The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Using small magnum pistol primers for 9mm?

cujo8 · February 16, 2013, 04:19 PM

As you all know reloading components, especially primers are very hard to get right now and I just started loading 9mm and 40S&W and the only primers I could find were Federal Small Magnum Pistol primers. From what I read, people recommend that in this situation you should start out at the minimum load range to compensate for the hotter magnum primer. I did this for my 40S&W load using 180gn FMJ's and as far as I could tell it worked out fine. Recently I started loading 9mm ammo for a new Sig 9mm I just purchased and 9mm ammo is just as scarce as small pistol primers right now. I began using 115gn Speer RN FMJs in 9mm once fired brass casings and charging the rounds w/ 6.2gn of PowerPistol, which is the low minimum range according to my Speer manual (6.2 min to 6.7max). I also loaded some 124gn truncated cone speer 9mm bullets as well using 5.6gn (minimum charge value for this bullet) of PowerPistol powder. I went to the range to test my rounds and the 124gn rounds felt OK, but possibly a little more powerful than some factory 9mm rounds I also shot. The 115gn rounds on the other hand felt very hot and my Sig P226 was ejecting the casings 10 to 15 feet away! This made me a little uncomfortable to say the least. The fired brass didn't show any signs of an over pressure conditions that I could tell. I've ordered a chronograph to test the bullet velocities, but I've read that bullet velocity and barrel pressures do not track linearly. Do you folks have any words of wisdom about this observation?

February 16, 2013, 04:19 PM	#1
cujo8 Junior Member Join Date: February 15, 2013 Posts: 1	Using small magnum pistol primers for 9mm? As you all know reloading components, especially primers are very hard to get right now and I just started loading 9mm and 40S&W and the only primers I could find were Federal Small Magnum Pistol primers. From what I read, people recommend that in this situation you should start out at the minimum load range to compensate for the hotter magnum primer. I did this for my 40S&W load using 180gn FMJ's and as far as I could tell it worked out fine. Recently I started loading 9mm ammo for a new Sig 9mm I just purchased and 9mm ammo is just as scarce as small pistol primers right now. I began using 115gn Speer RN FMJs in 9mm once fired brass casings and charging the rounds w/ 6.2gn of PowerPistol, which is the low minimum range according to my Speer manual (6.2 min to 6.7max). I also loaded some 124gn truncated cone speer 9mm bullets as well using 5.6gn (minimum charge value for this bullet) of PowerPistol powder. I went to the range to test my rounds and the 124gn rounds felt OK, but possibly a little more powerful than some factory 9mm rounds I also shot. The 115gn rounds on the other hand felt very hot and my Sig P226 was ejecting the casings 10 to 15 feet away! This made me a little uncomfortable to say the least. The fired brass didn't show any signs of an over pressure conditions that I could tell. I've ordered a chronograph to test the bullet velocities, but I've read that bullet velocity and barrel pressures do not track linearly. Do you folks have any words of wisdom about this observation?