Primers for Black Powder cartridge loading

[Lead pot]

I have pierced a primer in the 43 Spanish Roller and both of my Trapdoors hit very deep into the primers but no problem piercing the cups.
Those gas cuts on the two breach blocks did not have the primers pierced. The Shiloh I pull the breach block when I do the final cleaning and when I saw the gas cuts I checked the primer pockets and they were undamaged. The CPA I don't pull the breach block often and it got a lot more damage before I caught it. I pulled the block after seeing the Sharps block.
The Sharps is the .44-90 BN and the CPA is a .40-65.

[Don McDowell]

I haven't had a pierced pistol primer. I use mostly large rifle primers, but do have a few loads in a couple of rifles that also work well with pistol primers. I do have 3 original rifles, their firing pins are quite a bit larger than the modern guns and they mash the crap out of even rifle primers, but haven't pierced one yet.
Again it comes down to what you have or can find, build a load with it, and go.

[GregLaROCHE]

Now that we are on a similar subject, does anyone drill a larger hole in the case to supposedly get the BP to ignite faster? I’ve heard of people doing it. That would be the opposite of what the original post was suggesting.

[ian45662]

Now that we are on a similar subject, does anyone drill a larger hole in the case to supposedly get the BP to ignite faster? I’ve heard of people doing it. That would be the opposite of what the original post was suggesting.

No. Not anyone who I know that shoots matches anyways.


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[JKR]

Around here it seems like there are small primers available at most places that sell components. This got me thinking. I took some spent large rifle primers and popped the anvil out. I used a punch and flattened the firing pin dent on my bench block. You can see where I’m going with this, right? I then dropped a small rifle primer into the large rifle cup and primed some of my BP 38-55 & 45-70 cases. Using my regular proven loads, they actually shot well at 100 yards. I started to think I was on to something.
All of this happened during the depth of winter. This spring I tried some of these loads at 600 yards with the 45-70. It didn’t hold elevation worth a hoot.
While not a target load it is a get by load if you can’t get anything better.
JKR

[indian joe]

Many moons ago I read the Venturino / Garbe stuff and got some federal 215's for my 45/70 - wasnt shooting good enough to tell the difference and I didnt have a chronograph
but I started to think some - part of my brain said "hang on a minute - blackpowder is really really easy to ignite, why do we need a magnum primer to light it up?", so I switched back to standard primers for sake of simplicity - had always used winchesters but somewhere late last century they put out a batch of brass coloured ones and we had several embarrassing fail to fire incidents. Have only used federal LR since - I like the federal - my Uberti 76 had a monster trigger pull and the federals have allowed me to sort that just by relieving the mainspring pressure. If I assemble loads carefully I can get a ten shot string to go single digit Extreme Spread with only the blow tube for fouling control - have done that with the 76, a spaghetti sharps and 86 clone.

[barnetmill]

I will add some hearsay information. A few years ago I was talking to someone that was really into black powder shooting and his claim was the issue relative to ignition was due to the change in chemistry of the priming mixtures over the years.
Original black powder primers were based on mercury fulminate priming mixtures. Then the military changed the priming mixtures when smokeless powders came about; for many years they used various formulations that had potassium chlorate in it. Now most non-corrosive formulations: Priming compound is a mechanical mixture of lead styphnate, antimony sulfide, barium nitrate, and other chemicals.
I certainly do not advise anyone to make mercury fulminate. But there are some priming mixtures that I think are two part mixtures that are available commercially for 'reloading' primers. Perhaps using smaller grain black powder at the base of the case with the rest of charge being the grain size that you normally would use might work better.

[Chill Wills]

Perhaps using smaller grain black powder at the base of the case with the rest of charge being the grain size that you normally would use might work better.

Careful testing has shown, duplex loads using 4f (in any amount) at the primer end showed no improvement in accuracy.
Mild primers, for whatever reason, have been the bases of some very accurate and match winning BPCR loads.

[Funky]

Thank You JKR, for the idea of using small primers use in large primers, I will try to keep that in mind if I ever get in a bind. So simple why didn't I think of it I really like reading Mike's articles, he seems to come up with new information, not just repeating what was said fifty years ago. Good Luck Chris

[Gobeyond]

How does a primer blow the out bulle twhen it’s got a full load of compressed dropped powder in front of it. How does a weak primer blow a hole in a card wad and ignite the powder w/o a hang fire; plus an under powder card?? Beyond me, gobeyond! I guess I’d be in the mag primer camp. But LPP have always worked fine for me.

[freakonaleash]

Golly, I'm using winchester large pistol primers in my uberti '76 winchester in 40 60. No problemo.

[Thundermaker]

How does a primer blow the out bulle twhen it’s got a full load of compressed dropped powder in front of it. How does a weak primer blow a hole in a card wad and ignite the powder w/o a hang fire; plus an under powder card?? Beyond me, gobeyond! I guess I’d be in the mag primer camp. But LPP have always worked fine for me.

So a member here did extensive testing on that. He determined that the under powder wads weren't getting pierced. Instead, the flame was rolling around the edges and igniting the outside of the charge, but it was being pushed forward beforehand and compressing the powder. His best accuracy (and lowest SD) came from pieces of tea bag used as an under powder wad. He theorized that this was due to diffusion of the flame igniting more surface area of the powder. I have some experiments planned to test that further. Some high power shooters swear by berdan primed brass or magnum primers for the same reason.