.45 acp brass questions

[adanymous]

Hey guys, I just built a .45 acp AR and have some brass questions. I understand they use both small and large pistol primers. Is there a reason to use one over the other? I have precicesly 0 pieces of 45 brass, cause Im not a .45 guy, and have no experience loading it. So any input is useful. Is this a tricky caliber to load? By that I mean like how the 9mm can be a pain to get cast to work in correctly. Any tips would be helpful. My dad was a .45 guy and passed away last year. I gave all of his brass and bullets to my uncle who is also a .45 guy. Then sold his dies and his molds. Just my luck!

[nagantguy]

It's a relatively easy caliber to load and fast for, I prefer large primer cause I have buckets of it don't need to switch my presses to small primer! One thing that makes it a little easier for me to load .45 is that it's much easier to handle and see the larger boolits and case mouths. The only oddity I can thing of off the top of my head is that some batches of sellor and bellot brass have very tight primer pockets. Also I have found in a few pistols that oal can be critical, as in a thousandth or two over and accuracy goes south, that isn't a rule just something I've found twice both times in higher end kimber postols

[DougGuy]

This sorta goes along with the replies in your other thread, you are shooting 45 in an AR, which has much more potential than standard 45 ACP brass is capable of handling. If you have to start from zero, why not 45 Super which does have heavier brass, or 460 Rowland which will push your heavy for caliber boolits well into the energy level required for a serious pig round.

I always have used LP primer 45 ACP brass, I have some Speer now that seems to be pretty good, starline is always a good choice.

https://www.starlinebrass.com/brass-cases/45-Super-Brass/

[acoop101]

If you are loading 9mm then you will be good to go with 45.

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[reddog81]

.45 ACP runs at about half the pressure of 9mm so getting cast bullets to work has been much easier for me. The bullets and cases are also easier to handle. You use more lead and powder but the cost difference is negligible as far as I'm concerned.

Most of my brass and the range pick ups I've got is large primer. Honestly I'd prefer to go 100% small primer since it would mean I wouldn't have to switch my Hornady LNL over to large pistol primers in order to load 45.

[runfiverun]

I just throw a number-1 plate in the small pistol primer Dillon 550 and move the tool head over from the large pistol Dillon 550 and just keep on going.
if small pistol primers had been invented when the 45 was they would have used them.

[jcren]

I have a 45 that strikes off center enough to raise questions about if smalls would work, so I stick to large. However, all the rest of my handguns use small primers, and it would be nice to have one less item to keep inventory of.

[Bmi48219]

Been loading 45 acp for 6 months, have accumulated > 4 K lpp brass and about 500 spp. The spp brass is all Blazer. Because sp primers have been hard to find lately I've held off on loading the Blazer brass, saving my spp's for 9mm. It would be great to use one size primer for both but with my luck the primer I picked would be out of stock. Us big fingered, visually challenged types find 45 easier to load than 9, the cost difference is negligible.

[GaryN]

I have some of both and just keep the spp and the lpp separate. Then if things get weird again I can use either and still shoot.

[Bigslug]

.45 - not fussy when compared to the 9mm.

Large primers are the age-old standard for the round. The small seems to be a spin-off of the lead-free primers being used on a lot of police ranges; the demanded calibers were 9mm, .38 special, .40 S&W (all small primers) and .45 (the odd man out), and I expect it was easier to make one styphynate-free primer than two.

That said, large primer is the standard. It's what's most commonly made, and what you'll most commonly pick up of the ground when scrounging. The guns and their firing pins are typically dimensioned for it. Having been hoarding .45 cases since about 1985, I have a special place for small primer brass - the garbage. The time to change standards was after either of the world wars; I'm sure not doing it now.

[adanymous]

Thanks for the advice fellas. I like the idea of one primer size for all my pistols, and thats what I had been thinking. Ill see if I can scrounge some spp brass. Downside to the AR is it can sure be hard to find your brass after shooting, so Id best scrounge a lot!

[ioon44]

I have a 45 that strikes off center enough to raise questions about if smalls would work, so I stick to large. However, all the rest of my handguns use small primers, and it would be nice to have one less item to keep inventory of.

I have a older Para-Ordinance .45 which strikes off center and never has had a miss fire with the SP. I have the best results with WSPM primers, duplicates the WLP with the same powder charge.

Small primer .45's are a bargain right now as most people don't use them.