Stupid is as stupid does

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Vacek

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OK, I couldn't figure out why my 45 LC loads all of the sudden were not rotatig easily in my old model Vaquero. It seems that I have loaded up 10 loads of 11.5 grains of Unique behind Beartooth's 280 grain cast bullet with gas check. The only problem is that I primed with Large Rifle (CCI).

Question, can large rifle primers be used in a revolver? I went back and reseated and now they rotate ok.
 
By the way...I do know that the Large Rifle primer is the same diamter but a little longer than the Large Pistol Primer. I am assuming the smartest thing is to pull the loads, shoot off the primers, reclean and start over.
 
Copied this from another forum:

According to SAAMI, the depths for small pistol, small rifle, and
large pistol primer pockets are .118" to .122", while large rifle
primer pocket depths are .128" to .132". Small pistol and small
rifle primers have the same diameter (.175") while large rifle and
large pistol primers are also the same (.210").
 
I went back and reseated and now they rotate ok.
Click to expand...
Sorry I got a little lost. Do you mean that you went back and reseated the primers on loaded rounds. If so it sounds to me like you were lucky, that could have gone very bad real quick.
Rusty
 
This is bad. You need to ditch these rounds. If the rounds are intended for large pistol primers and you loaded them with large rifle primers (same diameter) that's a big no no. LR primers seat deeper than LP primers, which means they're going to seat "proud" (stick out) of a case that was intended for LP primers. This is why there was a fuss with the 500 S&W when Hornady made their brass with LP pockets and Starline was making theirs with LR pockets. Starline actually went back and changed the headstamp on the brass to indicate that they were for LR primers for safety reasons.

Problems -

1. If they're sticking out at all, and accidentally impact the rear of the reciever this could result in a chain fire where one or more cylinders not in battery fires.

2. You could run them through the gun in single shot fashion but your loads were not worked up with LR primers, so there's no way to know what kind of pressure differences you might encounter with the LR primer.

Don't risk it. Throw them away. It's 10 rounds.

Oh yeah, and it's not recommended to go back and seat primers deeper on loaded rounds. <shakes finger>
 
Gotta agree with Strongbad. If the primers were sticking out so far that the cylinder was hard to rotate, just reseating them a little doesn't necessarily mean they are now flush or below flush.

Probably don't have to say this, but you should examine your priming procedure. Not necessarily to be sure you have the right type of primer (although you should think carefully about that as well), but because all those rounds with high primers escaped your notice until you actually chambered them in your revolver.

As others have said - never reseat primers on loaded rounds.
 
yep i too agree with strongbad. if it were me i would pull the bullets. then pop out the primers then redo them. Not worth taking any chances on a chain fire.
 
Not to worry boys. I did pull the bullets before reseating. I am going to fire off the primers and re-do. Thanks for the feedback.
 
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