Remington Small Pistol 5 1/2 Primers

Figured I would make a post about these Remington 5 1/2 small pistol primers. I bought some a while back. I was loading some 9mm early last week and used some of the 5 1/2s I bought to test out. I didn't get to load them that day so they went in with other primed cases I had ready....pretty much all CCI SP. I usually keep around 600-700 9mm cases size and primed and ready for loading at any given time. So after I loaded up 200 rounds, I came across some Remington small pistol 1 1/2 primers in a store. So I wondered what the difference was. The general consensus online was the 5 1/2 primers are magnum. Well, they don't say magnum on the box. I do use SP magnum, and have plenty in CCI and Win...but use them in 357 Mag. So now I get aggravated as I'm thinking I'll gonna have to pull all those rounds apart to find those "magnum" primers somehow. I did go through all my primed cases, very time consuming. I'm pretty sure I found over half of them from what I could see through the flash hole, comlared to the color and appearance of the anvil of new primers in the box. Did some more online research, searched Remington's site, no additional info on the differences. Just says not to use the 1 1/2 primers in higher pressure rounds like 357 Mag, 357 Sig, 40 S&W. I found where others stated the 5 1/2 primers were not magnum, but just a thicker cup. So I ended up just calling Remington today myself. They told me they are NOT magnum primers, but just a thicker cup for higher pressures. Just standard small pistol, same amount and mix of priming compound used in the 1 1/2. A lot of people believe they are magnum, just wanted to put it out there that they are NOT per Remington.

I looked at Remington primers before placing an order last year. Two sizes for SP? Confused. Every other company seemed to just have SP and maybe a match or a mag variant of it. I did my reading, understood the difference, and looked through recommendations. When I went to place the order I couldn't remember whether I needed the 1 1/2 or the 5 1/2. I just ordered CCI and was done with it. I understand there's a valid reason for 2 types, but my old brain doesn't need the confusion.

The 5-1/2 is the factory (heavy cup) primer used for 9mm and .38 Special +P and .357 Magnum.
The 6-1/2 is a small rifle standard primer used in loading the .22 Hornet, .30 Carbine, .221 Fireball and .222 Remington
The 7-1/2 is a small rifle, heavy cup primer used for loading .223 Remington, .17 Remington, etc.

I have used the Rem 1 1/2 in 9mm and had some ruptured primers. None with the 5 1/2.

I was told by Remington that they do make a magnum so primer but they are marked magnum 5 1/2! If the 5/12 sp aren’t marked magnum, they just have a thicker cup. Although I’ve never seen a box of 51/2 sp magnum primers. I was told they do make em! LOL

Thanks for the the post Namerifrats!

Yeah, their product descriptions are confusing. You have to find the really obscure fine print on noxes of 1 1/2 and 6 1/2 to see the disclaimer about high pressure ammo.

That being said, I do like Rem primers and have been using more of them lately. They feed pretty nicely through my loader.

I use the Remington 1 1/2's in 9mm, 38 Special and 40 S&W, and the 5 1/2's in my 357 Magnums. I have never had any problems with this method in years of using it.

I once read they (Remington 1 1/2) were a primer that was used for ammo that may encounter lighter primer strikes like .380 and smaller calibers. Also some 38 cal revolvers may have needed them also.

I loaded a bunch of 9mm with the 1 1/2’s and Solo1000 powder; the primer appeared to melt and reharden but not rupture. After firing, the primer was smooth with no indentation and had the appearance of having melted momentarily.

Either should work well with low pressure rounds but the magnum primers shouldn't hurt anything on standard pressure rounds either. I usually run CCI SP Magnum in my 9mm/40 etc. If you run loads on the hotter side and have primers that are thin/soft I believe you can damage the gun around the firing pin hole since the gas will blow into the area over time.

I just haven't found a downside to using magnum primers in standard power 9mm and until I do I will continue to use them. I've been using CCI's mostly since I got into reloading not long ago but really considered the Federals in case some of my firearms didn't have a strong enough firing pin/striker spring. It seems like all standard brands work fairly well for your standard pressure loads. I've heard really good things about the Rem 7 1/2 for small rifle but have been using CCI 41s exclusively since I started. I'd like to pick up some of the 7 1/2s to try out.

Thanks for the info bc I didn’t know that there was a difference and will now keep an eye out to look at that detail next time I buy primers.

GONRA reminds ya'll that SMALL PISTOL MAGNUM primers are frequently THE EXACT SAME PRODUCT as their SMALL RIFLE PRIMERS!

Gonra, I remember reading that the CCI 400 standard small rifle primer and the CCI Small Pistol Magnum primers were in fact identical. I believe the only reason this info ever got released is because of a major primer shortage a few years back and a CCI rep informed a customer they were indeed the same based on the specs.

Do you know of any other brands in particular that are the same? I bet the low pressure Remington small rifles are the same as the magnum pistol but have no idea.

Remington said that they use their 1 1/2 primers in all their 38 Spl loads including 38 Spl +P. One look at Remington’s ammo catalog confirms this. 5 1/2’s with their thicker cups are used in all Remington 357 Magnum loads.

Hint…their 1 1/2 primers pierce regularly using Speer’s 38 Spl +P 158 gr start loads…pathetic…never had problems with CCI500’s (basically an endangered species to find nowadays), Federal 100s or WSP for that matter.