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another question about magnum primers

Cornflk1
Made a post the other day about the use of magnun primers reloading the.223 Remington with Hodgdon BCL-2 powder and the use ofother company's primers that were not labeled "magnum.

My Speer #9 book makes a special notation that with BCL-2 powder a magnum primer should be used. I e-mailed the Hodgdon Co. and their response is:

We do not recommend any magnum primers with any powders in the 223



Mike Daly

Customer Satisfaction Manager

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From: Hodgdon Powder Company [mailto:Rcornflk@aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 11:58 AM
To: Administrator
Subject: Cartridge Load Report - 223 Remington



Hodgdon Powder Company
Cartridge Load Recipe Report - 3/22/2009
data.hodgdon.com
223 Remington

Load Type:
Rifle
Powder:
BL-C(2)


Comments: My reloading book recommends using CCI #450 mannum primers with Hodgdon BLC2 powder. What about Federal #205 small rifle or Winchester # WSR small rifle? They don't make a designation as to being magnum.
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This really took me by surprise. I had been reloading this way for years. I admit that my reloading data may be outdated, but I can't believe that my Speer #9 book is that wrong. What do the current books say? Any one have any additional comments? Thanks in advance
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Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • rufe-snow
    Set up a empirical test by loading 20 rounds of each, to see which primer is most accurate, with your specific load(s). Don't be losing any sleep about what is in the books, or what some guy from Hodgdon's tells you not to do. Find out for yourself. It's been my experience that most of the recent information available in reloading books, and from the manufactures of powder is lawyer/liability driven. Their sacred s**tless about you using their data, then running to some court with a ambulance chaser to sue them for a million bucks. Check out some of the loads in the old reloading books from 30+ years ago, if you don't believe me.
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  • bpost
    I am not sure what to think about all of the brew-ha-ha over magnum Vs. non-magnum primers. The job of a primer is to ignite the powder. A magnum primer has more "spark" than non-mag primers do and that extra "umph" should not be ignored when using them instead of standard primers.

    However; the use of a mag primer in any published load should not wreck a gun or create an unsafe pressure spike. If there was a chance of that happening then the powder needs to be pulled from the market as unsafe. Since that action is lacking, the use of mag primers may not be needed but are not unsafe either.

    My .02
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