Loading for a couple of Magnum rifles...What is the advantage and/or disadvantage to using Benchrest vs Match vs Large Rifle vs Magnum primers.

I have tried Magnum primers with some of my loads and also I have tried Match primers.

I am relatively new to reloading and am not sure what the differences would be or the effect each would have on the accuracy of a round/group.

Thanks,

Generally your load book will spec the primer required. Magnum primers are simply more powerful than standard primers, and the load manual will tell you if magnum primers were used in a load. As far as match vs benchrest, it's just a measure of consistency and accuracy, like match ammunition vs regular. Large rifle is a primer size, not a variation (there are large rifle and small rifle, large pistol and small pistol)

i agree, load data should specify which primer was used in load testing! Magnum primers are designed to burn hotter and faster due to the larger powder charge common with most magnum calibers. just depends on what you are loading and what you are trying to accomplish.

KC I love your quote. Did you come up with that or did someone else say it?

I can't claim it, John Stuart Mill said it many years ago. I just have a snippet of it in my signature. Here is the entire quote...

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.
"The Contest in America," Fraser’s Magazine (February 1862); later published in Dissertations and Discussions (1868), vol.1 p. 26

Now that we have gotten completely away from the subject, let's move on to something completely different.

For all the rifle calibers I load for, magnum or not, I use the Federal Gold Medal Match Magnum Large Rifle primers, GM215M.

I don't really know how much actual difference there is, but the match/bench rest primers are supposedly manufactured under closer tolerances than regular large rifle or large rifle magnum primers.

I know that I am happy with the performance I have gotten from using them. JMO.

Would there be any problem using a large pistol magnum primer in 45ACP loads that called for regular pistol primer?

Haven't ever loaded that round so not sure.

I don't believe there would be, but have never checked into it.

I don't know if there would be a problem, although I would use the Large pistol on such a small case. It might be fine.

Most load books have a number you can call that you can get advice on. Try one of those, they can answer anything.

You can use magnum primers, just reduce your powder charge by 10%. That being said, just use what the loadbook specs. Primers are very, very cheap...

I do understand a little about the primers but I have tried loading with Magnum primers and also with Match grade primers and I do understand Magnum primers fire hotter. The reason I asked about this is because the loads I have worked up with both using the exact same bullet, powder and Shell cases the Match grade primers have always provided better groups.

Thanks KC. I agree it's best to use what the load books call for. My question was more related to availability and what could work due to the sporadic supply available from the on-line sources lately. Some sources are backordered and have been for a good while on the big cases of standards but have plenty of the magnums so that's why I asked. The magnums usually cost a little more so it wasn't about trying to save a couple of bucks on a thousand. More about not wanting to run out of something that could be made to work. That and it just grates on me to have to burn 3 different hazmat fees just to get what I want because nobody seems to have all of the ones I use available to ship at any one time. I guess it is about saving a few bucks after all LOL.

Ahh, I get it!! Then yeah, get the magnums. You can make them work by reducing your powder charge. I didn't know primers were getting hard to find, but then again it stands to reason. I haven't bought any in quite some time, my buddy and I did a bulk buy a few years ago and I've got em coming out my ears...

Any time you change primers, whether it be brand or size, you will change the ignition and burn rate of the powder. Only way to know is to experiment with your load. But don't get blowed up Note though, that trying to find loads with different size primers is just reinventing the wheel. Stick with the primer suggested for your cartridge.

Also,I have not found any real differences in consistency between GM210M and and No 210 primers. I still use the 210M for competition but regular 210s seem just as good.

For what it is worth......

To make metion of something that seems important here, it is not advisable to use standard primers in calibers where a magnum primer is normally called for (larger magnums), as this can lead to a delayed ignition situation (theoretically).