Small magnum pistol primers for small rifle?

[Dixie Dude]

Can small magnum pistol primers be used for small rifle such as 223?  Would it need to be loaded to minimum load?  Just wondering if it could be substituted. 

[Ranch13]

It should work , as the cups on small rifle and small pistol are said to be the same exterior deminsions.
Might want to load just a few and try them before loading a years supply.

[Larry L]

Per the folks at CCI, the small pistol mag primers and the small rifle primers are the exact same primer with zero differences except the name on the box. I have no clue if other brands are that way but for CCI, they are one and the same per maker.

[Dixie Dude]

I found some small magnum pistol primers CCI's at the local store.  It is all they have.  Better buy them ASAP.

[hillbill]

id buy them and crank out 20 rounds of a less than max load and try them in a couple diff rifles and see what happens.

[Ranger99]

not trying to dispute, but what was the source of
that info? cust serv rep- correspondence- bulletin?
i'm curious because of my supply

[Larry L]

The source was an email I had sent to them in regards to the primers being the same and what the difference was between standard primers and match primers. The email was marked as coming from their Technical Dept. FWIW, the difference between match and standard primer is absolutely nothing in process. The difference is the guy operating the machine that has the most experience. That's all folks- just the operator of the machine makes the difference between standard and match primers. Otherwise match primers fall out of the same machine using the same components as any other primer. I doubt I ever pay extra again for match primers.

[Ranger99]

ok - thanks
good to know

[twoshooter]

The main difference in large rifle/ large pistol is the cup thickness, once a threshold is crossed I start get pierced primers. I have some loads that shoot better with small rifle than small pistol and vice versa, so you might have to tinker and change some load performance, but they will work. Just don't expect to pop them right into your pet loads and go.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive loaded 1000s of 223 with fed and cci small pistol mag primers and never had a lick of trouble. back in the last shortage small mag pistol primers were all i could get for about a year.