Stuart55

Thanks for taking the time to check - it’s appreciated. Apart from it not being easy to measure the side wall of the cup (as you’ve found!) the base of a primer cup is typically thicker than the walls (some simplistic illustrations of a sectioned cup notwithstanding) & it’s the base thickness that’s key. I don’t know for certain but I suspect that the drawing process is controlled to give similar wall thickness’s for both types of cup to allow the use of the same diameter anvil. Like you I’ve had good results with S&B primers (large rifle) but I have one particular rifle which needs the thicker primer SR cup. I use CCI450’s but I was hoping the S&B SR ‘magnum’ may be an alternative. Regards Stuart

Thanks for the link, it’s appreciated. I was aware of the article(s) but the ‘magnum’ version of the S&B primer isn’t covered, just standard one, hence my question.

Bump.

Any thoughts?

S&B Small Rifle ‘Magnum’ primers are on the market but not listed (as far as I can see) on the S&B website. Accepted that where small rifle primers are concerned the term ‘magnum’ normally indicates a thicker cup material than ‘standard’ SR primers (i.e. 0.025” for magnum compared to 0.020-0.022” for standard) - does anyone know if these S&B SR Magnum primers do have the thicker cup? Or put simply, could they be an alternative to the thick & hard cup CCI 450’s?

Out of interest did you pay VAT or Import Duty or both?

As regards your question you’d have to define what you mean by ‘accurate’ in relation to a reloading press but if you mean ‘can a progressive press load produce ammunition worthy of being successfully used in competition’ the answer is yes - in principle. There’s a long history of progressive presses especially the Dillon 550 being used to load ammunition for ‘target’ disciplines. There was an interesting article in a 1990’s edition of the ‘Precision Shooting’ magazine concerning a competitor using one for 100/200 yard benchrest. More recently Scott Harris published a very interesting paper titled ‘Creating Winning Long-Range Ammunition with the Dillon 550 Press & Prometheus Powder Scale’ (you’ll find PDF’s of it). The 550 has also gained a following amongst the PRS shooters. Also you don’t have to look far on YouTube to find some very successful F Class shooters using Dillon 750’s for case prep (if not final loading) I’ve used the Dillon 550 for some years. The advantage the 550 has over the 650/750 presses is the head of the case is supported by the top of the ram on a 550 (the shell plate only rotates the case) whereas the 650/750 presses support the case on the sheet plate thus sizing uniformity potentially being affected by play in the plate. That said - it doesn’t appear to be much of an issue in practice for users of the 650/750’s. The main constraint using a progressive such a Dillon is the powder dispensing. The standard press operated measure is excellent for most purposes especially after a couple of minor modifications to the shuttle to avoid any granules of powder dropping late. However if only for peace of mind many hand loaders want to use weighed charges - this can be accomplished by using the Dillon funnel in place of the press mounted powder measure (have a search for ‘F class John’ on YouTube & look at his earlier videos concerning Dillon 550/750).