Henry Rifle Forums

We are all suffering from a lack of primers. I happen to have scored 5K small rifle primers (Remington #7 1/2 Bench Rest) just before the market collapsed giving me 8K primers.

I have been reading some articles on using small rifle primers for .357 and .38 loads.

This is from another site:

I contacted CCI back a couple years ago and asked to speak to their primer tech. I was connected with a wonderful woman who had worked there for 37 years. I asked her the following, "What is the difference between your SPM primers (550) and your SR primers (400). Specifically, what's the difference between their size, their cup thickness, the primer compound, and amount?"

She pulled out the data sheets on both and compared them. As she was reviewing them she casually mentioned that, "You know small pistol and small rifle primers are the same size. It's the large pistol vs large rifle where the rifle primers are slightly taller." After her review of the sheets (I could hear them rustling), she replied that their specs showed that they were the same size, the same cup material and thickness, the same primer compound, and the same amount.

I asked her if that meant that they were the same item boxed in different packaging. She replied, "I've been reloading myself for over 20 years and I only buy SR primers (400)." We chuckled and I thanked her and said good bye. I use Wolf SR primers in all my 38spl and 357mag loads and have had no issues in slightly over 4,300rds so far.

SO, my question to the great minds of the forum, anyone have any experience, thoughts, suggestions ?

I'd ask if I was nuts but my grandfather always said don't ask the question if you don't think you'll like the answer !

Thanks Troops !

I learned a similar thing today. And, just primed a batch of rifle brass with my small pistol mag primers. Strange times lead to interesting compromises. I have several hundred of those primers, I think they will get me past the shortage.

The only issue with small rifle in small pistol may be if you have a weak hammer spring. The rifle primers have a harder cup because of the higher pressure in rifle loads. Im not sure I would use a pistol primer in a rifle shell though.

While researching 357 Magnum loads for IMR 4227, found several references to using small rifle primers, ostensibly to achieve a complete burn. Even found a couple recipes for that combo on loaddata. com.
Haven't tried it myself (small pistol magnums are working fine), but would not hesitate if I were flush with them rather than the spm.

Thanks Wofman, I have the opposite problem, plenty of small rifle, limited magnum. I was thinking of using my SP mangum for pistols only, and the small rifle for my Henry .357 BB.

I have not tried substituting small rifle primers for small pistol magnum primers yet, but I may experiment soon. I'm down to 300 small pistol magnum primers and have been loading and shooting a lot of 357 Mag loads. I did experiment with using regular small pistol primers (I have plenty of these) and with the load I'm using the only issue I experienced was about a 4% loss of velocity. This is not not significant enough to worry about. My current load is pushing a cast 158 gr Missouri Bullet at 1260 fps.

I think I'll put together 20 test rounds and take the out to the range and see what the chrono has to say. It will probably be 2 weeks or so before I can report back with some chrono data. If this works out well going forward I'll only buy small rifle primers and not bother with small pistol magnum primers.

Paul

Hey thanks Headhog, sounds like we are in the same boat.

I am interested in you performance of the .357 rounds through your Henry using the small pistol primers. I am looking for range rounds.

I am reserving my magnum primers for my duty carry rounds for my snakes.

For the Henry, I am using 180 grain Missouri pug nose strikers under 10.2 grains of 2400 at 1350 FPS. This is what I need primers for. What powder are you burning?

runnin n gunnin wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 11:17 pm

Hey thanks Headhog, sounds like we are in the same boat.

I am interested in you performance of the .357 rounds through your Henry using the small pistol primers. I am looking for range rounds.

I am reserving my magnum primers for my duty carry rounds for my snakes.

For the Henry, I am using 180 grain Missouri pug nose strikers under 10.2 grains of 2400 at 1350 FPS. This is what I need primers for. What powder are you burning?

I've been using Universal powder, because I've got a lot of it. Looking at Hodgdon's load data, Universal will not handle those heavy 180 gr. bullets. For my every day range load I'm using the hard cast 158 gr Missouri Bullet with 6.2 gr of Universal and a magnum small pistol primer. Out of the Henry this gives me 1260 fps. If I switch to non-magnum primers I loose about 50 fps in velocity. This morning I just put together 20 test rounds with this bullet and powder combination using small rifle primers. Hopefully I can get to the range next week to see what the chrono has to say.

Paul