45 ACP primer differences
 

A friend who doesn't reload gave me a big box of once fired brass a few weeks ago. So its a rainy day today and I'm not busy so I figured I'd load some 45s for an up coming range trip. What I noticed as I'm running this brass thru my Dillon case feeder is every now and then I couldn't seat a primer. Turns out that not all makers of 45 ACP brass make them with large primer pockets. Seems Federal and Blazer used small primers. Made for a pain having to every now and then remove the odd round.

Perhaps this is widely known, but it was a first for me.

This is pretty well known for 45 reloaders, although in practice I rarely see the small primer brass.

I did run into one last weekend, and it was a Speer. Usually you see this in Federal.

You can try to sort your brass beforehand to get rid of the small primer ones, but frankly I don't bother... I just load them up until I can't seat a primer, and I toss the offending brass. I don't reload them, but YMMV.

Boats

I use a single stage, I deprime all my brass and sort it then. Sell the SP and load the LP...that is just me though...I agree too its a giant pain..

Do you see much of it, Phil?

Tom

I deprime, then sort by cleaning the primer pockets on my RCBS rotary thingamajig workstation. I use a large primer cleaning tool. If it don't fit... guess what... Its a small primer. Federal, Speer, Blazer and a couple of others started using them a few years back.

Unlike others, I throw the SP cartridges into a bucket... and when I have enough... I reload them too! Brass is brass is brass....

Remember, the ammo manufacturers aren't in business to make it easy for us reloaders. They would rather we always have to purchase THEIR new ammo.

And so.... it goes.....

DaFadda

Oops.. double post.

Funny, since I'm just getting into 45's I've got no vested interest in legacy cases/primer sizes. I was able to score a big box of SP brass pretty cheaply ... and I've got a ton of SP primers from setting up to reload 9 and 40 brass. May as well go with the flow ...

I only find it when I go hunting for brass at the range....Like Padre said some guys will just reload it when the get enough of it. I don't reload it but I have not been desperate enough to load it. I don't like having that many different items around the reloading bench either. I like a simple operation, I only reload the .45ACP so I keep it simple(but I have never been known to be called normal).....works for me....may not work for everyone.

I only find a few now and again. I won't bother using them but I have a friend that prefers them, so whenever I find any I save it for him.

I'm going to save them up until I have enough to bother reloading. I'm only finding them in the free range brass now and then. I had Federal and Blazer small primer brass. The Speer brass was all large primer as was the Anguilla(?). With a progressive press, you kind of need to have a good bit of brass before it makes sense to start loading.

Thanks for the heads up. I figured it was a known issure, just new to me. Next time I'll sort the brass prior to loading up the case feeder.

All my reloading books list 45 ACP as large pistol primers. No mention of the small primer variant.