Sorting Primers

[oldretailer]

I need some help guys. Going through some of my deceased brothers things, I came across a bunch of loose primers. How can I separate them? Pistol from Rifle, I think I can figure out the large and small.
Thanks!

o.r.

[runfiverun]

this is a tough one especially for old ones as the colors have changed.
win used to be brass colored and rem was silver now they have flipped.
some fed lr's were red in the compound,win lr mags were green cci yellow.
but so were their lp primers.
if it were a bunch of them i would take the time to sort them into groups that go together.
and use all the large in a 44 mag with 8 grs of unique and the smalls in a 357 with 6 grs of unique.
about the only way i would use them.

[odoh]

IIRC the Rifle primer pockets are .001" deeper than the Pistol primer pockets. Suppose that infers the Rifle primers are thicker than the Pistol primers.

[oldretailer]

Thanks for the relpies guys. I was thinking if I can't measure the difference, I could just use the large primers in 44 mag (like runfiverun suggests) and do the same with small primers in 357. There's just such a primer shortage I was hoping to "mic" the difference. I emailed CCI but with the +/- it's too close to be positive.
At least for me. I was hoping someone would say that small rifle are like small pistol magnum or some such, but I guess that's not the case.
Oh well, I need to load up some mild loads to get back in the swing of things anyway.
Thanks again!

o.r.

PS-odoh, you are correct. Rifle primers are a few thousandths "taller" than pistol primers according to the email from CCI.

[armyrat1970]

IIRC the Rifle primer pockets are .001" deeper than the Pistol primer pockets. Suppose that infers the Rifle primers are thicker than the Pistol primers.

Large rifle are actually longer than Large pistol, not thicker. The diameter is roughly the same. Small rifle will be longer than small pistol also. And the diameter is roughly the same.