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 .
Does anyone know the science or the reason for changing it to SPP from LPP?
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It's just the simplest reason of ease and streamlining of manufacturing. Most ammo makers sell more 9mm than anything, the next tier (based on volume) is going to be .40, .45, .380, .38 Special. And of those, only the .45 used the different primer -- so why not standardize it to the smaller primer?

If we rolled the clock back 110 years, I will certainly guess that the larger diameter case demanded or benefited from the larger primer. These days, it just isn't necessary. If the .45 ACP wasn't a 120 year old cartridge and it made it's debut right now, it would be a dumb idea to produce it with a large primer.

So it may be really annoying to a lot of handloaders but it makes very good sense.

There's another way that the ultra-annoyed MIGHT consider looking at this situation:

If you call up Starline and buy what you want, you get what you want. And if you buy factory ammo and you look at what you purchase before you throw money at it, you also get what you want.

And if you inspect and sort your brass, you get what you want.

With all these methods there are no hassles.

The hassles that seem to bother some handloaders soooooo much seem to happen when they are scooping up free brass and/or too lazy to sort and inspect.

There has been a lot of teeth gnashing over the what... 15 years we've been now dealing with SP .45 brass, but it's waning a bit.

It still annoys some folks. The only annoyance I have ever found with SP .45 brass is sifting through all the whining about it. :D :D
 
Sevens said:
It's just the simplest reason of ease and streamlining of manufacturing. Most ammo makers sell more 9mm than anything, the next tier (based on volume) is going to be .40, .45, .380, .38 Special. And of those, only the .45 used the different primer -- so why not standardize it to the smaller primer?

If we rolled the clock back 110 years, I will certainly guess that the larger diameter case demanded or benefited from the larger primer. These days, it just isn't necessary. If the .45 ACP wasn't a 120 year old cartridge and it made it's debut right now, it would be a dumb idea to produce it with a large primer.

So it may be really annoying to a lot of handloaders but it makes very good sense.

There's another way that the ultra-annoyed MIGHT consider looking at this situation:

If you call up Starline and buy what you want, you get what you want. And if you buy factory ammo and you look at what you purchase before you throw money at it, you also get what you want.

And if you inspect and sort your brass, you get what you want.

With all these methods there are no hassles.

The hassles that seem to bother some handloaders soooooo much seem to happen when they are scooping up free brass and/or too lazy to sort and inspect.

There has been a lot of teeth gnashing over the what... 15 years we've been now dealing with SP .45 brass, but it's waning a bit.

It still annoys some folks. The only annoyance I have ever found with SP .45 brass is sifting through all the whining about it. :D :D
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Well said


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Small primer ammo works just as well as large primer ammo but the smalls are a pain to have to deal with. I find that I have to sort it all out before I start seating primers.

But after I have a couple hundred, I seat small primers in them and move on. Might as well since I spent the time to sort them out and pile them up.

--Wag--
 
I have both. For a while there, all I had was SPP. Then, I could only find LPP, so I saved the SPP for 9mm/380 and was only shooting 45 for over a year at the range since I had ample LPP. Now I'm heavy on SPP and short on LPP. When I go to the range, I only bring 45 cases of one type. The only sorting I have to do is for any range brass I get (RSO's know to dump any/all 45 brass in my bag as they walk by). Since I need to visually inspect the new range brass anyway, it doesn't really take that much longer to sort them then as well.
 
Does anyone know the science or the reason for changing it to SPP from LPP?
Click to expand...

Yes.



Oh, you want me to TELL you.

OK.
When the greens got all exercised over lead emissions from lead styphnate primers, the industry tried this and that for lead free primers and ended up with Dinol - DDNP as the sensitive agent. It works but it is more energetic. The first response to that was larger flash holes to vent the primer flame into the cartridge. You can look back and find posts
"OMG, my brass has HUGE flash holes, what can I DO?" The answer was "not much", .45 interior ballistics are not real sensitive to flash hole size.

But then some genius realized "Hey, this stuff is more expensive and hotter too. Let's just put it in small primers. That will save money and keep good powder ignition."

Early Official Recommendations were to not reload .45 Small but anybody who wanted to bother just ignored that.

I think the next step was to just load .45 Small with styphnate primers when lead free was not specified on the order, whatever brass was on hand.

ETA: Federal now has their own lead free formula in the Catalyst primers, thus far seen only in Syntech ammunition. I have not seen any of the .45 and don't know what size it uses.
 
Well i ordered 200 once fired small primers. And i have close to 100 large primer range pickup. I will work up some loads side by side and see if i can discern any difference in velocity or consistency. But im thinking small primer will be the way to go gor me.I
 
In a pistol, i'm thinking your not going to be able to discern any quantifiable difference between large & small PISTOL primers.

It's not like your shooting a 75lb rail gun whose accuracy is measured in hundredths, or thousandths of an inch.

I shoot both primer sizes in my 45s. Haven't seen any difference in accuracy or failure to fire in different temperatures.

Use what you want to use.

For me, i prefer the large primers, as otherwise i'm going through small primers that much quicker while loading 9mm & 38 SPCL.
 
std7mag said:
In a pistol, i'm thinking your not going to be able to discern any quantifiable difference between large & small PISTOL primers.

It's not like your shooting a 75lb rail gun whose accuracy is measured in hundredths, or thousandths of an inch.

I shoot both primer sizes in my 45s. Haven't seen any difference in accuracy or failure to fire in different temperatures.

Use what you want to use.

For me, i prefer the large primers, as otherwise i'm going through small primers that much quicker while loading 9mm & 38 SPCL.
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I would prefer small primers. I load for 9mm, 38spl, 357 mag, smd 223. I use small pistol primers when i can get them but have had to use small rifle for everything for a bit now. I do have about 1000 large pistol primers from when i used yo load for 44spl. Figured i could do some testing and use them up. But i just dont really want to have to stock large pistol primers going forward if i can get away with it. I would prefer to use large pistol, i just cant get around how impractical it is based on my current situation.
 
Unless I'm missing something, I can't agree that it is impractical. While all four primer sizes are tough gets, small pistol primers are with no doubt the most difficult primer to get, they are in the most demand.

If you roll with LP, you will need to stock a different sized primer but it will be a size that is arguably easier to get and even you yourself won't need to use as often.

If you ever dabble in 10mm, .41 Mag, .44 Special or Mag or .45 Colt, you are able to jump right in, having LP primers on hand.
 
Once fired primers

Well i ordered 200 once fired small primers. And i have close to 100 large primer range pickup.
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I will be happy to send you once fired primers, large and small pistol. But you have to pay postage.
 
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I just picked up some more LPP. Since I have both small and large primer brass, I'll load my next batch in LPP and save the SPP for my 9mm. It's good to have options! Get and save both.

The LPPs I just picked up were magnum. I've been getting these for over a year here and there. Seems to be the only primers I can find in Florida at LGS's. A local mfr keeps promising to start selling surplus primers (SPP & LPP) once he has any...
 
got all my brass in, counted everything up. right now I have about 350pcs of SP and about 50pcs of LP.

one interesting note. While sorting my brass I noted that the SP brass had almost all the same head stamp. It would seem that using SP might have a benefit if your buying once fired as you will get les head stamp variation as there are fewer manufacturers who make it.
 
The LPPs I just picked up were magnum. I've been getting these for over a year here and there. Seems to be the only primers I can find in Florida at LGS's. A local mfr keeps promising to start selling surplus primers (SPP & LPP) once he has any...
Click to expand...

NO LGS in my area of Florida has had any primers since Covid; have to mail order and pay hazmat and freight
 
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