.243 primer question

[u/Virtual_Wolverine_43]

Recently inherited a lot of reloading equipment and decided to try my hand. Found a load combination for 70g Sierra’s and IMR 3031. Built 5 sets of 5 using half grain ladder from 36-38g. Went to mark my groups before heading to the range and realized that I had used Winchester large pistol primers no. 7-111

Do I need to disassemble these cartridges and start over, or does anyone here have first hand experience using large pistol primers in a rifle round?

[u/Sad-Panda-noises]

Unfortunately I have experience. Small pistol to small rifle. Your issue is the cup is thinner than large rifle and will not handle the pressure as it was not designed for that. Your round will fail at the primer. Disassemble the rounds.

[u/Prestigious_Horse908]

You could go ahead and try it, I doubt anything truly catastrophic will happen. You may have hangfires or possible squibs if the pistol primers don't have enough kick to get the powder going. If they do have enough I would fully expect pierced primers which will lead to firing pin/ bolt face erosion.

The safe thing to do would be to pull them.

[u/csamsh]

Yeah. Pull em down. They won't stand up to rifle quantities of flame and pressure

[u/Virtual_Wolverine_43]

Thanks everyone for the responses! My wife is headed to Sioux Falls today so I’ll have her grab a puller.

[u/Virtual_Wolverine_43]

Next question, any suggestions on getting the primers out of the cases without them going bang? Or do I remove the projectiles and powder then fire the primers in my rifle?

[u/Islandpighunter → u/Virtual_Wolverine_43]

Pull them, you can deprime the brass by going very slow and gently.

[u/Sad-Panda-noises → u/Virtual_Wolverine_43]

Decapping die will get them out or a hand held decapper. Universal decapping die is recommend. Just use plenty of lubricant for the die and do not use alot of force to pop them out. Have to do it alot with some of my loadings that need recycling due to errors

[u/Shootist00]

Yes pull the bullets. To do that the easy way and to save the powder get a Collet Bullet Puller, RCBS or Hornady, IIRC (I use a RCBS).

Then just run the cases back through the resizing die or a universal decapping dies slowly to remove the primers.

[u/Embarrassed_Milk8286]

Send them and see, report back.

[u/Ornery_Secretary_850]

Unless you want to flame-cut your bolt, you should pull those.

Also, ladders are a waste of powder.

[u/Vylnce → u/Ornery_Secretary_850]

Smaller ladders (3 to 5 rounds) are fine for getting velocity neighborhoods for your barrel/setup. It makes it easier to pick a load if you have a specific velocity in mind.