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Posted: 12/10/2011 9:39:20 PM EDT
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A friend of mine passed away a couple of months ago, and left me the majority of his firearms and ALL of his reloading equipment. His wife was never "comfortable" w/ his "obsession" w/guns and couldn't wait to get them off the property, so after all the legal crap I brought everything home today.
Anyway, after inventorying all the reloading components, I now have 55k (yes thousands) CCI #41 primers! and although I've reloaded for years, have never used this product. Now from everything I've read so far the #41 primer is equivalent to the #450; a magnum primer. I'm relatively new to loading for the AR and have been using CCI#400's and Federal SR for my .223 hand-loads w/ good results. My question is: should I use the #41 primers just for the slower powders (AA2520, H335 etc.) or is there a "rule of thumb" for the use of the #41's for faster powders like AA2230or IMR4064, etc? In 23 years or so of reloading w/ nary an issue I've been pretty religious in following published data so it's a rather grey area to me. Thanks in advance for your insight and experience! |
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Supposedly, the CCI #41 primer has a harder cup than the CCI 450 magnum primer. Made for use in military rifles. But other than that, they are supposed to be interchangable.
According to the Speer Manual "...the No. 41 is equivalent to the CCI 450 Magnum primer. Any load showing the CCI450 primer can be assembled with the No.41 primer...." (Speer Reloading Manual #14, Page #37, 1st 5 paragraphs) I've used them with all of my .223 loads for my AR's. I primarily use H335 and occasionally Ramshot TAC, Winchester 748 and Varget. I think you can also use BL-C(2). If I recall correctly, you can use the CCI #41 with any of these powders and remain totally safe. Your best bet is to check and use a good Reloading Manual. If you reload, you should have a few around. Never hurts to have multiple books. Also, check CCI's website. Most importantly, NEVER exceed the maximums. It's not worth losing an eye, or fingers, or possibly worth. BE SAFE!!! |
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Quoted:
I'd consider them also for small pistol use treated like a spmag. I've used Fed 205s that way (since supposedly they are EXACTLY the same as the 200 including cup) but you might have a problem with light primer strikes with the extra-hard cup on the #41. The Fed 205s are also a non-magnum primer for rifle use that equates to a magnum primer for pistol use. A rifle mag primer might be excessively hot for a pistol load. |
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I use lots of the #41's in 6.8 SPC with fast powders and in 223 with slower powders and they work better than any of the BR primers I have tried(Rem, CCI, & Fed) producing better/lower ES and SD than any other SR primer I have used which is just about all of them, they also produce tighter groups than the other primers.
There will not be enough difference in pressure with just a primer swap for anything to need to be changed, if you feel the need though a 1/2gr reduction is more than enough to make up for any added pressure from the mag primer. Also the #41 primers are not "harder" than the 450 primers, they are less sensitive. There is a larger gap between the cup and the anvil which requires more force and velocity from the firing pin to consistently ignite them. The added gap between the cup and anvil is to keep free floating firing pins like used in AR's from causing slam fires, this also keeps most pistols from being able to ignite them so they are not a good choice for any pistol ammo. |
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Quoted:
Thank you for your replies, my specific question was what would be the adjustment used to use # 41 primers for a relatively fast powder? A Half grain back? a FULL grain back or just buck up and use it w/ the indicated powders as indicated in published data? The same rule applies when changing any component in a load. Fall back 5% to 10% on charge weight to start. Whether the gunpowder is relatively (and qualitatively in our usage) faster burning does not enter into the question. |
| CCI #41's work great in my AR's, BUT I've had ignition issues with them in my bolt gun. The same shell that won't go off in my bolt will go bang when loaded into my AR, so I'm thinking the cups are just hard enough to cause problems. I've not had an issue with any other primer with my bolt rifle. |
| The #41 were designed for use in rifles with free floating firing pins like the AR. They will also work in any rifle or round that takes a small rifle primer. As stated above, do what safe handloaders do when changing any component, drop down and work back up. Use em up, they will work just fine! |
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Great score! 
In for any pics if you choose to post them. Hmm I wouldnt really call it a "score" in the tradition sense 
But if he has 55,000 of one primer type, what else did he have stockpiled? His stash is what I hope mine will be eventually As for the 41's I use them in my "precision" loads and in my experience they are better then the federal gold medal match primers |
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