I have just recently purchased my first 45 acp handgun and now I want to reload my own ammo and I've noticed some manufactures use small and others use large primers with there rounds. My question is , is the small primers magnum or just small pistol primers?

I use LG pistol for my reloading 45ACP. Perhaps some manufactures use sm pistol because of the powder they are using. I would toss any brass that had sm pistol. But that is just me. BTW 45GAP uses sm pistol primers. The case is shorter than the ACP case.

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Doug "N Frame Addict"
CO

They're just regular small pistol, not magnum.

Many ammo manufacturers are now making .45acp with SPP. All of the 'green' or non-toxic .45acp ammo will have SPP. Blazer, CCI, some Speer (they're all the same company), some Federal, Win NT, and perhaps some others will have SPP.

Is it okay to reload the spp brass? All my books say to use LPP. I know I can't fit a large primer in the small pocket.


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45 brass with SPP is an abomination, and a PITA. I throw the stuff in the bucket of brass to be taken to the metal recycle yard. That being said, you can reload the brass with SPP, using the same reloading data you would use with LPP brass. The difference in primer size is not going to make much difference, on what is a low pressure cartridge to start with.

We now have another pre- :-) -teen, -lock, -spp 45 ACP .

In there is 15 gallons of LP primer 45 ACP brass in the shed . We don't use 50 count boxes for bulk brass or ammo.

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S&WHF 366

Back when Eddie Boxer invented the "Boxer" primer things were a lot different. Now days we have very precise manufacturing and chemical compounding that insures primers function with superior consistency. The .45ACP was introduced over 100 years ago...a LOT has changed even in the world of cartridges and ballistics. With it's small interior volume the .45ACP simply does not "need" a large diameter primer. Large primers reduce overall case strength, so switching to small in a low-volume case is actually a GOOD idea.
The only reason I can see that anyone would have an issue with SPP versus LPP is if they have a 1911 modified with an extra long link that puts the primer grossly off-center from the firing pin. I've seen primer hits far enough off center that had the case used SPP it might very well not have fired.
Personally I applaud the shift toward small primers in the ACP case even though some may perceive they take something away from the "manliness" of the big, fat round with it's big, fat slug, and big, fat case...with "big, fat primers".

I have reloaded and fired my SPP 45 auto brass with no trouble.

Just sort them and reload them. No sense wasting components in my opinion. Waste not, want not.

I have reloaded .45 ACP with each small pistol and large pistol primers no magnum primers and so far all good in my M&P 45. Just picked up a 1911 but haven't had it to the range yet.

+1

I hope the guy who put the small primers in 45acp sticks his finger up his nose and a buger bites it

Why??

Some folks sort their brass by brand. Is it such a big deal to sort primer sizes?

Whatever the case, anyone who has SPP 45 brass and doesn't want it, feel free to send it my way! Not kidding either. I'll pay the shipping.

You pretty much have no choice but to sort all your brass these days. I load all my small primer .45 ACP brass and stash it away for the future "rainy day."

I remember shooting an ICORE match and a Canadian shooter present said he uses small primer .45 ACP brass for political reasons. So somewhere there are people who want or need this brass.

Dave Sinko

I sort and reload both. There is no appreciable difference. I use the same load in both. I'm sort of a newb at reloading as well. My brass is all mixed. Some I bought used, some is originally from boxed ammo and some was purchased as new brass. It's nearly all LPP, but I don't have so many as to be able to waste the few SPP cases I encounter.

It can be a pain in the tuckus to try to run a small primered .45 ACP through my Dillon. However, in my case, it won't be a problem because I have thousands of cases with the original large pistol primers. I don't use range pickups (don't have to) and I'm mostly shooting my ACP's in revolvers these days.

I don't sort my brass other than to check for split cases so it would be a major pain if I used range pickups. I WOULD manage but I wouldn't like it.

Personally, I think changing something that has worked just fine (that's putting it mildly) for a hundred years borders on sacrilegious, but that's just me.

Keep in mind that the manufacturers, if they had their way, would sell NONE of us components. They would just LOVE it if we were forced to buy nothing but factory loads. So, it's not much of a concern with them if we are "upset", they'll just do what seems practical to THEM.

Rant over,
Dale53

There have been times in the past year when I was glad to have some Small Pistol 45 ACP, because there have been periods when the only primers you could find were Small Pistol. Since things have eased a bit concerning primers I've been stocking up, however I still have about 5K fewer LP primers than SP.

As for reloading or performance, one of these days I'll get out the chronometer and do some formal testing. Until then all I can report is that the recoil felt seems to be identical, so any impact on velocity is likely in the range of less than 30 fps.

First off I freely admit to being a brass scrounger. Every time my buddies and myself go to our clubs ranges to shoot I will spend a fair amount of time looking for and picking up every reloadable case I can find (in the calibers I reload). Not just on our bay but on any of the others where there is no one shooting. This despite the fact that I probably have many thousands of cases sorted and in drawers at home.
Besides the fun of shooting with my pals (always a +) I score my day as a plus when I bring home more brass than I shoot. Probably the main reason I like revolvers so much!
To be honest I have not found enough SPP 45 acp brass to make it worth my while to save and load. If I had to guess in the last couple of hundred 45 cases I have scrounged I may have seen around 20 with the small pistol primer. I just leave them there.
Chip King

I'm a cheapskate and I don't throw much out which is why my basement is so full. If I didn't want to reload the small primer stuff, I would box it and save it for a possible time when I couldn't get anything else or load it and shoot it if I were at a place where I couldn't retrieve my brass.

I shoot out in the woods and always manage to lose a few 45acp brass,so when I see extras I always snag em.I finally found my first one with a small primer this year.No matter how hard I mashed that priming tool,it just wouldn't seat a primer :-)

OP, by now you know it's fine to reload SPP 45ACP.

AFAIK no authoritative source has measured a practical difference between using LPP or SPP . . . as long as you match the primer to the case

It does cause some problems in sorting range pickups. I started shooting 45ACP with a couple thousand factory loads . . . Blazer Brass . . . so my brass is almost exclusively SPP.

To supplement, I have bought RWS brass because they make SPP cases. I don't know if anyone else sells virgin brass in SPP.

I bought a couple of new 1911's in .45 ACP last year and bought some Federal American Eagle hardball to break em in with. Lo and behold small pistol primers! No big whoop, after I reloaded them I just put a LARGE small pistol primer notice on the data cards. Brian Pearce in Handloader made the comment about accuracy, may be a bit better with the little fellas and hinted at a future article about it.

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Stay safe people!

I'm a unrepentant brass addict. Can't walk past any without picking it up and can't bring myself to throw any away. I have brass for 35 whelen! I've got a can for the SPP 45acp cases. I figure someday it my come in handy.

Same here, besides, someday I may be able to use the excuse that I need to buy a new gun to match some of my miscellaneous brass stockpile.

I do not have enough of the 45acp with small pistol primers to bother with loading it yet, but when I do have enough accumulated I would not be afraid of loading it using the same data as the LPP.

That assumes that manufacturers of completed rounds are also the manufacturers of components.

If the ammo makers are buying their components from third parties, the same third parties that we also buy components from, then I don't see why the component makers would care one way or the other whether their components are going to factories for large scale production or to resellers supplying individual reloaders.

A few years ago I came across a deal for 1000 once fired .45 ACP brass for a rediculously low price. It said they were SPP but I bought them anyway. Turned out they were oustanding brass and I liked the SPP better. All my loaded rounds are stored in 100 round plastic boxes, so I don't really have to sort.

This Winter I had a supply of SPP but the LPP were sold out. I threw out all my LPP 45 acps and standardized on the SPPs. Now I don't have to worry. They work just as well!

Even worse when you have a bucket of 45 brass and are running it through a progressive press. I think swearing will get me kicked off the forum so I cannot adequately express how I feel about spp brass. Worse yet even if I try sorting it my eyes just aren't that good that I can tell at a glance which is which.

Just segregate the 45's by primer size, running low on large pistol primers....break out that box of empty brass that you can use the small pistol primers in...It's all good. You have to think of it as an extra option, then it's O.K.

Gary

Well actually there is a diff. Sat I checked my IDPA load in LP vs SP brass. The vel diff using WST was 50fps+!!!! That is quite a diff, enough to get you a DQ at a match if you don't rework the loads.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO