I would be interested in hearing the responses from the experienced reloaders as well. I too recently started loading .45's and every load I have seen in every manual I have calls out for the large pistol primers and yet half of the factory ammo I bought has small primers so there have to be safe loads available. I have yet to find one published load using any powder where a small primer is called out.
Not saying there aren't loads out there calling for small primers or how much difference if any the small primers make, I just haven't seen any.
I'm keeping all my small primer .45 brass in a separate container in case I run across some loads I have powder for.
In comparison to the total energy imparted to your bullets by the powder charge, the additional impulse energy of a large versus a small primer is completely insignificant. A large primer might, in some cases, provide more complete ignition of the powder, owing to a greater flash, but in a straight-walled pistol caliber, I really doubt that you could find any measurable difference in performance due solely to the primer.
After posting my reply I did a bit of web surfing and WOW... there are lots of opinions out there, many say they won't use the small primer brass because they "look cheesy" or don't "seem natural", etc while others say they have loaded thousands of rounds without incident. One person said they called Federal ammunition and asked what the difference was and were told they could use the small primers with large primer loads but to expect slightly reduced velocities. Of course I consider that just as much of an opinion as all the others since just because someone says they called and checked doesn't make it true.
Meh.. What you were told about slightly reduced velocities might be true, but I doubt it's enough of a difference to matter. If you're a professional match shooter, you might notice a difference in performance. But if all you want is to hit your targets in places that that matter, the difference is meaningless.
I use the same loads in both small and large primer .45 brass. No noticeable difference in performance/velocity. My velocity spread across just different brands of brass and/or my powder charging technique is larger than anything I've been able to chronograph between SP and LP brass.
I do segregate my brass by primer size just for reloading ease. And I've got enough of both so that I don't even mix them during the same range session. Each trip to the range will be either all small or all large primer brass so I don't have to go through the sorting process again.
The big thing that many guys worry about is the very early non-toxic primer loads did have a larger flash hole than normal. I haven't seen any of this brass around here in quite a while now. All of the recent non-toxic marked brass that I've been picking up is small priimer but they have a normal sized flash hole.
You might want to be wary of these large flash hole cases if you're running max loads. I never noticed any difference with my loads but I still keep these few oddballs separate from even the other small primer brass.
I don't load the durn things, they are a pain in the butt if you only have a few. I found about 20 of them in the brass I loaded earlier this week. I am laying them aside until I get all of my .45 loaded and then I will send them to Alpo. He said that he keeps them for "emergencies" the last time we had this discussion.
When the small primed 45 ACP brass started showing up for reloaders there was an article in a mag. about them (Handloader?). Several tests were done with different bullets, headstamps, primer mfgs., etc., but with identical loads in large primed vs. small primed. The results were that there was no significant difference in performance between small vs. large primed 45 ACP reloads.
I have a few small primer 45 cases and not reloaded any yet, but I will surely use my "pet" loads in them and expect no difference shooting them through my .45 ACP handguns. The only "problem" I have determined with small vs. large primed brass is when progressive press users don't inspect their brass before dumping them into the hopper of their ammo machine. They stop production when a large primer tries to get stuffed in a small pocket...
...The only "problem" I have determined with small vs. large primed brass is when progressive press users don't inspect their brass before dumping them into the hopper of their ammo machine. They stop production when a large primer tries to get stuffed in a small pocket...
I'm one of those that dont mind handling my brass a few times during steps, that gives me ample time to inspect it, much of my stuff is on the upside into hi power rifle, those recievers are too close to my head to not inspect my brass a couple times.. .. Fir some loaders, its about how many thousand rounds they can make in a day. To each his own, fir me, its a fun hobby I lil to be safe at, and as a side benefit I can custom make some tack driver ammo, Orr odd stuff hard to find.
I don't find them a problem. I am still a single stage reloader and will probably stay that way. I just set them aside and process them when I have time. One of these days when I have enough to fool with I will load them up. These have come from friends that have come to the range with store bought ammo. I get all the brass that non reloaders put on the ground which is almost everyone else. These I have prepped and primed so they are ready when ever I am.
The first time I encountered them, I reloaded them. There are no real "problems" with reloading or shooting them. The only trouble is changing the primer feed system, if you are using a progressive. The first ones I loaded were back before I had a progressive and I only had to pick up my other Lee priming tool and change out the shell holder.
I thought I had shot up and got rid of all the SP ones that I had but I guess I didn't. I either still had/have some or I picked up some on the range that someone else was getting rid of. Either way, I won't load them back.
No problems associated with them other than the requirement to sort the brass. I've never seen any .45acp load data that differentiates between SP and LP.
When I run into a SPP 45ap it goes into a bag with the others I have found.. I dont reload them yet as it would slow down my reloading (im a single stage reloader as well) I keep them for an emergency along with a 1000 rounds box of SPP just in case I ever need them.
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