45acp large/small primers???

[Hawkeye45]

I have been reading a lot about 45ACP brass with small primers. Are they showing up in military or commercial brass? I would like to find out to help keep my search time down.

Thanks,
Mr. Ed

[snaketail]

I have seem them show up in Federal ammo. Red box, FMJ, "target" loads. I used to work for Cabela's and they would let the employees buy ammo that had damaged boxes sometimes they would take ammo back (not suppose to) if the customer made a big enough fuss. I bought 500 returned federal Small Primer .45ACP ammo for a good price. Its the sort of brass you leave at the range...

Federal said they used Small Primers to reduce pollution (?).

[MattOrgan]

They are generally loaded in "lead free" ammunition. I've only seen them in commercial Federal FMJ ammunition. They are easy to to sort out when inspecting your brass. I sort them out into another container, when I get a couple of hundred I go ahead and load them. Then they stay separated.They work fine, the small amount of fast burning powder used in the .45 ACP is ignited easily by the small pistol primer. Snake tail: feel free to send me all of your small primer .45 ACP ;>)!

[Hawkeye45]

You have saved me a lot of work since I have never shot lead free ammo and very careful about range brass. Thanks again.

Mr. Ed

[TXGunNut]

I generally shoot range brass in my 45 acp so I've picked up a handfull of SP brass. PITA sorting them with bifocals but I let them pile up and loaded them. I don't like swapping out primer arms on my Dillon so I'll only fire these once and leave them where they land.

[Char-Gar]

Yep, with the requirement of "lead free" ammo for certain indoor ranges, the makers came up with a new priming compound that does not use lead styphanate. To help simplify their lives, they just make these primers in one size for all pistol calibers and small will work in them all, if you make the cases only to accept small pistol primers.

[spfd1903]

I acquired thousands of WIN NT and Speer SPP from a LEO that swept up brass for me from their indoor range. Have more of the SPP than LPP by a ways. Requires close inspection to prevent forcing a LPP into a SPP primer pocket. Both types were government purchases. Never seen them for sale to the public myself.

[HarryT]

I have a friend who's just starting handloading and I give all the small primer .45 acp cases I find to him. He's only loading 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP so he doesn't have to change the primer feed from one cartridge to the other.

[Grump]

A properly calibrated Mark I Eyeball is all that's needed to keep these from being a problem.

If I start picking up .45s (have plenty for now), I'll just start sorting by headstamp BEFORE loading them. Might prevent the occasional crimped primer dance...

[scattershot]

Any I find are reloaded, and then marked with a stripe across the case head with an indelible marker. Saves time and confusion later on. I primarily use the SPP .45s in revolvers.