Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Testing Pistol Ammo Loaded With Small Rifle Primers vs Small Pistol Primers

Great information! Thank you, Jim!

Thanks to all who shared info
Well worth reading
Hank

Thanks for the research.

Y'all can tag this thread for when primers actually become available again...

I tried cci 400 in my 9mm load a week ago. Didn’t bring the chronograph. Shot them out my Glock they all shot fine. My load 4.1gr of bullseye, 124gr hi tek coated bullet.

Great information! Thanks!

Thanks! Good info.

tag

A good while back, when primers were actually very cheap, I picked up some Remington 650 SRPs just because I wasn't paying attention. They worked out fine in my .222, but I learned that they were intended for lower pressure cartridges like the .22 Hornet, and had thinner cups that could potentially blow out with the higher pressure of a modern cartridge.

When i learned about this I was well into one brick of them, and had an unopened brick that I gave to a guy that loaded for the Hornet. I still notice that partial brick of 650s from time to time, and occasionally have thought about acquiring a hornet to use them. Thinking now they'd be my substitute of choice for .38/.357 primers...

And there's still the little matter of the Hornet... Liking the 77/22 for that....

Here is a recent video put out by Super Vel Ammunition where they pressure tested and chronographed CCI small pistol, small pistol magnum and small pistol rifle primers in 9mm. The conclusion was that there is no difference. They also indicated that they function fine in most stock production guns.

Thanks for posting that, Cheyenne. That's good stuff--especially the pressure data.

My old packages of Federal 200 primers say small rifle or small magnum pistol on the box.

Thanks for the video!

Mine as well. Probably like the Remington 6-1/2 rifle primers .. appropriate for .22 Hornet, .25-20, and .32-20, but not for high pressure cases based on the .222 Remington.

I have messed around with interchanging small rifle and small pistol primers but not in a 9mm. I had a Single Seven .327 which runs at very very high pressure for a handgun. .327 pretty nearly matches .30 Carbine for pressure and the muzzle blast is abusive even if the recoil isn't. I chose to throttle mine back a bit. When I switched to loads with pressures akin to the .357 instead of .454, I also switched from small rifle primers to the Federal 200 primer. It seemed to help accuracy somewhat. (Gotta give Brian Pearce credit for the idea.)

Tom

Just an update:

I have fired about 2000 of my 9mm rounds that use a small rifle primer (both CCI and Winchester), and yesterday morning I had my first fail to fire. It did fire on the second try.

Other than that, the rounds have performed just like "normal" rounds. I haven't noticed any issues with pressure, and they are just as accurate as ammo loaded to the same specs, with the primer swap being the only difference.

I shot a group with my Sig P365XL with a Holosun red dot, and it turned out well for me. One round kept me in touch with reality, though. My shooting buddy laughed and said he better sign my target, because otherwise none of our friends would believe it. So he attested to the legitimacy of my claim.

EXCELLENT! 🎈🎊🎉🧨💯

Very nice thread! Thank you all!