new 243 small primer?

[Josh11]

i was wondering if anyone has tried the new 308 palma brass for 243 yet. with the small primer. same with 260.

 

[Laurie]

Josh,

not everybody in the Fullbore / F-Class / Palma shooting world is convinced by the rationale behind these new cases. We'll just have to see, and I for one will be giving them a try in .308 Win. The doubters say past experience shows that small primers are marginal for this size cartridge and 46gn charges; Lapua and the US Palma team say modern SRM primers and powders like VarGet, Re15 and the equivalents from Vihtavuori work just fine.

However ............. IF small primers are getting on for marginal in .308W, it could be a problem in full-house, heavy bullet loads in the .243 and .260 versions, simply because you're likely to use slower burning powders that have heavier 'deterrent coatings' to slow initial combustion down and may need more primer power to burn right every time, especially in very low temperatures. American target shooters don't often compete in very low temperatures, but the Canadian Target Rifle people do, and a lot of the scepticism about these cases comes from there as they can have ignition problems with some combinations of powders and large primers.

I'm not a hunter (nor a North American), but from what I read, a lot of deerhunting in northern states can be in very cold weather, so you'd have to bear this in mind if the cartridges are to be used for that.

Laurie,
York, England