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I am following an interesting thread on a Danish forum at the moment. Some of them are using magnum primers to maintain lower ES's, specifically in the 6.5-284 but also in other cartridges. I have always thought magnum primers were best used for 60+ grains of powder.

Are magnum primers worth looking at in .308? I have certainly never considered them and given the potential load development with dropping a few grains and starting over I doubt I will be trying it either.

Does anyone have a view on this?

Agree ovenpaa...loads need working up...aren't magnum primers designed for slower burning powders in larger rifle cartridges?

Robin128 wrote:Agree ovenpaa...loads need working up...aren't magnum primers designed for slower burning powders in larger rifle cartridges?

That most likely is correct Rob, but,on the American sites they recommend magnum primers for the .22hornet,something i've been doing for about three years now,with no signs of overpressure,blown primers,or hard extraction ( stop giggling),I did post some time ago on another forum only to be ridiculed,so haven't mentioned it since.

Alan :)

Alan, did you have to drop the load much and do you find velocities more consistent?

With hornet loads the maximum that you can use (Lil'Gun) is 13gns,and that's what the recommendation was(or is),I've always used that amount and had no problems what ever.
I also use magnum primers in my .243, that's with H4831sc powder,a fairly slow burning powder,i've found that the recoil is very light,but the velocity remains the same,a bonus in my case as i'm not a big fella.

Alan :)

back a little later,got my grand daughter here and she would like her dinner!! :lol:

On the LOADBOOKS USA booklet under the loads for SPEER, they show that CCi 200 and 250 (Magnum)primers for the loads for the .243. I'm using 47gns H4831 SC with both Sierra 55gn Blitzkings, and Speer 70gn TNT-HP bullets.There is no mention of reducing powder loads.
The H4831SC came about from a couple of years ago when I was experimenting with subsonic loads for my Hornet, 11gns H4831SC and a 40/45gn Sierra Hornet bullet,chrono'ed at an average of 1060fps,they worked well,but had a couple of richocets(sp),so gave up on them for safety reasons.They did kill well though.
Also the magnum primers that I use on my Hornet are pistol primers,another thing I picked up from the shooters in the USA,apparently they are slightly thicker and are less prone to blowing.
I should also say that I got a lot of info from a poster on GT named Andrew.

Alan :)