So to get around all this price crap . . . Someone yell at me as to whether I can use SRP or SRMP on my .357 loading.
I know, I know, so much on the web about using the right components and "work up yer load".
I have quite a few bricks of small rifle primers to include magnum flavors. I can't find small pistol magnum primers within a reasonable price so I thought I would ask you fellas who have tried it . . . if you are willing to admit it.
Ok, let the chastising begin! (Should I start a new thread?)
Mike
Absolutely agree with Ric on this one.
Between the depression mentality of Appalachian grandparents, most of whose male siblings died of black lung, and the "end times" mentality of my (step) dad (still love him), I have not fully escaped the deeply embedded psyche of being prepared for the worst. My 357 mag main cartridge (carbine/revolver combo) project has driven a LOT of experimentation regarding the logistics of reloading.
I CAN tell you THIS: as long as you're not an idiot*, you can use small rifle primers in most 357 Mag loads. Obviously, you want to reduce a charge before trying it, but from sub-sonic, 38 Special-level wadcutter target loads to the top-end-plus, heavy-bullet, "real" magnum loads, it works just fine.
The only caveat is that SOME revolvers won't set off some of the hardier-cupped rifle primers with 100% reliability. If I cannot have a decent trigger AND set off CCI or Wolf primers, the gun goes away. The Contender doesn't seem to care.
The absolute finest accuracy may not always occur with a rifle primer, but for some loads, the absolute best accuracy is not necessary. This is NOT to say that rifle primers are necessarily less accurate though, because most times they are dead-even with pistol primers. I shoot loads from 3.3 grains of Unique, behind a 148 grain WC, to 190 grain RFNs to 1800 fps, using 300 MP. ALL of my loads are meant to be useaeble in my little 5-shot revolvers. My Charter, Mag Pug 357 and my Taurus 605, 357 both set these primers off just fine, but I HAD a Taurus 85 which would not always set the rifle primers off, so someone else owns it now.
I keep a very small stash of LARGE PISTOL PRIMER 357 cases for the sake of not having all my eggs in one basket. I wish I had a bunch more of those. I wish I had a bunch of 30 American cases too. I envy the folks who shoot the 45 ACP and the LPP/SPP brass situation, which accommodate a level of flexibility you don't get with just any cartridge.
*Any idiot can lose fingers, blind himself or die at his own hand by hand-loading without respecting the matter of a bit of sound judgement in ANY decision.