357 small pistol primer......primer

[brian]

at what point do you start thinking about about using magnum primers instead of just regular small pistol primers?
based on the powder used?
or the amount of powder used?

i want to play with some warmer loads....nothing off the charts, but getting up to the higher side of listed loads.

[huntr70]

Pretty sure you use small pistol magnums in all .357 Mag loads........

[Flash]

Trust your Lyman 49th. They have done all the experimentation and gun-blowin'-up for you.

Or Hornady, or Alliant, or Speer, or Hogdon, or . . .

They nearly always have primer recommendation in the load data.

Flash

[brian]

that would be one of the short comings of the lee book.
they do not differentiate between primers...it's all large pistol, small pistol and so on.....no magnums listed.
the hornady and lyman do note the magnums for the .357 loads.

[chez323]

From what I've been told by experienced reloaders and what I've found online, take the minimum load and reduce it by 10% if your using magnum primers in place or regular primers. I've not done this myself, so take it with a grain of salt.

[L T C]

I'd go to the various powder manufacturers load data sites, and punch up the bullet you are gonna use, then look at what the data calls for for the hotter loads. Then cross check that data with all you can find on the web, try stuff like, Handloads.com, all the different forums etc. See what others have used.
I have even called whoevers' bullet you are using, call their tech help line and ask them. With all that info. going for you, you can be pretty confident you're building a safe round.

Hornady's data out of their load data book is the only one I have seen so far that calls for the magnum primer on .357mag.

I haven't used the SPM yet on my .357mag., loading all cast bullets so far, but I have a bunch of Hornady XTP's and a box of SPM primers so I'll get around to it and try the SPM using the Hornady data. I'll chrono it and see whats up with the performance.

[Rundownfid]

You really should get the most recent Lyman reloading manual, if you don't have it, they have a very good overview of the myriad issues involving primers-powders.

The short, internet misinformation version is, with some powders you should use a mag primer, with others it is unnecessary. If you don't want to learn which is which, then you can safely use mag primers for all your loads, just reduce powder charges accordingly. That is not a recommendation, but will work if you don't want to concern yourself with the best procedures.

[Don T.]

that would be one of the short comings of the lee book.
they do not differentiate between primers...it's all large pistol, small pistol and so on.....no magnums listed.
the hornady and lyman do note the magnums for the .357 loads.

It's in there. Lee uses standard primers to work up their loads UNLESS the load is worked up using a magnum primer. Then they designate it as such*.

*- Modern Reloading (1st edition) Pg. 65 in the "Priming" section.
*- Modern Reloading 2nd Edition Pg. 48 in the "Priming" section.