Primer chart

[pklin1297]

Hello all,

Does anyone know where I might find a chart of primers and their corresponding calibers? Kinda like this:

Primer Type / Calibers that use this type of primer

Large Pistol / 45 ACP, etc.


I just got a Sierra loading handbook version 5 and while the primers are listed by type and examples of calibers given at the beginning information section, a comprehensive list is not present anywhere in the manual, and only one primer (manufacturer and number, the primer used in testing the load) is given in the load data pages for each caliber.

I'm looking for online sources or print media, either will work. Thanks much!

[Technical Ted]

There are four basic types:
Large Pistol
Small Pistol
Large Rifle
Small Rifle

Look at the case and figure it out.

FWIW there are two case types for 6.8 Remington SPC: the original Remington manufactured cases that use large rifle primers and the newer manufactured cases from Hornady and Silver State that use small rifle primers.

[ar15barrels]

There are four basic types:
Large Pistol
Small Pistol
Large Rifle
Small Rifle

Look at the case and figure it out.

FWIW there are two case types for 6.8 Remington SPC: the original Remington manufactured cases that use large rifle primers and the newer manufactured cases from Hornady and Silver State that use small rifle primers.

There are other cartridges as well with multiple primer sizes.
7.62x39 comes to mind immediatly...

[StukaJr]

Your request for primer list by caliber is flawed - I've noted more reasons why to add to the aforementioned reasons above my post. Much easier is to decipher manufacturer's code for primers to their general description... Winchester's WSP is Winchester Small Pistol which would correspond to CCI-500 - most of the manuals now list their loads in CCI or Federal primers anyhow, so that table should be much shorter than impossible task of compiling your original request.

The primer used is also determined by the Load you are using - the developer of the load will specify which primer used when the load was tested... Like a lot of .357 Magnum Revolver loads used to be developed with small pistol magnum primers, but recently regular small pistol primer based loads were introduced. .357 Magnum brass will accept either small pistol or small pistol Magnum - once again, depends on the load.

Pistol primers can be used in Rifle loads if the load calls for its specifically - and so on... Add Berdan primers to the list and you've complicated things even further.

It's easy to become befuddled when first starting to reload - I would suggest sticking within exact load description for your first couple of loads... It's better to have less things to speculate with - until you are loading with certain level of experience, that is

[Glock22Fan]

Careful

"Pistol primers can be used in Rifle loads if the load calls for its specifically - "

But only do this if the author of the load is HIGHLY respectable. I saw a custom (Weatherby?) Rigby four sixteen the other day (the actual debris, not just photos). Half the action was missing, never found, and the barrel looked like a half-peeled banana. I talked with the owner's gunsmith.

The owner had relied on a magazine published recipe to produce light loads, and this recipe called for a pistol primer.

The "experts", after the fact, came to a concensus that he had unwittingly produced a squib load.

It was surmised that the pistol primer had enough power to start the powder burning and partly move the bullet into the barrel but not enough to cause complete immediate combustion. The powder then "hung up" for a while (why, of course, you are told to keep the weapon pointing down range for at least a minute after a misfire) and the bullet stopped moving. Then the rest of the powder belatedly caught and the action/barrel exploded.

OK, I can see questions to ask about whether this is true, like "Enough pressure to split the barrel but not enough to first eject the bullet, after which the barrel wouldn't split?" but I don't claim to have the expertise that the rifle manufacturers used to come to their explanation.

So, take it or leave it, but I ain't using pistol primers on my rifle loads. That guy lost his hand and one eye.

[rksimple]

"Pistol primers can be used in Rifle loads if the load calls for its specifically - "

But only do this if the author of the load is HIGHLY respectable.

I'll second that. Pistol primers also have a thinner case making them easier to ignite. In other words, they don't require as hard a hit from the firing pin. In a high pressure rifle, with a hard firing pin strike, pierced primers may result with pistol primers.