primers

can you use small rifle primers in place of small pistol primers in 357 magnum ?

There are no safety issues I'm aware of, if that is what you are asking.

You may have some ignition problems depending on what you shoot them in because rifle primers are supposed to take more force to ignite than pistol primers. Do they? Probably, but I am not certain as I have never specifically explored it. This assumption includes the possibility that an ignition system with only enough spring tension to ignite a supposedly softer pistol primer might fail to strike a rifle primer hard enough to ignite it. I don't remember hearing or reading about it happening - doesn't mean it couldn't or hasn't, though, so I am keeping an open mind on it. Some people do have a compulsion to monkey with perfectly good guns to "improve" them, and I have seen more than one "improved" to uselessness. :happy69:

I have never switched sm rifle primers for pistol, though I have done it the other way around and used sm pistol primers in rifle cartridges in my .30carb and .223 Contender barrels for light cast target ammo without problems.

Or are you considering the idea of substituting some as you would vary other components to see how it will affect accuracy/performance of your loads?

That is a different question. Considering all the different brands and kinds of small primers, I don't know that you will find any practical difference in this one instance, but you might. And there is only one way to find out. You have to get your gun's opinion, as that is the only one that really counts. I see no reason not to try them with a starting load as I would when changing any component, and shoot some groups to compare them to the loads with sp's to see if there is a noticable difference, positive or negative.

If I'm playing with different primers, it's after I have tested all the powders and bullets I have and I want to see if the very best combinations can be improved with a different primer, or I'm getting desperate because I just can't come up with any acceptably accurate combination, as in the two barrels I mentioned. Either way, they seem to me to have the least effect on accuracy of the four components, so I check them out last, and usually just for the most accurate of my rifles and pistols, where I'm most likely to be able to notice the difference if there is one. Oh, and the .30carb decided it liked spmag primers the best and I still have it and shoot it with that primer and one specific cast bullet (tested ten), but nothing helped that .223 shoot groups with either cast bullet (only found two moulds) and I gave up and sold it.

the way that it happened was i load 454 casull a lot and the i bought a 357 magnum smith. i started loading them myself and never thought about it that i needed small pistol primers. i keep large pistol magnum, large rifle magnum and small rifle magnum primers in stock. i noticed with cci primers i was frequently getting rounds that didn't fire then it dawned on me i was using the wrong primer. since then i got a taurus tracker 357 and they fire fine in it.i guess i allready knew the answer to my question but i had to hear it from someone else.

Small rifle may make your load a little hotter it should have a little hotter ignition than a small pistol primer.
Knock off 5 to 10% and work your way back up should work like a hot damn.

Ken.

I havve one 357 load for Blackhawks that recommends a SR primer. It has a proven to be a little harder to ignite. The key is to work up each time you change any component.