.38 Special Brass with LARGE Primer Pockets!

[clum553946]

I just ran across one with a Federal 38 Special headstamp, nickel plated. First time I’ve ever seen one!

[ReloaderFred]

I've got several in my collection. When I started reloading in 1963, the local gun shop gave you your choice when buying .38 brass for reloading.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[alamogunr]

Hopefully one of our younger members will still be around to bludgeon said person with the handle of a Rock Chucker

Lack of standardization - or more precisely, deviation from standards - seems to have become one of my peeves. Large & small pocket ACP; large & small pocket .455 Webley; mid-length AR gas tubes, take your pick.

I imagine large pocket .38 likely had something to do with Elmer Keith's .38/44 experiments and his big charges of 2400. I don't know when "magnum" primers made their debut, but to the brains at the time, the bigger cap probably made more sense.

I'm also pretty sure that small pocket .45ACP showed up because of the desire to reduce airborne lead styphynate on indoor (mosty police) ranges. Of the common cop calibers of 9mm, .38, .40, and .45, only the .45 nominally used the large primer. Cheaper to reconfigure the brass and only make one lead-free primer (small). I understand the business sense of it, but still want to tune up its inventor with the aforementioned Rock Chucker handle. . .

.455 Webley. . .No doubt Fiocchi realized that there was no need for a large primer to set off the 3-4 grain charges the round typically uses, but it would have been nice if they and Hornady had talked about it first. . .

These are the only cartridges I load on the Dillon. I'm in the process of acquiring small primer .45ACP brass so I don't have to change out the priming set-up. Makes my life simpler. I'll keep my Rock Chucker handle for loading large primer cartridges.

[robertbank]

Bigslug to the best of my knowledge attempts were made to use lead free priming compound in LPP with poor results. There is/was a demand for lead free ammo. In short they could not make it work so they switched the .45acp cases to the SPP. PITA for certain. We don't get a lot of .45acp brass up here and when I run across SP primed .45acp cases they go straight to my recycle pail.

Take Care

Bob

[Landy88]

I guess that I came decades too late to the party, but these would've simplified my loading. The .38spcl and .357 are the only reasons that I even need small primers or their punches.

[GL49]

Anybody else ever encounter these:

I was down helping Dad turn out some of our FBI Load clones today, and we ran into about 50 of these among our brass from the stash of a departed handloader. Spotted the problem when they wouldn't take a primer from the auto feed. These are nickel plated, with the headstamp of "PETERS .38 S&W SPL".

Does anybody know the story on these? If they're hugely collectible, I guess we can start the bidding now.

I'm not trying to give your brass away, but there's a member here, lightman, who is collecting cases. He may may be interested in one of these to add to his collection. I've donated a few cases I'd never use, and didn't need them sitting on my shelf.

[Walter Laich]

I bought some .45 Colt brass from a member here. When cleaning, I found 7 pcs that had oversize flash holes. They were marked
.45 Colt Blank. Since most of my loading for that cartridge is mid-range or lower, I don't think they would have been dangerous. I sure wouldn't want them mixed with some max loads w/magnum primers.

my brother drilled some out for reenactors' blanks. After their leader left the area taking all the $$ with him the cases went back into our cowboy loads. Really can't tell difference with our very mild loads