45 auto primer size choice, buying brass

What primer size should I get for 45 auto?

  • Get large primer, its what it was designed for

    Votes: 15 71.4%

  • Get small primer, keep your primers the same

    Votes: 6 28.6%
  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
S

Shadow9mm

New member
So i got a 45 again after a long while. I know it was designed with large primer pocket. However there seems to be a fair bit of small primer pocket brass available.

None of the cartridges I currently load for use large pistol primers. I have been using small rifle primers for most of my loads for 9mm, 38spl, 357mag, and 223 as that is what i have.

Im really leaning towards getting small primer 45 brass so i dont have to source and stock large primers.

Should i get small primer 45 brass and keep all my primers the same? Or should i start looking for large primers and get large primer brass?
 
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However there seems to be a fair bit of small primer pocket brass available.
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It's probably available because few .45ACP reloaders will touch it. :D:rolleyes:

I know I won't buy any, and if I happen to find some has worked its way into my brass, I will toss them out. (ok if I wind up with some in full box amounts, I'll trade of sell those, but the odd case or three, I'll just toss)

Its not that small primer .45acp brass won't work or that there's anything wrong with it (beside breaking tradition), its just I don't want the hassle of having to keep the brass separated. I have quite a few .45acp cases, been loading them since the early 70s. ALL of them are large pistol primers.

You're in a situation where everything you load is small primers, I'm not. I load for several pistol rounds that use large primers, as well as several that use small primers, so for ME, small primer .45acp is a needless complication.

For you, it would make some sense. IF the pistol you are using has the power to reliably ignite the small rifle primers you are using. The shortages suck...:mad:
 
I have been loading .45 Small for "lost brass" matches, a couple of people have been bringing me the brass that they would normally scrap. I save the true .45 ACP (large) for occasions when I can recover my empties.

But in the OP's position, I would just standardize on the Smalls. Most loaders hate them and will give them away.

I have shot a fair number of 9mm and a few .45s with small rifle primers and they all went off in my hammer fired guns. I need to try some in a Glock to let a friend know if he can substitute there, too.
 
I definitely have both. When the market wasn't TOTAL LUNACY, the small primer brass was fantastic for lost brass situations which for me also includes family that needs ammo that may not return the brass. And like you said, it's really easy to find/get small primer .45 brass.

However, my preference is always going to be LP .45 brass, and this is mostly because I started collecting my .45 brass in the late 1980's. And it's been a massive benefit in this LUNATIC primer market because I've got lots of LP primers in stock from before the world fell off a cliff and I only use the LP in .45, 10mm and .44 and my volume of 10mm and .44 these days is pretty low. I have started making a bit of .45 Colt but whatever.

My situation is different than yours since you have nothing on hand, but diversification is, IMO, always a benefit.

The grand old .45 primer size debate mostly affects handloaders who don't separate and inspect their brass. I certainly understand their angst, but I have 0% of that angst, it causes me no issues whatsoever.
 
Its not angst, and not really the need to separate the brass, as I do separate by headstamp commercial cases, anyway, its the need to stop, and change the priming tool JUST for those cases. Nothing else I have that uses that same headsize (and there are lots) uses small primers.

I see two distinct possibilities of disaster, the first is not realizing its a small primer case until you try to seat a large primer in it, and the second is having changed the priming punch to small, forgetting to change it back and seating a large primer with it. Neither one yields good results and at while due diligence does prevent either, these days, losing a primer for any reason just brings tears to my eyes.....:rolleyes:
 
44 AMP said:
Its not angst, and not really the need to separate the brass, as I do separate by headstamp commercial cases, anyway, its the need to stop, and change the priming tool JUST for those cases. Nothing else I have that uses that same headsize (and there are lots) uses small primers.

I see two distinct possibilities of disaster, the first is not realizing its a small primer case until you try to seat a large primer in it, and the second is having changed the priming punch to small, forgetting to change it back and seating a large primer with it. Neither one yields good results and at while due diligence does prevent either, these days, losing a primer for any reason just brings tears to my eyes.....:rolleyes:
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My thinking was using only small should weed those problems out. And if a large somehow gets mixed in, the small primer wont seat, no harm done.
 
My thinking was using only small should weed those problems out. And if a large somehow gets mixed in, the small primer wont seat, no harm done.
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Sounds reasonable to me. The difference in the feel of putting a small primer in a large pocket would be an instant tip off, for me. :rolleyes:
 
I am saving my SPP 45 brass to cast into paper weights. What is the melting point for Cartridge brass? I think propane torches with a BBQ tank might not do it.
 
Marco Califo said:
I am saving my SPP 45 brass to cast into paper weights. What is the melting point for Cartridge brass? I think propane torches with a BBQ tank might not do it.
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According to google, brass melts at 1710F ( 930C ). Which should be achievable with a propane torch which typically burn in the 2,000F to 2,250F range. If you interested in getting rid of them instead PM me.
 
I am looking for my crucible!
I already have 2 kinds of 45 brass, Starline regular and Starline +P which is thicker, to keep separate. Since I bought 500 new of each from Starline, I am not sure where my 45 range brass stands in processing.
Right now www.Starline.com has BOTH in stock for immediate shipment at around $120 per 500, with free shipping.
I am not a fan of the SPP 45 brass at all. I rate them just a hair above Blazer aluminum and Russian steel cases. I had a few. Then I got a zip lock bag as an unwanted extra in a trade of good brass. IMO they get in the way, and will never be used much. To me it is not worth the time to find them all, pack and ship them. I also do not want them to ever comeback again in range brass.
 
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Standardizing on small primer pockets has three potential drawbacks:

1.) If I go to Starline, where I currently buy all my new 45 Auto brass, they don't make it with small primer pockets. Indeed, I am unaware of anything but pre-fired SPPP 45 Auto brass on the market.

2.) Some of my 1911's, having been fit up old-school with the barrel tipped up pretty high, make off-center strikes that would be further from the center of an SPP than of an LPP, and that makes me a little uncomfortable from a reliability standpoint.

3.) Should I find myself with a surplus of 45 Auto brass that I want to trade to somebody for something else, I would expect the SPP brass to be harder to trade.
 
Unclenick said:
Standardizing on small primer pockets has three potential drawbacks:

1.) If I go to Starline, where I currently buy all my new 45 Auto brass, they don't make it with small primer pockets. Indeed, I am unaware of anything but pre-fired SPPP 45 Auto brass on the market.

2.) Some of my 1911's, having been fit up old-school with the barrel tipped up pretty high, make off-center strikes that would be further from the center of an SPP than of an LPP, and that makes me a little uncomfortable from a reliability standpoint.

3.) Should I find myself with a surplus of 45 Auto brass that I want to trade to somebody for something else, I would expect the SPP brass to be harder to trade.
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I only buy starline for revolvers at this point. I generally buy once fired for semi auto guns as I rarely get all my pieces back.
 
Four or five years ago you could have chosen either path with no problem. Today we're still in the get what ever you can find mode. I've saved all the range pickup SPP brass just in case, who knows what the future holds. Right now I'd say buy what ever you can find, nothing wrong with having both.
 
I'll take the SP brass because I have 10X the number if small to large and small are easier to find (and y'all can send all of it to me and I'll dispose of it for ya!)
 
Lol I hated running into 45acp small primer brass in my progessive setup. I never thought about sorting them until I ran into one, was mostly blazer brass.

This was about 10 years ago when I had access to indoor range brass, man back then there were buckets of the stuff. I dont find them any more.

I actually dont see much 45acp period

Does anyone know the science or the reason for changing it to SPP from LPP?
 
The SPP 45 ACP is one example of apparently cost savings to ammo manufacturer, at the expense of a stanrdized reloadability. Others:
9mm and some 38xx are made with "stepped" case interior. I don't know if that has showed up in BLAZERS current offerings yet.
Berdan primed. Forget it.
My point is that there is no good reason to mess with reloading the odd variants.
 
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