Do you use magnum primers with ball powder?

[wonderman4]

CCI changed their primer mix in 1989 to better ignite these ball powders as the powder guys were using more deterrents. The military was using ball powders in the 5.56 and 7.62, so CCI wanted to stay in competition. As mentioned earlier by bigedp51, more deterrents make the powder harder to ignite properly.

The other primer manufacturers followed suit in a timely manner.

 

[freddiej]

I have personally just given up on standard large rifle primers. I use too much ball powders on my 22-250, and the other rifles I have. magnums seem to make all of my rifles shoot better no matter what powder I put in them. only one does not.. that is my 1943 M-1 Garand. that is the only rifle I use standard large rifle primers. all the other rifles get magnum primers. that goes for my pistol primers as well.

 

[CUTTER1]

Always

 

[ajkellerusmc]

I have personally just given up on standard large rifle primers. I use too much ball powders on my 22-250, and the other rifles I have. magnums seem to make all of my rifles shoot better no matter what powder I put in them. only one does not.. that is my 1943 M-1 Garand. that is the only rifle I use standard large rifle primers. all the other rifles get magnum primers. that goes for my pistol primers as well.

I recently got ahold of some 1941 surplus 30.06 ammo and fired it in my model 70. went boom everytime! but out of curiosity I pulled one down and there was you guessed it a load of sparkling ball powder. Im sure the primers were standard because magnums didnt exist in those days.

 

[nicholasjohn]

I recently got ahold of some 1941 surplus 30.06 ammo and fired it in my model 70. went boom everytime! but out of curiosity I pulled one down and there was you guessed it a load of sparkling ball powder. Im sure the primers were standard because magnums didnt exist in those days.

I have a couple of questions :

Did you shoot any of it over a chronograph to check the numbers ?

Did you see any "cold-welding" of bullets to case necks that we hear about from time to time ?

 

[wonderman4]

Most milspec ammo that I have had occasion to use from that period had sealer on the bullet, which IMO eliminated the possibility of "cold welding".

 

[nicholasjohn]

Most milspec ammo that I have had occasion to use from that period had sealer on the bullet, which IMO eliminated the possibility of "cold welding".

Thanks. The only military ammo I have ever used was not taken apart to see what was in it - we shot it all. I have seen pictures of corroded and stuck-together bullets and case necks, but have never seen this myself. There were some very good pictures of this in a recent thread on this forum, and I was left wondering how much this influences pressure spikes when fired. I also saw some pictures of this in an old Ken Waters Pet loads manual, and it has made me a bit leary of using old ammo. That said, I have never had a problem with old ammunition, commercial or military.

 

[ajkellerusmc]

I have a couple of questions :

Did you shoot any of it over a chronograph to check the numbers ?

Did you see any "cold-welding" of bullets to case necks that we hear about from time to time ?

Yes, average velocity was 2860 but I had extreme spreads of 188fps! I saw no cold welding as I wouldnt know what to look for anyhow.

The target was pretty average for milspec ammo and confirmed the ES, 6 moa at 100yds.