federal small magnum primer

[Crydaddy]

can anyone confirm that FEDERAL premium magnum primers have the same explosive content as FEDERAL small pistol primer but have a thicker cup?

I have read this on the internet and it has been a week of leaving messages on federal tech support to get a confirmation to no avail..

[Steve RA]

I'd think they would have more explosive force/more priming compound - don't know for sure however.

[JimmyZip]

During the last "shortage" I ran a few thousand of these when I was shooting my BHP and my TS. I loaded them for practice, and had no ignition issues whatsoever. BUT, I did only use them for practice as I was concerned there would be a problem. As my practice ammo is loaded a tad lighter to stretch my powder, I didn't really notice a velocity difference at all. YMMV

[Crydaddy]

During the last "shortage" I ran a few thousand of these when I was shooting my BHP and my TS. I loaded them for practice, and had no ignition issues whatsoever. BUT, I did only use them for practice as I was concerned there would be a problem. As my practice ammo is loaded a tad lighter to stretch my powder, I didn't really notice a velocity difference at all. YMMV

i would assume you did not back out your loads?

[Jon Merricks]

Not sure if its thicker or just harder for the intent of handling higher preasure loads. I was advised that contents inside the "cup" were the same.

[Crydaddy]

Not sure if its thicker or just harder for the intent of handling higher preasure loads. I was advised that contents inside the "cup" were the same.

hmmm...it might be an interesting weekend then.

[DougCarden]

No big difference. They may add up to 16 fps to your load. That is it Just seat them to the regular depth below flush and don't sweat it. Unless you are almost overpressure on your loads there shouldn't be any problem.....

DougC

[22 shooter]

My pistol doesn't know it's not a magnum

[daves_not_here]

Not sure if its thicker or just harder for the intent of handling higher preasure loads. I was advised that contents inside the "cup" were the same.

The cup seems harder in my experience. I don't mangle the magnums when I seat them like I do the regular small primers.

When a piece of corn cob gets on the primer seater thingy it puts a dent in the normal primers but not the magnums.

DNH

[Doc Hunter]

When the corn cob get in the primer seater - be sure you don't get a dent yourself.

[Boxer1]

I know for sure that the cup is thicker/harder on magnum primers. I have one pistol that will shoot them no problem and another striker fired pistol that fails nearly 100% with them. People have also used small rifle primers to load small pistol. If you are close to max pressure on a load then follow the load data to a T and work up and look for signs of over pressure. A little common sense goes a long ways. I read a thread a while back of a guy that fired 3 shots that didn't "feel or sound right" then on the fourth the pistol blew up. He ignored 3 warnings that something was not right and continued on.

[bassochist]

the cup is harder and the primers have more explosive content than a fed 100, in a test the flame was a big as a 205 primer, the flame tha came out of a fed 100 was allot smaller.

[fastarget]

picked some up last week, I plan to use them with some minor loads to see if I get a more consistent burn...........

[Kyreb]

I ran a bunch of these primers during the Clinton era primer scares. I lucked into finding 10K at some off the beaten path gun shop.

As I recall I was still running Winchester Super Lite in my P16-40. I backed the load down a couple tenths and was GTG.

As a matter of fact I still have 3K or so of these primers left on the shelf.

As always, be careful and work up your own load....etc....

[Croomrider]

I run them all of the time lately, because that was what I was able to get. I've used about 10k of them so far and not one problem lighting them off. The guns I've used them in are STI, Glock-35 with lighter springs, and a S&W 625 with a trigger job and bobbed hammer. I use 45ACP small primer brass on the 625. I doubt you'll have a problem at all. I've also noticed very little difference on the crono compared to regular SPP.

Mike

[mayassa]

I have always been told to reduce load by 10% but who knows.

[pjb45]

In my experience, the primer is not going to make any difference. I have all my chrono records of using SP, Match, and Magnum primers.

Statistically, there is no difference in velocity due to the primer. The biggest factor was the variations in brass.

That said, I do have a McLearn extended firing pin in my SV guns.

The only problem I ever had with primers was using some surplus Coast Guard .40 ammo. The extended firing pin took care of that problem.

[sandrooney]

I saw somewhere on this forum a primer cup thickness chart for SPP vs SPMP and Federal and Winchester were exactly the same. IIRC CCI had the biggest difference in thickness/hardness between the two.

If you do a search here you should find it.

SR

[JimmyZip]

During the last "shortage" I ran a few thousand of these when I was shooting my BHP and my TS. I loaded them for practice, and had no ignition issues whatsoever. BUT, I did only use them for practice as I was concerned there would be a problem. As my practice ammo is loaded a tad lighter to stretch my powder, I didn't really notice a velocity difference at all. YMMV

i would assume you did not back out your loads?

I load my practice ammo a tad lighter anyway to stretch my powder. So in a sense, I did back down my load, but not because of the primer, but rather to save on powder.

[Justsomeguy]

As one poster mentioned, magnum primers will produce a larger flame. This is because they are intended for use in magnum pistol rounds that generally have a longer powder column with slower powders and need to be able to light it up. Some people report a slight velocity (and thus pressure) increase when using them and some don't. This depends on the powder choice. Fast powders will light up completely and almost immediately with any primer and so they won't show much if any difference. Slower powders will be more affected as they will have a greater chance that more of it will be lit up immedieately than you would see with a regular small pistol primer, thus making it a bit more like a faster powder, with a subsequent slight increase in pressure. This won't matter unless you are close to the maximum for a given load, but I would suggest working back up, using a chrono, if you change to a magnum primer.

[40S&W]

Major Load is 5.0gr. TG, 155gr. HBRN, Federal SMP, OAL 1.137, PF 168. I've also used the Federal SPP and the only difference I saw was about 4-5 fps vel. difference. Definately get a better powder burn. Was told don't use them for minor PF that you might get some bleed by the primer. Have also used Remington small rifle primers for the my major load without any noticible difference. Depends on how close you are to maximum powder charge & pressure.