Small Primers

[Half Dog]

I've collected a small amount of .45 ACP brass that were made with the small primers.

Has anyone found a use for them?

[lobowolf761]

Yep. I load them up and shoot em. They fire just fine.

[Safeshot]

I also load and shoot them. They are sometimes "very available" since some reloaders with progressive reloading equipment do not like them or do not want to change over their equipment to handle them. If you have any concern about proper ignition in very cold weather or with some powders, you might even try "Magnum Small Pistol Primers" in these cases.

[Dframe]

I sell or give them away. Not worth the trouble to me.

[pretzelxx]

I keep them in a jar. When that jar gets full I will give them away. I don't want to have a large primer blow up cause I ran into a small pocket!

[dragon813gt]

I load them and shoot them. For awhile it was all I was keeping. Then I foolishly bought 1k pieces of new Starline brass w/ out looking at primer size. So now I have both again. I hate stocking LPP for one cartridge only.

[Outpost75]

I sold all of my large PP .45 ACP brass and standardized on the small PP cases so that I need only one size primer. Works fine. Velocity of small pistol magnum primer equals large pistol standard. Standard small pistol primer compared to large primer of same make drops velocity about 40 fps which is not important to me.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've collected a small amount of .45 ACP brass that were made with the small primers.

Has anyone found a use for them?

I sell or give them away. Not worth the trouble to me.

Yep, I do as Dframe does.

[Bazoo]

I use both. I dont run a progressive press though.

[country gent]

They can be loaded and used, work up the loads and run them as normal. If you have both use only one style at a time. This may be a case of when the 45 was desighned and worked up way back when 30-06 rifle cases were cut down and had large pockets. It was easier making protype cases with the large pockets than sleeving or setting up tooling special. The small cases came originally from "green" ammo as only small pistol lead free primers were available. These changes have taken place before as the 38 special was originally a large primer case also.

[captain-03]

Wish I had a boat load of them rather than the large. Less to mess with when changing from 9mm or 40s&w on the Dillon.

[Half Dog]

Well... Whomever gets to the Dallas area, give me a shout and they are yours.

[Freischütz]

In warm weather I never noticed any difference between large and small pistol primers in the 45 ACP. But when it got cold I could hear differences in the shot to shot report and the felt recoil when using the small primers.

[Tackleberry41]

I reload pistol ammo using small and large, so having either is not really an issue for me. Looked around on the internet, seems some switched to small so to be lead free. And also read that primer technology has changed a bit since the 45 acp come out, where small primers work just as good maybe even better. Some evidence you might get more velocity with the small primer brass. I haven't seen much of of the small primers, where I could collect up enough to load.

[Outpost75]

.45 ACP, Small Vs. Large Primer
			M1911A1_5"
230-grain FMJ			Avg.	Sd	ES
TW55 Ball REF			858	28	72
AlliantBE	5.0	Large Pmr	842	11	29
	5.0	Small Pmr	811	18	49
		LP_Vgain	31
H&G#68_200grain SWC
AlliantBE	4.0 grs.	Large Pmr	819	7	20
		Small Pmr	784	15	46
		LP_Vgain	35
	4.5 grs.	Large Pmr	863	21	51
		Small Pmr	864	46	115
		LP_Vgain	-1
	5.0 grs.	Large Pmr	945	6	15
		Small Pmr	922	19	42
		LP_Vgain	22
		AvgLPV_gain	18.7

[root]

Yup....
Sell them off or trade for large.

Rich

[Half Dog]

Well...my son and I have been to the range a few times since the original post and now we have more small primer 45 cal brass. I guess Ill try to swap them soon.

[2wheelDuke]

Because of the lead free thing, I've seen lots of once fired spp .45 from police qualifications. I have formed all my 400 cor-bon brass from small primer .45's. I've been meaning to load some up for matches. That ought to teach the guys that try to grab my brass.

[NavyVet1959]

I load them and shoot them. For awhile it was all I was keeping. Then I foolishly bought 1k pieces of new Starline brass w/ out looking at primer size. So now I have both again. I hate stocking LPP for one cartridge only.

The solution to that is to buy another gun in a caliber that also uses LP primers.

10mm or .44 mag, perhaps?

Now, having said that, I should point out that I load 10mm in .40SW brass (to 10mm OAL and pressure though). It's plenty strong enough and more readily available.

Theoretically, all else being equal, a .45ACP with a small primer pocket is stronger than one with a large primer pocket, so you could save it for those loadings where the added strength might be useful -- .45 SUPER or .460 Rowland level loads utilizing .45ACP brass (especially if you are using a Ruger Blackhawk with the .45 ACP conversion cylinder).

[dragon813gt]

The solution to that is to buy another gun in a caliber that also uses LP primers.

10mm or .44 mag, perhaps?

I did just that last Sunday


Glad I have the primers now. But I will continue to load small primers 45acp brass. The round doesn't need a large primer.