.280 Remington primer question...

[Knight.54]

So I’ve had a .280 for a while.
I’ve been reloading for a while but was just doing a ballistic tip in 120-140 for coyotes, eastern whitetails(small)...
I’ve recently acquired a 2nd hand custom 700 with a heavier 24” barrel and have been messing around with some longer range, heavier stuff. I have a vari-x 6 CDS on the way,
I have some buddies that are doing some legit long range target stuff in .280.
I figured this will be more of a hunting rifle for me... I am loading some eld x 175s and Berger 168s right now — my question is...

Does anybody use magnum primers in their .280 rem?... please educate me a little about “magnum primers in non magnum rounds”...

Thanks!

 

[VikingsGuy]

Disclaimer - I am relatively new to loading.

Using what is in your load book is an easy/safe choice. But some will run magnum primers for various reasons. Some will use magnum primers in non-magnum cartridges for very cold weather hunting (less than 20f), some prefer magnums for ball powders, some prefer magnum primers for load with more than 45 or 50 grains of powder. Some have reported overlap in “power” between one vendor’s standard primer and another vendor’s magnum primer. The key is to work your loads back up if you switch primers on a recipe.

For me I tend to stick to the book recipe unless I can’t find a load that works and then I will fiddle with things. Primer changes are at the bottom of my fiddle list. YMMV.

 

[BuzzH]

I never have used anything but magnum primers in any rifle from .22-250-.338.

I don't think there's a need to reduce your loads either...and I'm nearly certain the whole "magnum primer" thing is more about marketing and selling shit than some huge difference between them and standard primers.

I just used them right out of the gate when I started handloading about 35 years ago, they worked, so I just kept using them.

 

[Brian in Montana]

Magnum primers burn hotter and slightly longer than their non-magnum counterparts; at least that's what I've been lead to believe.

 

[JLS]

I use them in my .280.

 

[Hatchie Dawg]

I use them exclusively in my .280.

 

[Millsworks]

Many slower burn rate powders will benefit from a magnum primer to get a more even ignition especially in powder charges over 55gr or so.
Sometimes a mag primer will produce a lower extreme spread in velocity verse's standard rifle primers.
You can try them in a few loads over the chronograph and see what happens.
I have only had a couple cartridges that showed any benefit from going with a magnum primer, that normally would use standards.
But without the chrony data it wouldn't be noticable unless it gave a little difference in grouping at 400+ yards. But too many factors affect groups at those ranges to know for sure.
Something like R-26 powder in the .280 might get a little help from a magnum primer.

 

[antelopedundee]

Some of the slower IMR powders like 7977 or slower maybe could benefit from them, esp. with large charges like over 80 grains. All one can do is try them and see.

 

[Don Fischer]

I guess the way you learned is the way to go. When I started reloading, about 1968, the rule was clear. For standard cartridge's large rifle primer's. for big loads of slow powder, don't know what that means, use magnum primer's. Reason for mag primer's given back then was they are hotter and needed to start large amount's of slow powder. The last use of magnum powder's was said to be with ball powder. The claim was ball powder was harder to start. I've pretty much lived with those rules all these years and they have never failed me. There have been a few time's over the years I ran out of standard primer's and did substitute mag primer's. No big deal just start low and work up. Do you need to, hell I don't know but doing it that way I never had a problem! I'm pretty slow to change a program that has worked for me for years. Something about, if it works, don't fix it!

 

[JLS]

Some monos like magnum primers.

 

[Brian in Montana]

So do guys use magnum primers on .270 loads.

 

[Don Fischer]

So do guys use magnum primers on .270 loads.

Ya could but what's the point if your rifle is already shooting well? You could fire mag primer's in a 22 Hornet, they are not needed though.

 

[BuzzH]

So do guys use magnum primers on .270 loads.

Yep...used to a load .270 for a good friend, always used cci 250 mag primers.

I use them exclusively in .22-250, 243, 6mm, 25/06, 7-08, 7 RM, 300 win, 30/06, .338

 

[std7mag]

I use the standard Federal 210M (match) primers.
I usually shoot in the 140-150gr class bullets. Sometimes i do play with the 160gr Sierra HPBT GameKing and 168gr Berger VLD Hunting.
Both of those over a charge of RL26.
No issues with rifle not firing down to 15 degrees.
I didn't say i didn't have issues being in 15 degree weather!!

 

[cahunter805]

I use whatever primer shoots the best with the cartridge/load I’m working on. In general anything over 50 grains of powder gets a magnum primer to start. Changing primers can affect group size and more so ES/SD.
I normally start with Fed210M/Fed215M and then test CCI250/BR2.

 

[JLS]

Ya could but what's the point if your rifle is already shooting well?

Maybe it’s not shooting to his satisfaction.

 

[cahunter805]

So do guys use magnum primers on .270 loads.

Brian
You can test primers easily. Load up your powder charge with a few different primers and see how those test loads group vs your standard load. Switching primers usually doesn’t affect pressure much but can change group size and ES/SD.
If changing from Large rifle to magnum you should probably not start at a Max load and probably work up to Max just to be safe!

 

[Knight.54]

Thanks for all the input guys. I am learning that there might be as much art as science to reloading...
I have shot a few rounds with the standard primers and am getting adequate velocity and decent groupings...
I think on the Berger’s I am going to fine tune the seating depth before trying the magnums...
I got my new scope mounted and now I am just waiting out this damned hurricane!

In the shorter barreled gun I tried some 150 Berger’s and shot a nice group with them with h-1000 and cci large rifle primers

Good luck in the field guys!

 

[ImBillT]

Magnum primers generally burn longer, which results in a milder flame. The longer burn helps ignite difficult to ignite powder charges, which generally means long powder columns, large powder charges by weight, slow burning powder, and ball powders. The do not raise pressure significantly, but do make pressure and velocity more consistent. Some brands use a harder cup in magnum primers to handle the higher SAAMI pressure spec of magnum cartridges, but other brands just use the hard cup in all their primers. There’s actually no reason NOT to use magnum primers in everything.

 

[Losing_Sanity]

Magnum primers generally burn longer, which results in a milder flame. The longer burn helps ignite difficult to ignite powder charges, which generally means long powder columns, large powder charges by weight, slow burning powder, and ball powders. The do not raise pressure significantly, but do make pressure and velocity more consistent. Some brands use a harder cup in magnum primers to handle the higher SAAMI pressure spec of magnum cartridges, but other brands just use the hard cup in all their primers. There’s actually no reason NOT to use magnum primers in everything.

That is very interesting information. Thanks for posting it. I also have often wondered about using Magnum primers in a non-magnum situation.