Reloading Question

[Hondo]

I'm having trouble finding large pistol primer's locally. I've got a bunch of some rifle primers. The dimension of the two are identical. When I flip them over one has a green color to it and the other an odd bronze color. My question is can I use the rifle primer to prime .45 acp bullets or would it not fire properly? Worse yet would it blow up in my face? Thanks.

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[Wierzbowski]

I've never tried it, but it seems like a bad, bad idea to me.

 

[chainsaw]

Because most handguns have less firing pin energy than do rifles,primers for hand gun cartridges may have thinner cups.Using a rifle primer in handgun ammo may cause misfires.In addition,rifle primers typacally have more priming mix than handgun primers and,if substituted,can cause higher pressures.In addition,a large rifle primer is taller than a large pistol primer.
(quoted from Speer reloading manual #14)

 

[Aristotle13]

I have friends and fellow shooters that use Small rifle primers for Pistol cartridges all the time. Basically the cup is harder, but they are setting them off just fine.

As with ANY component change, build up the load (start low, and build up) use a chrono and watch for over pressure signs and you should be fine as long as it seats properly in the pocket.