.45 auto sm vs: lg primer

[dbldown74]

Picked up a few hundred .45 brass a few days ago. All was head-stamped FEDERAL .45 AUTO. Eventually I realized the primers were not crimped but small pistol primers. I might live under a rock but I've only seen that with .45 GAP.
I don't want to just waste the brass but would like to know it these require just small pistol or small pistol magnum.
I am not a perfectionist, I do want to shoot inexpensively and safely.

 

[dbmjr1]

Case capacity does not require a LPP. That's a throwback to John Moses Browning. He was forced to invent a new .45 caliber cartridge, real quick like, to work in his single stack auto loading pistol.

Set a .45acp case next to a .30/06 case.

and that's the rest of the story, as it was told to me.

 

[rcmodel]

Use:
Standard Sm Pistol primer.

Standard Lg Pistol data.

Rc

 

[sellersm]

Welcome to the 'new world' (well, kinda old by now)! Federal, CCI, Win NT ('clean'), any other "non-toxic primers" and some I probably missed: they're all SPP.

In other words, it's an evil plot!

rcmodel hit the nail on the head for your answer... Use a regular Small Pistol Primer and load data as normal.

 

[Reefinmike]

Only thing I do different is just keep em separate for consistency's sake. word is a spp sends em 15-20fps slower than lpp.

 

[FROGO207]

I am presently putting all my SPP 45 ACP brass away for if the time ever comes that I can get SPP and no LPP, then I will use them. Or decide to standardize on SPP only. But for now I use both flavors in a bunch of calibers and have a metric butt load of both on hand.

 

[joneb]

+ one FROGO207,
I've been saving these SP 45acp brass for this reason.

 

[PO2Hammer]

Yup, stash brass for me. I have plenty of LPP .45 brass, so when I buy factory ammo I always choose Blazer Brass just for the small primer holes.

You could even use SRPs with small primer .45 brass if that's all you had.

 

[joneb]

You could even use SRPs with small primer .45 brass if that's all you had.

Amen, and pass the ammo can brother

 

[howlnmad]

Keep em seperated and load as normal but using SPP.

 

[RPegram]

I'm the crazy one who only loads spp and stashes the lpp ones away. I've tried magnum primers, but can't tell much difference.

 

[arspeukinen]

If you load competition rounds, make sure to chrono them. Harder to make "major" power factor with SPP.

 

[highlander 5]

I reload both just depends on which primer size I have set up.

 

[Taroman]

Tried shooting loads in SPP brass in a match. Using my regular "soft" load.
Had several stovepipes where there were never any with LPP.
So, all the SPP went straight into the recycle bin.

 

[Hondo 60]

If you don't wish to bother with 2 primer sizes, I'm sure someone would be willing to buy them from you.

Just post a for sale thread in the correct area.

http://www.thehighroad.org/forumdisplay.php?f=50

 

[Sunray]

Started years ago by Winchester and their NT line. A line they said isn't reloadable. When they meant they weren't going to sell the NT primers.
Same case otherwise.

 

[Blue68f100]

Started years ago by Winchester and their NT line. A line they said isn't reloadable. When they meant they weren't going to sell the NT primers.
Same case otherwise.

Yes same case but the primer's flash hole was larger and the primer was crimped in to prevent it from backing out.

There is a slight fps difference between the 2. So if your shooting minor using SP you may need to adj your load to match the LP if your running on the edge.

I'm collecting the SP just encase. I can re-machine them to LP if I need too. Or just load them.

 

[dbldown74]

Thanks all for the information. It would have been my guess but living here under the rock anything's possible. Next time I poke my head out large pistol primers might be banned.

 

[LiveLife]

Started years ago by Winchester and their NT line. A line they said isn't reloadable. When they meant they weren't going to sell the NT primers.
Same case otherwise.

At first I was annoyed by SP 45 cases as I had one more thing to do when sorting range brass. I collected them in a separate bucket and kept on using LP 45 cases.

Then when I came across a particular lot of Tula SP primers that had harder cups and I couldn't reliably ignite them with my Glocks/M&P, I found I could use SP 45 cases and every one of Tula SP primers went "bang" in all my 45 pistols! (Sig1911/M&P45/PT145) - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=7840156#post7840156

Now I happily load up SP 45 cases with Tula SP primers instead of using 4 letter words like before.

Life is good again!

Tula SP primers with harder cups in various SP 45ACP cases successfully fired in Sig 1911 with deep firing pin indentations.

 

[rglassma]

For plinking I use them both.. Standard primers and not magnum. . Don't worry about it. They all go bang..

 

[Toprudder]

I've done a lot of comparisons between small and large primer 45.

It all depends on the powder used. In all cases I have seen a reduction in velocity when using small primers, usually it is somewhere around 30fps. However, for some powders, especially at reduced loads, I have seen as much as 100fps. In that case, I was testing PB powder. So, I tried an experiment with different primers at reduced loads.

I saw very little difference between CCI and Win small primers, < 10fps. But, (with PB) I saw almost 100fps difference between Win small and Win large primers. I also saw large spreads and standard deviations with the small primers as well. I then tried Win small magnum primers, and saw only 30fps less than the regular large primers.

I tested some of the other powders I have used that gave 30fps difference between large and small primers, and tested small magnum primers using those powders. I still saw a slight reduction in velocity compared to large primers, but not as much reduction as the regular small primers.

For me, I will use small magnum primers and load the same as I do for large primers.

One interesting thing I noticed early on when comparing large and small primers, I usually had lower standard deviations with the small primers. I did not notice a difference in accuracy, though, but I was not shooting benchrest at a long enough distance to really gauge accuracy.

 

[BCRider]

I've read that SPP cases are capable of providing more consistent muzzle velocities and thus better accuracy. A few bullseye shooters I know swear by the newer SPP cases as a result.

Tried shooting loads in SPP brass in a match. Using my regular "soft" load.
Had several stovepipes where there were never any with LPP.
So, all the SPP went straight into the recycle bin.

Taroman, the SPP uses less priming compound. So if you're running light loads that rely on the LPP's producing their share of the gas pressure then using the same amount of powder in your SPP loads could easily result in a lower enough recoil impulse that you'd get the stovepiping. Upping the powder load by .2 to .4 gns would have corrected the issue and restored the muzzle velocity and recoil impulse.

 

[PO2Hammer]

Tried shooting loads in SPP brass in a match. Using my regular "soft" load.
Had several stovepipes where there were never any with LPP.
So, all the SPP went straight into the recycle bin.

I know that with very light loads Fed Gold Medal LPPs require more powder to cycle my .45 than CCI LPPs do, so the need to adjust your load for SPPs shouldn't be unexpected.

Side note, the lighter Fed Gold Medal LPPs produce better accuracy with light loads than the hotter CCI LPPs. I'm hoping the small primer brass with Fed SPPs will do just as well as the LPP Gold Medal loads. The large Gold Medal primers, or any Federal LPPs are very hard to find.

 

[blarby]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=649476