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Half Dog
09-09-2015, 11:09 AM
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
09-09-2015, 11:11 AM
Yep. I load them up and shoot em. They fire just fine.

Safeshot
09-09-2015, 11:24 AM
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
09-09-2015, 11:37 AM
I sell or give them away. Not worth the trouble to me.

pretzelxx
09-09-2015, 11:52 AM
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
09-09-2015, 11:57 AM
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
09-09-2015, 12:24 PM
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
09-09-2015, 12:50 PM
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
09-09-2015, 01:45 PM
I use both. I dont run a progressive press though.

country gent
09-09-2015, 01:55 PM
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
09-09-2015, 03:21 PM
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
09-09-2015, 03:36 PM
Well... Whomever gets to the Dallas area, give me a shout and they are yours.

Freischütz
09-09-2015, 06:26 PM
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
09-12-2015, 12:59 PM
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
09-12-2015, 01:17 PM
.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
09-19-2015, 09:54 PM
Yup....
Sell them off or trade for large.

Rich

Half Dog
11-07-2015, 07:50 AM
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
11-07-2015, 08:03 AM
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
11-07-2015, 08:25 AM
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
11-07-2015, 05:10 PM
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 [emoji2]
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/46554C9B-53ED-4EBC-B4AD-8F2FFEBCC530.jpg (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/dragon813gt/media/Firearms/46554C9B-53ED-4EBC-B4AD-8F2FFEBCC530.jpg.html)

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

Bonz
11-07-2015, 05:22 PM
I use the small primer 45acp brass cases for my 'carry ammo'

Love Life
11-07-2015, 05:25 PM
1,000 pieces of spp 45 acp brass is much cheaper than 5,000 lpp!! I was down to my last 5,000 large pistol primers, but had tons of small pistol and small rifle primers. $70 got me 1,000 pieces of spp brass and I'll load those up until I get semi low on small primers.

Hogpost
11-07-2015, 11:41 PM
I frequent several different ranges, depending on who I shoot with: first makes it very easy to keep your own brass, second one makes it a PITA to collect any auto handgun brass (they keep it for themselves) and the third one just lets everyone dump it on the floor and figure it out for themselves. On #3, there are lots of folks who do not reload and so don't claim their brass. The small-primer brass I pick up from there, I reload and shoot on the #2 range: I can't get it back anyway, so let them screw with it. Since I reload both 45 and 38 Spl +P, I always have both primer sizes, but I prefer large for 45, as do most manufacturers world wide.

rtracy2001
11-08-2015, 01:19 AM
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.

Not to hijack the thread too badly, but how does that even work?? The 10mm headspaces off the mouth of the case, so the shorter 40S&W cases, even loaded to 10mm OAL, shouldn't headspace correctly.

NavyVet1959
11-08-2015, 01:28 AM
Not to hijack the thread too badly, but how does that even work?? The 10mm headspaces off the mouth of the case, so the shorter 40S&W cases, even loaded to 10mm OAL, shouldn't headspace correctly.

it ends up headspacing off the extractor. Supposedly better in Glock than in M1911, but I've tried both and it works.

rtracy2001
11-08-2015, 10:00 AM
it ends up headspacing off the extractor. Supposedly better in Glock than in M1911, but I've tried both and it works.

Thanks!

Ed_Shot
11-08-2015, 11:15 AM
I was happy to have the small-primer 45 ACP brass during the not-so-long-ago primer shortage (WHICH MIGHT HAPPEN AGAIN). I found virtually no difference in my chrony data using either large or small primers with my handloads. I have my small-primer brass stored for a rainy day.

NavyVet1959
11-08-2015, 11:33 AM
Thanks!

I first started doing it with a Glock 20 since everything I read indicated that it held the brass more securely than the M1911. Just for curiosity's sake, I tried it in a RIA 10mm M1911 after I bought one of them and was surprised that it also worked. From what I've subsequently read, in many cases, rounds are often headspacing off the extractor anyway due to slight variances in the length of the brass. The only time it makes a difference is if you drop a round in the chamber manually and then drop the slide on it. Unless the bullet is touching the rifling and thus prevented from moving forward, this will often not work.

Some will say that no gun manufacturer will say that it is acceptable to do this. On the other hand, Johnny Rowland states that with the .460 Rowland conversion, you can still shoot .45 ACP from the .460 Rowland barrels. Since the .460 Rowland brass is 1/16" longer than the .45 ACP brass, you are in fact headspacing on the extractor when firing .45 ACP in a .460 Rowland chamber. This would be no different than firing .40 SW in a 10mm chamber. I built a .460 Rowland class Glock 21, but I used a .45 ACP barrel so that I could just use standard .45 ACP / SUPER length brass. The OAL for the Roland round is the same as for the .45 ACP / SUPER (the bullet is just a bit less exposed due to the longer length of the Rowland brass). The added length of the Rowland brass was only done to prevent someone from accidentally loading a Rowland level round in an unconverted .45 ACP / SUPER firearm. I powdercoat my Roland level bullets red to indicate that I should not load them in one of my unconverted handguns.

DocSavage
11-16-2015, 12:42 PM
I load both. I have 2 650s one setup for lp the other sp. Whichever one is mounted that's what I use for primers.

gwpercle
11-16-2015, 02:01 PM
Save them. Depending on who gets elected president next , we may see a real long shortage of things to load with.