Here's the case: I have been thinking of trying one of the ball powders in my ol' .32-40. Never used any yet. Now that 4759 is making like the dodo, I will try to make this thing enter the 21st century. I know many of you have worked with these powders and seem to favor magnum pistol primers.
I would prefer to stay with my standard rifle primers because the piece has a perfect breech block I want to remain that way, and it also has it's original fat firing pin. I have piddled with standard pistol primers, and happily turned away from them each time when no improvement was noted over my other loads.
So, if you have any experience or ideas here, I'd like to have you advise me on this matter. My idea is that a standard rifle primer ought to be about the same as a hot pistol number for touching off ball powders. Maybe?
Gun mostly likes it best just over  fourteen hundred fps with most slugs and some loads for that range of speed would be useful. I know a lot of you shoot at higher speed, and maybe the ball powders just wouldn't be a suitable thing anyhow. Again, ideas are appreciated. Pat

Thanks Frank. Good to hear that 296, available sometimes, can alay my worries about the primers. 
That Enforcer has shown up as well, but do you suppose it may need a change of primer?
Again, does anyone have an opinion on the regular rifle primer being comparable to the mag pistol items? In a general way at least.
I'm not exactly against any given primer, but have always been served well with good ol' Fed 210 and 210M primers (can't really see much diff in them either). I use some other primers for high velocity cartridges, but never needed anything meaner than WLR to light off slow powders in magnum cases. 
So, one of the reasons for this is that I already have a s---pot of "normal" primers.

Excellent, 40rod! Now, I must start to thinking about which, and when to do the ball powder trials. 
Of course, I'll still have my favorite in 4227, but with my other standby 4759 in short supply, I can keep fooling around without the blah of shooting the same ol' all the time. I have never used the ball powders due to the old warnings about reduced loading troubles that circulated. Nowadays those powders are the prevalent ones on the shelves, so I expect it's time to learn something about 'em. Good to have knowledgeable folks to ask this stuff.

I used to shoot 296 in 357.  Even Winchester warned of reduced charges being as dangerous as over charges 

Schu, those were the same warnings that gave me my fear of ball powders.
But, Frank, the explanation you tell of with the dropped pressure causing it to snuff out makes good sense- and with slow enough powders reduced loads get secondary effects in rifles as well. Perhaps the 296,etc. versions won't suffer in a closed up rifle barrel- I hope?
John, your notes over the course of time mentioning the mag primers is part of my inquiry. Do you suppose there is an overlap of function with the mag pistol vs. standard rifle primers? I really, really don't want pistol primers beating my breechblock if I can avoid it. So, would standard rifles approximate the ones you use? I know some do it freely, I'm not so good with the idea.
All info you guys give me helps here. This is a good bunch of folks to have access to. Thanks, y'all yer teachin' an old dog  new tricks.

Ahhhh! Well, I'll be scratching my noggin for a while, then. 
Seems like I got more than one issue confused about the primer/powder combo that was working with the ball powders. 
Where I got it stuck in my mind that pistol primers were the ticket, I don't know. Happy to get that cleared up!
I was worked up trying to stay away from them, and it turns out I had my head up a primer pocket!
Thank you very much.

CF there are those who seem to think the Rem Pistol Primers are the Holy Grail and when Frankore shares load information on various powders he always recommends using the Rem 21/2 Primers. It was the standard in days long gone in the Schuetzen world. I personaly have never had any good success with them in the 15+ years I have been shooting that same game competively. I trully believe there are a multitude of various powders that will work in the sport. I also believe there are many who will call a good poweder bad because they won't try to match a primer to a powder. They seem to have it set in thier minds that they are using the very best primer, lets say its the Rem 21/2 Pistol Primers but that new powder they bought to try isn't providing good results so the powder is then deemed no good when in reality its the wrong primer for that specific powder. When one hears those primers preached all the time one tends to start to beleave it as a true fact when nothing could further from the truth. Granted they do work very well for some in very minor instances but in no means do they work for all or the majority shooting this game. To back up this fact I just reviewed the equipment list for the 2011 ISSA International Schuetzenfest the International Match and the latest copy that I have and out of the 56 competitors who listed thier data only 4 were using the Rem Pistol Primers.

JLouis

Quote:
Different ballgame.  The pistol primers in BPCR reloads are used to provide a lower brisance on flagulation of the powder.  Smokeless powder explodes on ignition with a shock wave

Pre 1900 there were primers made specifically for black powder reloaders.  With the advent of semi-smokeless & smokeless, the shooters whined the BP primers were not properly igniting the smokeless powders.  Ergo - goodbye to BP primers with the mass conversion to smokeless