.45 acp - small primer

4570

4570

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I admit I'm a brass scrounger and over the years have picked up more brass at the range then I care to count. I look at the headstamp after cleaning. Long story short - tumbled 200 cases of .45acp. brass- many different headstamps from different makers. Sit down at press and start to work - third cartridge the large pistol primer doesn't want to seat so I look for a piece of walnut shell in primer pocket but nothing there. Try again but no go. I sit there scratching my head looking at the casing and it occurs to me something doesn't look right so I place a large pistol primer over the primer hole and the primer is a bit bigger then the hole! I try a small pistol primer and it fits :eek: I've never hit this before in over 20 years of loading this calbre. The headstamp reads as follows: WIN NT followed by 45 AUTO. I checked the rest of the casings I had cleaned and there were about 50 of these mixed in - all with small primer.

Has anyone found this before or knows the reason for the different primer size. :confused:
 
claims are that small primed are cleaner, I beleive NT means non-toxic and you could run into Federal NT that also are small primed
it's funny you have not seen them in 20 years of reloading 45, I found some the very first time
 
Yep, in a year or two of occasional range scrounging I must have found a couple of dozen WIN NT 45 AUTO small primer brass. In fact I have one sitting in front of me now.
 
charles.emond said:
it's funny you have not seen them in 20 years of reloading 45, I found some the very first time
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Good for you - I guess I've just wasn't that lucky- last thing I want when loading several hundred 45acp is part way through the primer size changes. My brass lasts a long time with target loads and my guns don't ding up the brass too badly. I'll hang on to these till I have enough to make it worthwhile to set up with small primers or I may just pitch them!
 
WinClean for sure used small primers, but I've also ran across some .45 brass headstamped Speer that was small primer... Anyone know what Speer ammo uses small primers?
 
4570 said:
Good for you - I guess I've just wasn't that lucky- last thing I want when loading several hundred 45acp is part way through the primer size changes. My brass lasts a long time with target loads and my guns don't ding up the brass too badly. I'll hang on to these till I have enough to make it worthwhile to set up with small primers or I may just pitch them!
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didn't mean that in an arrogant way actually, and it is fortunate that you don't find much because they are quite the nuisance as you have realized
 
I guess it depends on the range, but about a third of all my .45ACP range brass have small primer pockets.

4570 said:
I may just pitch them!
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I will never understand why some people would ever consider throwing away perfectly good brass, knowing that it represents about half the price of a loaded cartridge...
 
krausb said:
WinClean for sure used small primers, but I've also ran across some .45 brass headstamped Speer that was small primer... Anyone know what Speer ammo uses small primers?
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Speer Lawman 230gr TMJ .45 Auto uses a small primer.

I don't even bother picking up the small primer cases.
 
well small primer 45 made it all the way north :)

cci makes some , and Winchester win clean (nt) and im betting others too. I only reload small primer 45. Cheaper brass and i don't have to stock large primers.
 
thanks guys - at least I know I'm not losing it in my old age though according to my wife that's debatable. Actually Hedgehog was more right then he knew. Because we are so far north we tend to reuse things possibly more then we should. Our one and only gun store does not sell a lot of pistol ammo and primarily stocks rifle ammo. If I want new brass I either order it on the internet or drive south to Edmonton which is a 1,700km drive - one way! The RCMP and Town police plus DND also use our range so they could have brought in a bunch of new ammo. In 12 years of scrounging at this range this is the first time I've seen this stuff - not sure if this is a good or bad thing. There are several Yellowknifers who are gun club members and hang out on this site. I'll ask a few of them how much of this stuff they're picking up. cheers

Bill
 
45/70
Its very common now with more ranges using "lead free" ammo. You may also want to watch out for FC NT headstamp which is not only small primer but also crimped. Once u get a good supply of the SP brass, it reloads just dandy with no difference in performance vs the LP stuff, U just hafta remember to sort your brass b4 u start reloading..
Cheers:)
dB
 
4570

I shoot only small pistol primers in 45ACP, mostly in a revolver. I use Federal primers, which are a bit softer. I can use about 1/2 turn less main spring pressure using Federal primers.

In my experience small pistol primer brass is harder to come by, but if you look around, it is out there.
 
i hate to disappoint you 4570 but when i lived in the territority i had small primer 45 brass. i think it was norinco but it has been almost 20 years so i could be wrong. i kept it very seperate from my regular brass and traded it to a buddy. however i don't think i used any in YK just HR.
 
Small primered 45 Auto cases started appearing 3-4 years ago. I believe it is done because lead-free primers were initially only available in the small size.

I am sure that the quality of the brass is every bit as good, but it would be such a PITA to run small and large pockets of the same caliber. The most practical thing to do is pick one size for your own use and treat the other size as scrap.
 
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