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Has anyone ever used small rifle primers in place of pistol primers, I have read the rifle primers are made to withstand higher pressures than pistol pressures.

For small pistol/rifle it does work, but you do need to re work up the load. It can change the pressure.

Some pistols might not have enough of a mainspring to reliably ignite the primer. I have had issues with a couple of revolvers that don’t like them.

Some cartridges like the 9x23 actually call for SRP.

BuckKlier wrote:Has anyone ever used small rifle primers in place of pistol primers, I have read the rifle primers are made to withstand higher pressures than pistol pressures.

After Sandy Hook, small pistol primers were scarce as hen's teeth. I went to small rifle and they worked just as well. Used the same data, no noticeable pressure change, no velocity change, no POI change.

I've used Winchester small rifle (WSR) primers in place of small pistol primers in my 9mm, .40S&W and .357 Magnum handloads with no problems. There were no significant differences in velocities between the WSR and pistol primer loads.

A few weeks ago, I loaded up a test batch of .40 S&W handloads using Sellier & Bellot small rifle primers and tried shooting them through my SIG Pro SP2340. Almost all would not fire on the first primer strike but would usually ignite on the second or third strike. When shot in my CZ 75B, the test batch would fire on the first strike about half the time. Both guns had no problems shooting handloads assembled with WSR primers.

I'll leave the S&B SR primers for rifle loads and stick with WSR primers as a reliable alternative for my pistol handloads.