Primer size

I have been reloading for over 20 years, and thought I had a rough idea of what I was doing. I went to get small pistol primers today (couldn't find any) and was told many reloaders use small rifle primers instead. Same goes with large rifle and large pistol. The rloading shop I went to told me there are only two sizes of primers, just labled different. I checked around and it is a common practice.

Anyone else heard or do this?

I believe the only difference is depth.

The rule is not to interchange large rifle and large pistol. Something to do with the seating depth with one being slightly taller than the other.

I use small rifle primers exclusively in calibers that use the smaller primers. Thousands of reloads shot through glock 40s, 9s, ruger 9, sig 40, ar15, 222rem, etc etc etc, with no issues. Small rifle and small pistol generally have the same dimensions.

It may be "trying times" but interchanging components can get you in hurt in a hurry. If you want to do a search engine search you'll find several tables listing the physical differences in the primer sizes. All I can offer otherwise is to say I would wait, there's likely someone that can spare a few primers for you. We may have to make changes to our amount of shooting till this mess clears up as well. Anyhow if you put a small rifle primer in a small pistol case it'll sit a few thou proud of the case. You should have headspace to cover that but one never knows. The cup is about 3 thou thicker on the rifle primer as well. Most handguns will set it off but a marginal older or weaker spring might not - say mis-fires. For sure if you think of doing this stay away from Federal primers, they run on the hot side of things. Rem 61/2's and CCI's have the softest cups and not quite so hot mix. Definitely not magnum primers.......

Still like the "get a few off someone local to you the best though", if you were local I could help ya out.

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Originally Posted by Speedrat1

It may be "trying times" but interchanging components can get you in hurt in a hurry. If you want to do a search engine search you'll find several tables listing the physical differences in the primer sizes. All I can offer otherwise is to say I would wait, there's likely someone that can spare a few primers for you. We may have to make changes to our amount of shooting till this mess clears up as well. Anyhow if you put a small rifle primer in a small pistol case it'll sit a few thou proud of the case. You should have headspace to cover that but one never knows. The cup is about 3 thou thicker on the rifle primer as well. Most handguns will set it off but a marginal older or weaker spring might not - say mis-fires. For sure if you think of doing this stay away from Federal primers, they run on the hot side of things. Rem 61/2's and CCI's have the softest cups and not quite so hot mix. Definitely not magnum primers.......

Still like the "get a few off someone local to you the best though", if you were local I could help ya out.

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Great advice, very informative! Thanks for the offer.

A few primer cup dimensions that may help. I use Winchester small rifle primers in a .327 fed mag Ruger Blackhawk w/o problems. Haven't tried any others.
http://www.radomski.us/njhp/cart_tech.htm