Henry Rifle Forums

My first reloads, some 50 years ago, were 45 ACP for my 1911. Back then factory ammo was expensive and I loved shooting my 45. I was fortunate that I had access to a good source of once fired brass and I managed to stock up. The unfortunate part was most of this brass was military brass with crimped in primers. Getting the crimp out was always a labor of love, but once done you were good to seat new primers and reload your brass many times.

Now fast forward to about 10 years ago. The club i'm in now, many shooters don't reload or can't be bothered so their brass is left behind. I alway take brass I reload when I see it. Military surplus ammo or brass is no longer around since the government moved away from the 1911. The problem now is commercial 45 ACP ammo comes with both large and small pistol primers. So now, to reload 45 ACP range brass, I have to sort all my brass by primer size. With my old eyes this is not an easy chore and I occasionally mix some up. That's a real bummer when you try to stuff a large pistol primer into a case with a small pistol pocket. The other way around is almost as bad. The small primers just fall right out of a large primer pocket.

Today while reloading 500 rounds of 45 ACP with small primer pockets I encountered 3 large primer pockets in the mix. This really throws a monkey wrench in the machinery when you're reloading on a progressive press. Usually the press jams up and takes a few minutes to clear.

I guess what I'm wondering if anyone else is annoyed by this primer size issue. I know 45 ACP is not the only cartridge that has this problem. 10mm is another round that comes to mind and there may be others.

Paul

I use the small primer pocket 45acp in my swaging. I check brass size when sorting with a small primer pocket cup from of my priming systems or military crimp removal tools. If the primer waggles arround it's a large primer pocket and goes in the reload pile. If not it's a small and goes in the swage pile.

As of now I toss any SP 45acp brass into the scrap bucket...........I have a bountiful supply of LP 45acp brass.

I'm not too annoyed by it. I don't collect range brass, only what I myself shoot. When I have a shooting session, I know what brass/primer size I'm shooting with. I don't mix. When I pick up the brass it goes into the appropriate jug based on the primer hole size.

Never could figure out why they did that on 10 and 45. But when there is a primer shortage the small pistol seems to return first and so maybe its primer availability. I use a Dillon Square Deal press. I do try to not mix them but with a SD its not to big of issue. I just pull the locater button at that stage remove the case and pull the handle again. Its pretty simple.

From what i gather the small primer hole brass utilizes lead free primers.

Yes, it is an annoyance for sure. I don't shoot that much 45 acp these days.
Down to one 1911 and the BH convertible.
I have a coffee can with a few hundred cases prepped and primed.
Been there for a couple of years now.
When I came across those sp brass I just threw in a separate can.

A couple years back forty was looking for some SPP 45 acp.
So I sent him all I had at that time.

Like Al said though seems like the small primers always seem to come back the quickest.

A couple years ago I fell into the 6.5 Creed family.
Anyway to my surprise, I ran into the same thing.
Fed. uses a SRP in their brass. So those are kept separate.
I only loaded those a couple times, but I'd like to do a comparison one of these days.
See if one might have a slight advantage in accuracy or not.

RP

I am trying to get rid of my small pistol primered 45ACP. I stocked up during Covid when large primers were scarce and I had a surplus of small pistol primers. I load them up for pistol matches that are "lost brass" matches. You don't get to police up your brass. Somebody else may get them and then they can decide what to do.

Loading 45 ACP with large primers on my progressive press is not as big of a problem. You can immediately feel the resistance on the primer stroke and just pop the shell out of the station. If you catch it fast enough you don't damage the large pistol primer and can just continue on.

Paul

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Fri May 30, 2025 6:48 am

From what i gather the small primer hole brass utilizes lead free primers.

I believe those were/are Win "NT" cases.

Rifletom wrote: ↑

Fri May 30, 2025 4:59 pm

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Fri May 30, 2025 6:48 am

From what i gather the small primer hole brass utilizes lead free primers.

I believe those were/are Win "NT" cases.

IIRC CCI clean fire is lead free. The supposition was that they used the same brass for cci blazer. That being said, norma, raug, and a few other euro brands also use lead-free primers. Norma is famous for it. Their brass is often an undersized primer hole. I've destroyed more than one depriming rod.