Should i be concerned?

[CocoBolo]

well I did my little experiment.

I took ten winchester small rifle primers and weighed them.... 32.5 grains

then I took ten winchester small pistol primers and weighed them... 31.2 grains .

then I measured one primer of each variety.

the results were the same:

0.171" in diameter

0.115" "tall"

cup thickness = 0.013"

I carefully used a needle to pry out the anvil from the cup. then used the slim knife edges of my digital calipers to measure the "wall" thickness...err...cup thickness.

the only other noticeable difference was that the small pistol primers had a reddish tinted anvil area. the small rifle primer anvils were blue.

my guess is that the metal cup and anvil components of the two primers are identical. it's just the compound they are filled with is slightly different. hence, the two different colors. that could explain the 1.3 grain difference in weight between the two groups of ten primers.

Very well could be, but I wouldn't be surprised if the cup material was harder as well. WSP flatten more for me that WSR, in the same gun, loaded identically, so that's the only thing I can think of. R,

Ok, lets get this out on the table. I don't use Federal Small anything in a Open gun, I save those for my Limited and Production gun they are soft and will flow before the others. I use mostly CCI unless I can't get them, then I use whatever I can find.

Chills you are probably correct about the material in the primers I have not noticed any difference in the firing pin hit on SPP to SRP. Like most open gun stuff more smoke and mirrors than hard facts.

Edited October 29, 2010 by CocoBolo

[G-ManBart]

Ok, lets get this out on the table. I don't use Federal Small anything in a Open gun, I save those for my Limited and Production gun they are soft and will flow before the others. I use mostly CCI unless I can't get them, then I use whatever I can find.

In other threads you've said you like SP primers for Major loads because they'll flow earlier, but you're using CCIs which are about the hardest SP around? That would seem to be contradictory.

"Soft" is relative. Fed SR stand up to 50K in .223 with no problems, so they shouldn't have any issues with 9 or Super/SC Major.

I've run Fed SP, Fed SPM and Fed SR, Win SP, Win SR and Wolf SR in my Supercomp loads, and compared the primers. FSP show the most, then Win SP, then FSPM, then it's about a tie between WSR and Wolf SR. Fed SPM are what I have used for most of the past year to 18mos (10-15K I'd guess) and they've worked perfectly...just a trace of flattening. 9 Major I've only used the Fed SPM, with similarly positive results up to 175PF or so with a 115gr bullet and HS-6. Aside from a few tests, I keep all my FSP and WSP for .40 and 9 Minor. R,