.45acp with small pistol primers
 

Does anyone reload .45acp small primer cases?

I just came in from practicing my slot machine pull technique one my rockchucker. I've got about 3,000 rounds of once fired brass to process, and I have found a dozen small primer cases. I've been just throwing them away, but I do know where I can get thousands of single-use Winchester small primer cases for free.

Would it be worth my while, or a huge mistake to reload those things?


Randall

I usually Trash them if there aren't to many of them.........


Clyde

I have about 40 or so in a zip-lock bag. If I ever run out of normal casings I may use them.

I hate running into those small primer casings, puts a halt on everything.

I've been trashing them, and when given boxes of Win BEB small primer stuff at the LASD range, I just leave the brass behind. Now that I'm putting my reloading bench back to work, leaving brass behind bothers me. Also, I'm pretty sure that I can get thousands of rounds of small primer brass just for the asking.

I'm wondering if powder and primer improvements have made large primers pretty much obsolete.

I have seen some load data for the small pistol primer casings but never tried them. Heck, sell it for scrap. Make a buck or two.

I've run into them a few times - I usually toss them out. I don't know how a small primer will behave with my load vs a large primer. So far, I haven't seen that many.

Lane

45 sp
 

I got a batch of Federal SP 45 acp brass. SO I cleaned and seperated them from the regular LP and started loading them in a batch.
1. They run great in all my 1911's
2. They chrono with no discernable differance.
3. Seems like brass is just as nice as Fed LP brass
4. I load my 230 LRN in SP brass now and 200gr in LP Brass. Not they are hard to tell apart but this is another way to check what I'm shooting.
4a. Shot them in an IDPA match week before CHristmas and won the match in CDP so no problems with the ammo loaded with SP

Summary if you want to get that brass I will consider paying you a resonable amount for some of it if you don't want it

Jcc7x7
Neil

I usually sell them. Some gusy will reload them, I just choose not to just because I am set up for large and don't want to gum up the works, they seem to work fine from what I understand of them though.

I hate them. They gum up the operations when reloading. Wolly world Federals.

I find them after primer removal, while cleaning the primer pockets. I just throw them in a bucket until I have a couple hundred. Then I reload them as well. Since I hand prime, and batch process on a turret press, its not really a big thing.
DaFadda

Thanks. This is what I was hoping to hear. I have about 3,000 rounds of LP brass, but I can never recover all of it when I shoot--the rounds eject too far forward of the firing line.

Next time I go to the Sheriff's range, I'll test whether my guess that the range master will let me carry away as much spent brass as I want.

Randall

This idea that .45acp now comes in small primer has intriqued me. After all these years of large primer, why would they change up and ad a new size into the mix? So I did some research, and find that the .45 GAP is basically a short .45 acp case, and it uses small primers. The max length of .45 acp case is .898, while the max length of the .45 GAP case is .760.
I don't have any small primer .45's, so I would like to ask someone with these and who has a dial caliper, if they would gauge their cases, comparatively. I'm just thinking that the small primer stuff is not really intended for the .45 acp, but is actually .45 GAP.
So there in lies the question, is it safe to fire a .45 GAP in a .45 ACP pistol? Will it headspace correctly enough to be safe? Is that .122 case length difference okay? In a revolver I would say yes, but in a semiauto, I think no. The cartridge headspaces on the case mouth, so you can't seat the bullet shallower to make up the difference in OAL, and you'll have that gap between the case and the bolt face. And even if it fired correctly, what are the effects of the extraction?
Anyone smarter than I (that would be most of you) have an answer?

All the small primer stuff I've picked up is genuinely .45 ACP, not GAP.