As for primers, are they all pretty much the same from company to company? My Lymanhandbook used REM 9.5M primers for the .300 RSAUM, but yesterday at the gun shop all they had were someWincherster magnum primers (WLRM)at a good price so I bought them....will these work just as well? Next question is about a good bullet for a 7mm Rem Mag for my father to load. He wants 140gr and will mainly use it on deer; although we are heading to Maine in November for a deer/bear combo hunt so he may be using them on a nice bear if given the chance. I have readthat some of you have had nice results with the AccuBonds.Any tips and info is greatly appreciated. thanks
-Kevin

When loads are developed - they use x powder and x primers and x cases and x bullets.

Ok

Now will Federal or CCI or Winchester Primers cause you problems?

Probably not, but what you have to do - as a good reloader is look at your loads and test them before you run a production run.

Load 5 rounds and take them to the range and try them out and see how accurate they are compared to what you were using.
See if it exhibits excessive chamber pressure.
See if it shoots as well as what you were using.

If you never reloaded with that load before, you should start out about 1/2 a grain below max loads and work your way upto what works best for you.
Just make sure to check the primer pockets and look at the cases for chamber pressure signs.
If the head of the case expands more than .001 then you have too much chamber pressure. You measure it with a blade mic or your calipers that you use to check oal. Just measure inside the extractor groove.

As for bullets, what ever works for deer will also work for bears.

At ranges less than 100 yards, most all bullets will do a good job on a bear. It's bullet placement that counts, not the manufacturer that kills bears.

Most bullets will fly the same at that range as long as they are ofthe same design, so what you could do is load with Hornady Spire Point 140 gr bullets for deer and then use Nosler Partitions or Barnes X Bullets or Trophy Bonded Bear claw bullets for bears.

As long as you use the same primers and the same powder and the same amount of powder and the same weight of bullets and the same pointed nose bullets and the same cases.

They should hit the paper in the same place and the rifle should not have to be zero'd in between hunts.

Thats the good thing about reloading, you can control what goes into your ammo.

The Rifleman gave you a good answer-you have to develop Your load for Your rifle, using Your component set. NATURALLY, you ALWAYS START with the lowest recommended load, that way you seldom get into trouble due to a change of one or more of the components (lke using WIN instead of REM primers.....)

I have had great results shooting black bears with the Nosler Partition bullet. I understand that their Accubonds are just as good!

I have only saw a few instances where a primer change can get you in trouble. But WLRM is one of those primers where it can happen. If I were to change to WLRM, I would reworkup the load again. I might not go back to starting load, but definately lower than max.

What bigcountry said....................

ditto on what bc said.[8D]

You are certainly right, BC. But in my reading of the original message, this guy bought the Win. primers, and has not even started to develop his load yet.SO he is beginning at square one, which of course is where he SHOULD be starting..... witht he lightest starting load in his book.

Sadly, I think all of us reloaders sooner or later have to make the newbie mistakes to get a healthy respect of what we are doing when reloading. We are making a controled explosion.

I know I did. When I first started reloading, it was a 300win mag. I loaded and shot about 100 partition loads. I kept hearing great things about TBBC, but you couldn't find them as reloading components. So I bought 50 supposal TBBC off a guy at a gunshow for like 30 dollars. I figured why work up a load, just use your accurate partition load. WRONG. After hammering out the brass with a dowl, I learned something that day. You change a component, you are changing the entire load.

I have some articles from precision rifle, where they did controlled experiments on various primers. Its a pretty old article, called primer on primers, WLRM and 215's were the ones not to play around with.

BC I concur with your sentiment about changing components. though, that was not the original question. He said his reloading manual used Rem 9.5m primers and all he could find was WLRM primers. As such I would say that it wouldn't matter. He should do his load development with the Winchester primers starting at a beginning load and work up slowly watching for signs of pressure.

wow, thanks for all the help and info guys. What exactly are some signs of pressure so that I know what Im looking for. thanks again.