Accidentally used CCI 450 primers in my 380 ACP reloads

View · by **Aztecf** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 10:27 am

Reloaded a 1000 rounds of 380ACP, after I was done I noticed I had a 100 CCI
450 small rifle mag primers mixed in with my CCI 500 primers. Certain death or not?

View · by **gun_fan111v2** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:10 am

This is not my area of expertise but you might want to mention powder and weight so the experts have a better idea of how warm your loads are...

View · by **andrewP** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:27 am

Without knowing the specs of your load, it's hard to comment beyond vague statements including lots of the words "assuming" and "probably." On that note, ASSUMING your load is in the midrange or lower, you're PROBABLY ok. If you're on the hot end of things to begin with, like, for example, if you're loading for a Glock 42, which I've heard likes hotter loads (I've seen one choke on light-to-medium loads that cycle my wife's PK380 just fine), you might want to err on the side of caution.

View · by **Aztecf** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:29 am

So it's 3.2 grains of W231 behind a 100gr Xtreme plated bullet

View · by **Aztecf** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:30 am

Yes it is loads for the Glock 42 and Yes it does prefer hotter loads

View · by **andrewP** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:36 am

I'd probably look at pulling the bullets and backing the charge off a few tenths, then, as that much 231 is pretty hot in .380. Of course, you may end up having to suffer through some cycling issues if it's not hot enough for the gun, but that's better than the consequences of it being too hot for the gun.

View · by **Aztecf** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:41 am

The problem is its a 100 rounds mixed in out of a 1000

View · by **andrewP** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:44 am

Ooh, that's a pain then. Obviously you don't want to pull or scrap 1000 rounds, and of course there's no easy way to identify which ones have the rifle primers.

View · by **Aztecf** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:52 am

That is my dilemma, I was cleaning up the primer packaging after I was done and notice it.

I guess I'll just wait for Seismic Sam to rip me a new one.

View · by **OldmanFCSA** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 3:22 pm

Are CCI primers color coded like Federal primers are inside the cup?
I would pull, reduce the load and test a few.

Hopefully you will not make this mistake again.

View · by **Aztecf** on Sat Apr 04, 2015 3:56 pm

No I won't make that mistake again and they are not color coded, they look exactly the same

View · by **cobb** on Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:26 pm

One side effect would be the primers igniting.
My understanding is that rifle primer cups are harder than pistol primer cups, so the impact from the firing pin/spring assembly of a handgun may not strike hard enough to ignite a rifle primer.

So a thousand rounds?
How much is your handgun and personal safety worth, verse the time of pulling, de-priming and reusing the components except the primers? Net loss is your labor and the loss of what, maybe $50 for the primers?

Just a thought, I have no clue if there is a safety issue. I am sure that there will be someone that will chime in to explain the differences of a small rifle vs small pistol primer.

View · by **MXGreg** on Sun Apr 05, 2015 5:24 pm

A quick search came up with this from AR15.com about 6 years ago. Seems someone had called CCI about their primers. Sounds like #450 primers would be like small pistol magnum magnum primers

Anyway, I was asking about the cup thickness, formula differences, and formula amount differences between their #500 (SP), #550 (SPM), and #400 (SR). She had me hold a minute to get the detail specs up on her screen and this is what she said.

Cup thickness: The #500 has a thinner cup than either the #550 or #400 which both have the same cup dimensions (including thickness).

Flash powder formula: All three sizes use the same formula for the flash powder.

Flash powder amount: The #500 has a slightly smaller amount (3 micrograms) than the #550 or #400 which both have the same amount.

I asked if the SR primers could be used as an acceptable substitute for the SPM primers. She compared the #550 and #400 and then replied that yes, they appeared to have the same specs, same dimensions, same cup thickness, same formula, and same amount. She even noted that the SPM primers were slightly taller than the SP primers and were spec'd the same dimensions as the #400.

I asked if she knew any reason not to just use SR primers for both magnum pistol and rifle applications based upon that information and she said that many there only bought rifle primers and used them for all their reloading, magnum or not. The only exception being for custom pistols where the thicker rifle cup contributed to misfires, which she said only occurred in custom race pistols.

View · by **Ghost** on Mon Apr 06, 2015 5:19 am

Got any more components? You could work up a load using the 450's and see where you end up.

View · by **yuppiejr** on Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:19 am

I am in agreement with Cobb on this..

"So a thousand rounds?

How much is your handgun and personal safety worth, verse the time of pulling, de-priming and reusing the components except the primers? Net loss is your labor and the loss of what, maybe $50 for the primers?"

The Glock 42 is a locked breech system at least and should, in theory, provide greater strength if things go badly than a straight blowback design... though you're not just dealing with one hot load, but 100 out of 1000 which could cause a more subtle level of part fatigue leading to to a failure down the road versus the kind of outright kaboom that packing a double load of Titegroup might achieve. Personally I'd still be inclined to scrap the lot and salvage/reload what I could to avoid possible damage to my equipment, myself or any neighbors at the range.