Alliant 2400 primers

[montana09]

So I have a question I can't seem to nail down, are magnum primers required with Alliant 2400? specifically I'm talking .327 Federal, .38 special, .45 Colt, and .357 mag.

[big al hunter]

Every recipe I can find for 357 mag is with magnum primers. 38 spl is regular small pistol primers. I'm not sure about 45 or 327 loads, but some 44 mag loads are regular large pistol primers. I would imagine you could find a load for 45 with large pistol primers. Have you tried the Alliant website? They have data listed.

[montana09]

See that's my question maybe someone with a better grasp on the whys than I can explain it; why would I need magnum primers with the 357 and just standard with the 38 specials? It's the same powder, often I'm using the same bullet (125 gn hornady xtps) and 90% of the time I'm even firing them in the same gun, a 357. Why would it be different primers?

[zxcvbob]

No, 2400 does not need magnum primers. It will work with regular and magnum primers, and often the regular primers will give tighter groups. I'm not familiar with .327 Federal, but I think it's a lot higher pressure than .357 Magnum so a small rifle primer might be appropriate.

I have loaded .357 Magnum and .45 Colts +P with 2400 and standard pistol primers. I don't know why you'd ever use that powder in .38 Special. HTH

BTW, the load data just tells you what primer they tested with, and that's good to know. It doesn't say why they used that primer (there may not be a good reason)

[noylj]

No, but they also don't hurt.
Love 2400.

[nhyrum]

Two things. The Magnum is needed for larger powder volumes. Like lighting a cotton ball vs lighting a stick the size of your finger, larger powder volumes need more energy to combust.

SOME powders are tougher to light, too. I don't think 2400 is one of those, I don't use it much but in things I already use Magnum primers in anyway. But, h110 is one of the powders that's just... Tough to light, from my experience and others. It's actually the only one I'm personally aware of. I use it in multiple things. Tried it in 10mm, use it in 9x25 Dillon and 454 casull. The 9x25 really showed it's difficulty. Regular large pistol primers had a hard time lighting the near 20 grains h110 in the 10mm case, which was slightly compressed (h110 pretty much likes to be compressed) I was getting a decent amount of unburnt powder residue, and erratic velocities. Same load, switched to Magnum primers of the same brand, and I got slightly higher, more consistent velocities, with far less powder in the gun. The 454 I also burn a lot of h110 in, but also 2400, it gets Remington 7 1/2 which are what the book calls for, which I do believe state on them they are for standard and Magnum loads (which leads me to believe they are a "Magnum" and that Magnum primers can reasonably safely be used in place of normal primers)

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[big al hunter]

When I started loading 2400 it was being produced by Hercules. And my Speer manual called for magnum primers in 44 mag loads. It was stated in the manual that this was to fully ignite the large quantities of powder. Since then, several companies have tested with standard primers and found it gave better results. It wouldn't hurt to try standard primers and test them for accuracy in your guns.

[Unclenick]

In the case of 38 Special vs. 357 Mag, there isn't enough volume difference to matter. The reason you see magnum primers in the 357 is that most load manuals do all their loading for a particular chambering with the same primer, so they pick the magnum primer for slow spherical powders like 296/H110 and then just use it with all the others whether they need it or not. 2400 does not need it, IME.

[pete2]

Alliant recommends standard primers. But it's their powder, what do they know.

[Jim Watson]

Some old guy name of Keith did not use magnum primers with No 2400.

[zxcvbob]

If you have the luxury of trying both (supplies are hard to find right now) do it and see which you like better. If you don't, use whatever you have and they will work with this powder.

[rclark]

The answer is: No. Not required.

I use standard primers with 2400 for all my 2400 loads from 357, .44, to .45 Colt. It certainly doesn't 'need' a magnum primer unlike some other powders (that's why it isn't required). Do you own testing (I did over a chrono) and draw your own conclusions. Mine was ... 'use' a standard primer if you have a choice.

Note that some people trip over the word Magnum. "I have a .357 Magnum ... so requires 'Magnum' primers". No. Not that at all. The powder used will dictate whether a Magnum primer should be used ... or not.

[montana09]

Thank you all for the response!

[Nick_C_S]

As Unclenick states, many manuals use Magnum primers for their 357 Mag load data just so they can do all their loading with the same primer, etc.

No, but they also don't hurt.

I have done a lot of 357 Mag loading using 2400, and with Mag and Std primers (CCI 550 & CCI 500 specifically). With 158 grainers, I got more pressure signs with less velocity using Magnum primers (4" bbl test gun). I don't have the data in front of me, but I believe Standard Deviations were lower with the Standard primers as well.

For me, the decision was easy and final: Standard primers for 2400.

BTW, 2400 it great stuff. But I only use it for 158's. I find it too boomy and flashy with 125's. It's slow stuff, so it behaves best pushing heavies.

[Sevens]

See that's my question maybe someone with a better grasp on the whys than I can explain it; why would I need magnum primers with the 357 and just standard with the 38 specials? It's the same powder, often I'm using the same bullet (125 gn hornady xtps) and 90% of the time I'm even firing them in the same gun, a 357. Why would it be different primers?

As said, the powder dictates primer choice typically. My comment is a little outside the general discussion here but it’s still relevant given what you said and I quoted above.

If you are making .38 Special and .357 Magnum with the same powder... I would be of the opinion that in almost all cases... you are doing it wrong.

Great .38 loads demand a fast burning powder. And true magnum revolver loads are lousy imposters if you are making them with fast burning pistol powders. They will not return magnum performance and they do this will ALL the same peak pressure of a magnum load.

The only thing that magnum loads do with fast burning pistol powders that can be claimed as a benefit is that they use a smaller charge weight. So you can save literally a penny or two in powder.

I’ll say with no reservation that if you are making .357 Magnum ammo using any of Ramshot Zip, AA#2, Bullseye, Titegroup (the worst possible choice) or any of the Red Dot, Promo, 700X... you are not building .357 Magnum well.

This is not meant to be condescending in any way whatsoever, I went through this learning curve and I suspect every handloader does also. When I learned about the differences in handgun powders and how they are best used, it was a genuine epiphany in my journey.

Last bit: if you are making .327 Federal handloads, note that the specified primer is a small rifle primer. Federal builds all of their factory .327 Federal ammo (45k psi max) with a small rifle primer.

[totaldla]

I love 2400 because it works great in large cases with regular primers. Won't hurt anything if you use mag primers, but they certainly are not required for reliable ignition under any circumstances I'm aware of.