Another safety question

[Maplicito]

As seen in one of my other threads, I loaded up some .338 win mag with 300 grain Sierra Matchking bullets... I haven't fired them off yet though.  Something was bugging me, so I decided to look through my reloading manuals again to figure out what it was.

My primers are magnum large rifle, Winchester WLRM specifically.  The manual I got the 300 grain loads from calls for large rifle.  My understanding is it's a no no to put magnum primers in a load that calls for regular rifle primers.

This has me a little confused though - their loads for 250 grain bullets also call for large rifle - I compared this to the manual I got my 250 grain loads from - it calls for my WLRM primers for loads with the same powder, and covers loads smaller than the first manual through loads that are larger than the first manual contains.

If it helps, the manual calling for large rifle primers is Richard Lee's Modern Reloading Second Edition, the manual calling for WLRM is the 7th Edition Hornady Handbook of Cartrdige Reloading.

Am I missing something?  Should I not use any of the rounds I loaded with WLRM and 300 grain bullets?  Should I just start with the light loads, and pay close attention as I work up to the heavy loads?

I'd hate to have done all that reloading, just to need to turn around, and pull all the bullets - but that's definitely much preferable to blowing up a barrel.

One thing I noticed... not sure if it's relevant or not - but the Modern Reloading Second Edition manual doesn't have any loads that I could find that called for magnum primers... but my very limited understanding is that the larger magnum rounds usually call for magnum primers?

Well, I hope you guys don't feel like I've abused your knowledge - but you're keeping me safe

[stimpylu32]

Maolicito

The debate over mag V standard primers has been going on since the day the mags came out , in most cases the mags will be just fine provided that you are not at max load . the magnum primers have been known to raise pressures somewhat in some rounds and have no effect at all in others .

With the powder that you are using and the amount , the mags may be a better choice . Richard Lee has compiled data from most of the diffrent load books to write his so the componates that he lists may have come from an older book or from one that used only standard primers for testing .

Just work up slowly and watch for high pressure signs as you increase the powder charge .

stimpy

[Maplicito]

Thanks for the advice Stimpy.  Some of the cartridges I've got are loaded at the maximum... but I threw a couple of intermediate loads in there, so for the 4 strongest loads, there is a 0.9 grain difference between them - hopefully that's small enough.

From there - I'm going to look at each casing after firing it, and if any of them seem to show warning signs, I will stick with the weaker loads I've made, and pull the bullets from the stronger ones.

After I've done some playing with loads to see what I can do with my rifle, I think I'm going to work on finding accurate but milder than factory loads.  Hard and fast is kind of fun to experiment with, but my .338 sure can catch a fellow off guard if he isn't set properly when he pulls the trigger.

Thanks again for the advice - it's much appreciated!

Bryan