Difference In Sm Primers- Pistol vs. Rifle

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  • I have ~40-50 CCI small primers loose in my primer storage box. I'm pretty sure they're CCI 500 (sm pistol), but it is possible they are CCI 400 (sm rifle).
    I am about to load a bunch of .38 Special and was curious as to what would/could happen if I accidentally used sm rifle primers in a .38 Special case. It is only a dollar or two, so clearly they are being thrown away.
    I am now curious as to what the actual difference is between the two is.
     

    Uncle Duke

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 2, 2013
    11,662
    Not Far Enough from the City
    Small pistol primers have a thinner cup thickness.

    In practice, due to differences in firing pin spring tension, you risk piercing pistol primers when loaded into rifle cartridges. You may also risk failure to fire when loading rifle primers into pistol cartridges.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    As was mentioned, if you load them into pistol ammo, you may get some failures to fire from the harder cup.

    One other issue, are they magnum primers or non-magnum? Switching a load from non-magnum to magnum primers can take a safe load into over pressure territory.

    If you have a pistol load that uses magnum primers, I would consider loading them.

    But for that few, I would toss them.

    BTW, large rifle primers are taller than large pistol primers.
     

    Park ranger

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 6, 2015
    2,315
    Lots of 22 hornet shooters swear by using pistol primers, it cuts groups and SD. I'd suspect rifle primers have a bit it more psi.
     

    BigRick

    Hooligan #15
    Aug 7, 2012
    1,140
    Southern Maryland
    I Will say this and (DO NOT TRY IT). I by accident and careless reloading practices mostly the careless part loaded 100 rounds of 9mm with small rifle primers. Again DO TRY THID AT HOME. The only issues I had were about half of them took a second firing pin strike to fire some didn't fire at all. The ones that did I noticed nothing at of the ordinary. If they all went bang I would have never caught it. This was a 1 time thing and I make sure it will never happen again.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,725
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I have ~40-50 CCI small primers loose in my primer storage box. I'm pretty sure they're CCI 500 (sm pistol), but it is possible they are CCI 400 (sm rifle).
    I am about to load a bunch of .38 Special and was curious as to what would/could happen if I accidentally used sm rifle primers in a .38 Special case. It is only a dollar or two, so clearly they are being thrown away.
    I am now curious as to what the actual difference is between the two is.


    Look at the color of the foil and the shape of the anvil and you may be able to sort them out.
     

    usa259

    Active Member
    Mar 11, 2015
    817
    Loaded downloaded 40 with small rifle once, cci tech said to pull them apart since small rifle are hotter than small pistol. And, since my load was down loaded more air was available for combustion, making my situation more dangerous.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    Loaded downloaded 40 with small rifle once, cci tech said to pull them apart since small rifle are hotter than small pistol. And, since my load was down loaded more air was available for combustion, making my situation more dangerous.

    No air is used in combustion of powder.
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,278
    HoCo
    For reference (post of a post reported from a speer manual)
    I swear I found a post once from CCI that showed the energy closer to each other and listed the CUP thickness.
    CCI_Primer_energy_aad.jpg
     
    $2 worth of primers isn't worth the potential problems IMO. If I find a loose primer I put it in a medicine bottle I keep and use them to test new builds...press them into the appropriate caliber brass and fire them to make sure the trigger group and firing pin/striker work
     
    I have ~40-50 CCI small primers loose in my primer storage box. I'm pretty sure they're CCI 500 (sm pistol), but it is possible they are CCI 400 (sm rifle).
    I am about to load a bunch of .38 Special and was curious as to what would/could happen if I accidentally used sm rifle primers in a .38 Special case. It is only a dollar or two, so clearly they are being thrown away.
    I am now curious as to what the actual difference is between the two is.

    $2 worth of primers isn't worth the potential problems IMO

    Correct, and I explained that in post #1
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    For reference (post of a post reported from a speer manual)
    I swear I found a post once from CCI that showed the energy closer to each other and listed the CUP thickness.
    CCI_Primer_energy_aad.jpg

    Interesting that Small PISTOL Magnum has more energy than Small RIFLE Magnum primer.
     

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