45 acp small primer brass - Fr&@>*¥?!!

While loading today I ran across a small infestation of Federal 45 brass with small pistol primer pockets in my mixed brass… while running a Star reloader... Ratzafratzen!! 

Are other manufacturers putting out SP brass? 

Who came up with the idea to change primer sizes?  I want a NAME and lat/lon for his location. 

I've seen Federal, Blazer, ICC and one I believe one other that I can't think of.

Winchester made some with a head stamp including NT for NonToxic or aka lead free.

I have some Speer.

Use it for a ball gun and leave it lay, let the next brass fairy cuss.

Multiracer wrote:Use it for a ball gun and leave it lay, let the next brass fairy cuss.

Man that’s cold. lol

Some day I'll have amassed enough for it to make sense to trade for fiocchi spp leadfree. I've seen the primers $0.20 shipped which if things continue at $0.12 for leaded primers I could justify the cost.

Loaded about a year ago.  SPP brass, 4,3 Bulkseye, 180 Brazos.  Shoots fine!

Primary 45 ACP loader is a Dillon 1050.  Always threw SP cases out.  When primers got hard to find and expensive, I set up a Dillon SDB to load small primer 45 ACP and started saving small primer cases..  Has worked well so far.  Hauled 4000 small primers home just last week.  Just need to make a special effort to sort cases.  

FWIW 10mm cases run small AND Large too..

Sounds like SP pockets are an STD. Don’t pick up range brass without protection. Thanks everyone.

RodJ wrote:While loading today I ran across a small infestation of Federal 45 brass with small pistol primer pockets in my mixed brass… while running a Star reloader... Ratzafratzen!! 

Are other manufacturers putting out SP brass? 

Who came up with the idea to change primer sizes?  I want a NAME and lat/lon for his location. 

Small primer brass is a real hazard to reloaders using progressive machines. I have read, and heard of a number of accounts of reloading machines blowing up when large pistol primers explode when seated into the primer pocket of small primer brass.

these pictures are not due to large pistol primer/small pistol brass, but they are instructive of what can happen when a pistol primer explodes.








I wish the advice of being diligent would be enough to protect reloaders, but small primer brass will creep into your collection. I do not shoot small primer brass and large primer on the same day, however, after collecting my fired large primer brass at the range, tumbling it, and loading it, I found a small primer 45 ACP above the shellplate of my Dillion 550B. It was not my case, so I am sure that under the tables, chairs, in the grass, was a like new Blazer small primer 45 ACP case that someone else fired, and since it did not look different from my brass, it ended up going home with me.

Let’s see. On one hand, a bottle of tequila, a wild night across the border, and two weeks of painful urination. 

On the other hand, a handful of “free” range pickups from a helpful shooting buddy, 100 overpriced large pistol primers, poopy pants and a fair amount of drywall work ( if you’re lucky)…

Yeah, I’ll pick door number 1.

Glad I wear both eye and ear protection.  Maybe I should add an eod suit and a pack of astronaut diapers.

Back when Covid was in full swing, I bought factory loads with abandon, who ever had them in 45acp.  I wound up with a collection of small primer brass, which go into a separate box in case i will ever load sp 45.  My experience with the 550B is that it will not load a LP into SP brass, when the primer push is initiated, very strong resistance is felt.  In my case, if it indeed possible to jam an LP into SP
brass, I was fortunate in not doing it, although I don't see how it can be done on the 550B

I always try to screen them out but they do seem to sneak in at times.  I have seen them by RWS as well.

L. Boscoe wrote:Back when Covid was in full swing, I bought factory loads with abandon, who ever had them in 45acp.  I wound up with a collection of small primer brass, which go into a separate box in case i will ever load sp 45.  My experience with the 550B is that it will not load a LP into SP brass, when the primer push is initiated, very strong resistance is felt.  In my case, if it indeed possible to jam an LP into SP
brass, I was fortunate in not doing it, although I don't see how it can be done on the 550B

I had a SPP brass sneak into my Dillon 650. The extra hard resistance to primer seating was completely lost on me until the primer detonated. Same thing happened to me on a Dillon 1050. The 1050 gives less warning because the primer seats as an empty is being resized at the same time as priming. I hate to have to check each and every empty that goes in the case feeder.

I am diligent about picking up only my own brass. I buy 1000 new starline every 2-3 years, and reload it until it splits. Costs me a couple hundred bucks every few years, but the consistency, not having to worry about small primer brass, not worrying about the glock bulge, etc. makes it worth it.

Dave

Some one once gave me 500 small primer cases which I loaded 230 FMJ into for when I am shooting in a field or something like that (non Bullseye). I also intend to use them whenever I shoot IDPA so the A-holes who scurry around and pick up everyone else's brass can pick them up too.

I've made a habit of ALWAYS placing my 45 brass in a l00 round case for a good visual inspection of the primers before going into the brass hopper.

Axehandle wrote:I've made a habit of ALWAYS placing my 45 brass in a l00 round case for a good visual inspection of the primers before going into the brass hopper.

That’s not a bad idea at all. An extra minute or two per hundred isn’t a lot of time in the grand scheme of things.

I mark all my brass after loading. Any brass that comes into my cleaning cycle (which starts by decapping each case with a harvey hand de priming tool) that isn't marked as mine, I lightly hand ream the primer pocket. This makes sure not only that it'll prime easily on the press but also the large primer reamer won't fit in a small pistol primer case, so those get separated. Those inspected, decapped cases go mouth-down into ammo trays so I can then check headstamps and make sure no +P or 460 Rowland cases are present (+P has less case capacity and 460R are too long to chamber). Then the exclusively large pistol primer cases go into the ultrasonic.

I process my 45 brass as a separate run through.  I use a 1050 with a Mark 7 Autodrive and a small primer will stop the machine at the torque settings I use. So it’s easy to segregate.  The swaging step is where it’s found.  I use the swage as a primer pocket check.

New pistol shooter here. I started reloading for pistol about 1.5 yrs ago and the idea of 45acp with SPP seemed like an obvious way to go. I am quite surprised that it has not become the standard for BE shooters. It simplifies the components needed. Can use SPP for anything that I may need for bullseye.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get my hands on enough SPP brass at the time so settled on the large primer brass. Is there some functional reason that SPP brass is not more popular?
-TH

A hundred years of standard practice.

While I like the idea of only having to buy one size of primers I have so much large pistol primer 45acp brass it would be a pretty big expense to switch so unless I got rid of all the existing brass and switched to small pistol primer brass it would not be worth the effort.

Large pistol primers are biggerer. 45acp is biggerer. It’s just natural that 45 uses big primers.