slightest hesitation. In recent years when primers where more scarce, I experimented loading 9mm with standard primers, mag primers, and small rifle primers. I carefully worked up loads, checking velocity over a chronograph. I was surprised at how little difference there is, and all three worked equally well with my mid-range loads.

When you're working up a load that's pushing the maximum you want to be very careful with exact components and not even use a different brand of primer without working up again, but at the lower end of the data I think accidentally getting a few mag primers mixed in is absolutely nothing to worry about. Heck, that's how I used mag primers when it was all I had: I started with a lighter load and worked my way back up.

[ulav8r]

Hodgdon says 6.2 is a maximum load at 17.200 CUP. Before recommending that a change of components is OK, you should check the recommended data from the manufacturer.

It is better to be safe than sorry. 5.8 grains is recommended as a starting load, so I would load at 6.0 grains if it were my gun and components.

[JBinMN]

I think I'll just deprime them and load them in some 357 light loads. Or i could shoot some wax bullets in the back yard. Not the first or last time doing something stupid. Just glad I realized what I did.

The must be "S"mall Pistol Magnum Primers(SPMP) in the 45ACP cases, if they will fit .357.
I thought you were talking "L"arge Pistol Magnum Primers.

Regardless, like I said, GLuck! with whatever ya decide.
:)

Be safe!
:)

[MDC]

Thanks for the replies, sorry to just get back to this.
Yes they are just primed cases, not loaded. Yes, they are small pistol magnum. Yes my load is right at maximum for Universal but that's where it works best for me and doesn't leave unburned power all over everything.
We went to the Rangers game today (and watched them loose miserably) but stopped on the way and picked up some correct primers. I'll deprime the cases and use those primers for some wax bullets and reprime with standard primers since that is what my loads are built around and I'm not really wanting to tinker with new loads right now. I have a 30-30 project going and decided to load the 45s "in the mean time"
I really envy you guys that can step out the back door for some informal shooting/testing but I'd have the Popo here in short order. A trip to the range for me is a full day
I truly appreciate all of your opions and advice, and JB thanks for offering to pop the caps for me, looking out for my saftey:bigsmyl2:

[JBinMN]

...Snip....

I truly appreciate all of your opions and advice, and JB thanks for offering to pop the caps for me, looking out for my saftey:bigsmyl2:

Sure! You are very welcome!
LOL
:)


:drinks:

[Bazoo]

You could make up a few test rounds with your normal load, but using mag primers, so you can test them and see if they feel too hot to you.

Personally, I dont think the answer is deprime them all and start over. You could make starting loads out of them for plinking. If unique doesnt work for your tastes with min loads... use a different powder for these. No reason to waste primers/money when you can use them safely.

[Minerat]

The CCI primers all have different color priming compounds. Look at the LPMP & the LPP and you can see the difference. This will help you to sort them if they get mixed. May be impossible once loaded. But I'd probably backoff 10% on the powder and shoot em.

[fast ronnie]

I use magnum primers in all my small primer loads, but I never shoot maximum loads either.

[rond]

You could bring them up here, I'll help you get rid of them.

[reddog81]

You'll never be able to tell the difference and the gun will never be able to tell the difference. Just shoot them. If you want to be safe drop the powder charge down .1 or .2 grains.

[MDC]

Rond , I need to come out to your neck of the woods and load up some pork.
I got them deprime and reprimed them today. Only took about an hour and I feel better. The others won't go to waste, I'll use them somewhere. No sense risking fingers and $800 worth of Sig Sauer over $8 worth of primers.
I did look at them but all have yellow compound

[fatelk]

If you like your load and don't want to change it, I can understand doing exactly what you did. Not good to change up components on a max load without working up, and depriming is less time and effort than working up a new load. Probably a wise choice; even if it might have been safe with mag primers, it's worth doing it right just for the peace of mind.

[rond]

They are tearing up the ground but are hard to sneak up on.

[Moonie]

As the husband of an Insurance agent I must say to back off your load by 10% when changing components, however I would probably use them as is but my loads don't tend to be any higher than mid-range loads.

[Safeshot]

I think that you "did well". Safety first.

[John Boy]

http://www.chuckhawks.com/primers.htm

Primers affect the pressure generated by the cartridge. Changing from standard to magnum primers may substantially raise the maximum average pressure of the cartridge and indiscriminate changes are not recommended. The A-Square Company conducted pressure tests involving six different primers. These tests used the 7mm Remington Magnum cartridge with a 160 grain Sierra BT bullet and 66.0 grains of H4831 powder and the results were reported in the A-Square reloading manual Any Shot You Want. A-Square used CCI 200 and 250, Federal 215, Remington 9 1/2M, and Winchester WLRM and WLR primers in these tests. They revealed a total spread in pressure of 12,800 psi from the mildest standard (the CCI 200) to the hottest magnum (WLRM) primer tested.

[rintinglen]

Always provided that your load is sensible for your gun, not a red line screamer that you found on the web, a Magnum primer will mean diddly squat. It may boost velocities by 10-15 fps and pressures by 1,500-2,000 PSI in pistol cartridges. Rifle primers in Magnum rifle cartridges are not relevant.

[c1skout]

The CCI primers all have different color priming compounds. Look at the LPMP & the LPP and you can see the difference. This will help you to sort them if they get mixed. May be impossible once loaded. But I'd probably backoff 10% on the powder and shoot em.

I have some of the older CCI SPM primers and they have an orange compound (red and silver box), but the newer ones (blue box) have the same looking yellow compound as the regular small pistol.