Lee Loader

I'm often curious especially when I don't have much to keep me busy. I'm still learning shotshell reloading and I just sized and deprimed about a dozen Win AA hulls. I looked at one of the primers I poked out and being curious, I took it apart. The primer cup looked familiar (a shotshell primer is in fact a self contained Berdan type primer). I measured one and it is the same diameter as a large pistol primer. Hmmm, I straightened out the anvil, inserted it in the battery cup, put a Winchester LP primer on top of the anvil/cup and seated it in the priming stage of my Load All. It looked good and it was sorta difficult to tell from a new 209 primer. Well, I seated "my" primer in a sized/deprimed hull and stuck it in my shotgun. Yep, it fired! I don't think I'd try one with a load because the flash hole end is open, and possibly powder could migrate into the primer and cause trouble (I read somewhere that this was problem until all shotshell primers started using a "closed" flash hole, a "primer hole cover"). Now this was just a silly experiment, but I guess in a really bad SHTF situation one could jerry-rig usable shotshell primers. I don't plan on "reloading" any 209 primers, it was just a "I wonder if..." exercise.

Lots of stuff that can be done . Probably some of it that shouldn't be done but we probably will anyway .

I noted the fit some time ago when I was fooling with 1.75" 410s for a 45 Colts . On another note of interest ,maybe, they are also a tight not quite press fit in a 22 Mag case and by association the 17 HMR . See note about things that probably shouldn't be done ............ The "rim" on the 209s is also the same dia as their rims and that of the 25 ACP . In a pinch I was thinking that perhaps the mags could have the rims cut off and the 209 replace it in a converted to a CF 22 Mag with a .222 cast .

50 BMG cases can have the rim removed and the head threaded and a 12 ga rim threaded on in brass to make plastic thickness brass cases using a more common primer . As a bonus you gain a 1/4" of case in every chamber so 3" cases in 2 3/4" chambers and a 3 3/4" in the big daddies giving you potentially full 3.5 10ga loads .

If only the 460 Smith were a 3.25" case .........410 heaven right there and way cheaper than brass 410 cases . On the other hand I once held a single shot that was marked "45-70 shot choked" .

That wonder if can lead to many interesting, in all definitions of the word, experiments. And history. Way back when, people did load or reload shot shell primer cups with primers meant for metallic shell loading.