Primers for 45 Brass

Hello all,

Two part question for the group ...

Virtually 100% of my bullseye shooting thus far has been a 22lr S&W Model 41 and a 9mm Beretta service pistol. I've recently broadened my horizons by acquiring a 45acp 1911 and I'm looking ahead to reloading for it.


1) Small primer 45 brass?

I was just about to click buy on some ordinary Starline large primer brass, then it occurred to me that if I standardized on small primer brass it would save me the hassle of swapping out the small/large priming system on my press.

I don't see any offerings from the premium makers (Starline, Lapua, Jagemann, etc) with small primers. Do they exist? I did find one place selling mixed once-fired small primer 45, but I'd rather not have to sort headstamps. Looked like mostly Blazer and Federal but who knows what would be in the mix.

Is this a ridiculous idea? Should I just buy a couple thousand large primer Starlines and be done with it?

I have plenty of large & small pistol primers, so that's not an issue.


2) Wolf/Tula primers?

Presently my supply consists of CCI #300 and Tula KVB45 large pistol primers. I bought the Tulas cheap years ago but I don't think I've used any of them yet.

I briefly went looking for some Federal Gold Medal large pistol match primers (#150M), but of course there aren't any.

Anyone use the Tula KVB45 primers for bullseye loads? The Wolf small rifle primers have a well-deserved reputation for being excellent, and I've used 1000s of those. Just wondering if the Wolf/Tula stuff is just as good on the pistol side.

I have always used 45acp with large pistol primers and toss any brass I pick up that has small pistol primers.  That being said several of the commercial ammo makers have small pistol brass, I think Speer and RWS are two.  I have only seen RWS being sold as brass the others have been in loaded ammo.  For me standardizing to one size of 45 brass is easier but I can see the appeal of using the same primers for 38 special, 9mm and 45 acp.  As for brands of primers I have used CCI, Winchester, Sellers and Beloit (spelling?) and Remington and they all worked fine.

I have not heard of anyone selling new small primer 45 brass, so sorting or LPP are your best options.

You could contact Starline and have them run a few hundred thousand custom cases for you. As a bonus, you could get custom headstamp, maybe 45 PGG.

I've wondered about a target pistol with a 45 GAP chamber. That might be a good cartridge for our light puff-ball loads.

The downside of any of these would be your brass getting mixed up with everyone else's LPP brass on the line.

CCI #300 are good primers. I've only used about 1k Wolf primers bought during the last shortage 10 years ago. They all went bang. I used them on my spray and pray gun and some service pistol loads. I don't think they affected accuracy, but I didn't test them.

The only people who use small primer .45 brass are misanthropes and self-loathers.

Some of us M&S-L's collect them to redistribute on the firing line as a P-A wy to get even with the brass thieves.

SteveT wrote:
I've wondered about a target pistol with a 45 GAP chamber. That might be a good cartridge for our light puff-ball loads. 

 
I've thought about the same thing. And maybe rig up a test device to see if there's any advantage in accuracy. But it is only a pistol held in one hand ...

The bigger draw for me would be the possibility of a narrower grip front to back. But that becomes a massively bigger project to do on a 1911 platform.

I got as far as finding out the GAP is already obsolete. If its just case capacity you want to try, +P brass is a little smaller inside.

Thanks all, I think I'll resist the urge to forge off a new path into the wilderness and stick with what works for everyone else on the planet. Ordinary large primer 45 brass it is.

The only LPP issues I've ever had stem from the variation in firing pins and barrel lockup. In my Colt, it has the GI 0.090" tip firing pin and hits centered in the primer. Winchester LPPs work great (they are considered "harder"). I bought a used SA 1911-A1 wad gun where the smaller firing pin (0.060" tip diameter) is offset from the center of the primer at barrel lockup. I was getting offset strikes that did not light the primer with the Winchester primers. I switched to the (softer) Fed 150 LPP and the issue went away. Just thought I'd mention it in case the issue ever comes up.

john bickar wrote:The only people who use small primer .45 brass are misanthropes and self-loathers.

Not wanting to be  in one of the categories you mention and in the interest of economy I tried some of my much prized (by cost anyhow) large match primers in the few small primer pocketed 45 cases I had on hand. After considerable effort and frustration, plus a number of primers judged useless and a fair amount of prayer, not to mention little understanding of the meaning of those 2 words I decided to give the cases to some poor fellow and struggle along w/ old habits.

Happy Motoring!

Ron H