I have been hand loading a lot of 9mm lately. Like everyone else I can’t find my preferred primers. I ran out of small but found some small pistol magnums.
I have fired about 2500 rounds of 9mm loaded with Tula, Winchester and CCI magnum primers. I used a mid level charge of W231 or Unique.
The cases looked fine. No flattened primers or other obvious signs of pressure related problems.
I had numerous FTF, especially with the CCI primers. I installed Wolff extra power firing pin springs (6lb) in my G19 and an extra power hammer spring in my 9mm AR. Problem solved.
I have a few thousand small rifle primers stashed. Has anyone given these a try in 9mm? I would love to see some data showing the increase in chamber pressure caused by magnum or rifle primers
I have been using CCI small rifle primers in my 9mm PCC and so far I haven’t had a problem. I have only shot less than a 1000 so far.
In the next couple of months I will be trying them in my Sig 320 Legion at a USPSA event and see how that goes.
My understanding of CCI pistol vs rifle primers is the rifle primers have harder cups. Fired from my PCC the velocities were roughly the same.
I haven’t personally run a test on magnum pistol primers but a friend of mine tells me he get 50+ FPS higher than rifle/pistol primers.
There’s a few YouTube videos that show results similar to yours. I don’t think using Magnum or small rifle primers in 9 mil causes a safety problem. Just ignition problems. CCI are much harder than other brands of primers.
I wouldn’t expect much, if any impact on pressure. 9mm powder charges are pretty forgiving, and some rifle primers are the same as pistol, just in different packaging. Wolf SRMs are only magnum in the cup thickness sense.
I’m not a fan of using a Rifle primer for pistol ammo, because a Rifle round is WAY more valuable to me than some pistol round.
Wierd, I have loaded and shot with thousands of magnum, and small rifle, in various 9mm Glock pistols over the last few years, never had any kind of problems.
I found a local shop had several thousand remington 6 1/2 primers priced very well because while being a rifle primer they are not recommended for use in most rifle calibers. I bought 5k of them for like $30 per k. They work perfect as a small pistol primer.
The small rifle primers I’ve measured have the same outside dimensions as small pistol primers. I’ve found the cups on the small rifle primers harder than small pistol primers. The only issue I have seen with using small pistol magnum or small rifle primers for 9mm reloads is FTF due to light hammer springs. With a standard weight hammer spring they work just fine.
Large rifle primers I’ve measured are 0.004" longer than large pistol primers. They could protrude from the primer cup and cause a safety issue when used for large pistol loads. Large pistol primers are softer and not recommended for large rifle loads.
I did get light primer strikes with WOLF SRMs on a Gen 2 glock back in the day. Back then I bought them cuz they were cheap, and I had no idea they were gold in a rifle rounds.
The primers that gave me the most problem with light hits were the CCI small pistol magnums. I bought them from an 85-year-old guy at my gun club. The packaging looked like it was from the 1980s. Tula small pistol magnums worked better, with only a few light hits.
I’ve yet to try my supply of wolf small rifle primers in my 9 mil loads.
I initially tried the red Glock 28 newton striker spring . This, along with the stock gen 5 connector, made the trigger pull ridiculously heavy. The Wolff extra power 6 lb spring didn’t cause much of a noticeable difference in trigger pull. Works well.
CCI primers are not harder. they are the thinnest srp made. They work almost perfect in 9mm. Some guns with high usage and wheel guns with lighter springs have a hard time as they don’t put out enough force to lite them off.
And before someone post the link from the sksboard. cci changed the compound in the spm primer so they are not the same as the srp anymore. But they are completely safe to use in place of a spp.
Roger, I should clarify brands I’ve used in said capacity: Remington, Federal, CCI, and Winchester. Used small rifle, and small pistol magnum, from each of these brands, for 9mm in Glocks.
Good to know these work. Maybe my hammer fired guns will strike hard enough if times get tough. We only have 6,000 rounds of pistol primers but mucho SRP’s.
