Large Pistol Primer vs Small Pistol Primer on 45 acp

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I think they went to SPP because they're cheaper to make.....less material = cheaper. And most shooters (they don't reload) don't even notice. Even those selling primers to reloaders make more money on SPP than LPP......less material for same money. I don't think this is rocket science, this is economics 101. A few years from now, there won't be any LPP'd .45's......betcha.
 
The only "problem" with small primed 45 ACP brass is those that can't/don't/won't bother to look at the case head...

Some posters need to do a little research (google) and find out the real reason small pistol primers were first introduced...
 
I load them both with the same charge and find no difference in them as far as accuracy or felt recoil. Never bothered to cronograph any yet though. Don't feel that fixing something that isn't broke is worth the bother either. YMMV
 
Fine Figure of a Man said:
I wish all 45ACP was made for small primers.
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I just wish they would stick with one or the other... meaning LPP. With the exception of 9mm, I don't load anything that takes SPP... so I have to waste 3 minutes of my life changing over to the SPP mech on the ProJector. What is the world coming too??? ;)

FROGO207 said:
Don't feel that fixing something that isn't broke is worth the bother either.
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SPP .45ACP brass was a solution in search of a problem... o_O
 
AJC1 said:
I started like everyone else with the lpp brass, and found a few spp brass cases at the range while I scavenged. After a little while I had enough to load up a box of 50 with app so I did. For just range plinking they showed no real difference and I started using app because I only had to buy one kind of primer. Now I will load and shoot lpp till I'm out, because spp are way more versatile.
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Based on my experience since the primer shortage started, lpp are more readily available than spp.
 
Charlie98 said:
I just wish they would stick with one or the other... meaning LPP. With the exception of 9mm, I don't load anything that takes SPP... so I have to waste 3 minutes of my life changing over to the SPP mech on the ProJector. What is the world coming too??? ;)



SPP .45ACP brass was a solution in search of a problem... o_O
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Worse than that is that I have to decide, do I bust open a new box of bullets to finish out the primers, or do I deal with a partial primer tube of lpp? After making a mess out of changing out primer tubes, I decided that it was better to open another box of bullets. Dillon priming system is geared to loading, not unloading.
 
I
DanK3Pos said:
Worse than that is that I have to decide, do I bust open a new box of bullets to finish out the primers, or do I deal with a partial primer tube of lpp? After making a mess out of changing out primer tubes, I decided that it was better to open another box of bullets. Dillon priming system is geared to loading, not unloading.
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Have been known to store primed cases for reasons just like this. Emptied the primer tray and just bagged up the primer brass.
 
I have all my bulk primers in a specific container for that purpose... full boxes of each of the 5 types of primers I use regularly. The odds n' ends (leftovers, not full trays...) are just stacked near the presses for those times I need 1 or 2, 5 or 10 primers for something, they are right there, and I don't have to lose sleep because I had to break a tray of 100 for a single primer.
 
I use APS primers.....when RCBS dropped the Pro 2000 press, I thought APS would be next, so I bought a 10 thousand round case of each. Wish I'd done that more than once, but I haven't broke into that either yet, so unless the shortage doesn't go away........ I have to smile at (but feel for) folks desperate enough to buy APS strip loaded primers when they don't have APS tools..... Lot of trouble to de-strip them.....but it has been done.
 
DanK3Pos said:
Based on my experience since the primer shortage started, lpp are more readily available than spp.
Click to expand...
In the last 18 months or so I've been reloading a lot of large primed pistol cartridges and am getting low. For the last 6 months I have seen no more large pistol primers than any other primers (except 209) in any store or online. Luckily I have just purchased 300 small primed 45 ACP brass just in case and I have a whole carload of 45 ACP handloads in my stash...
 
Whether you see any difference or not depends. With most powders, I have seen approximately 30fps difference - not enough to tell unless you chrono the loads. With some powders, I have seen very significant differences - as much as 200fps less velocity with small primers. The discontinued PB powder was one, and Trailboss was another. I also started a thread here about Sport Pistol powder, with the measured differences with large, small, and small magnum primers.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/sport-pistol-powder-in-45acp.860544/

As a result of my testing (so far, over 30 different powders in 45acp) I have standardized on using small magnum primers in small primer 45acp.
 
Because of some case brands having slight differences that caused me some problems, I sort by headstamp all of my brass.
To me it's been worth it, especially when I started getting SP pockets in the mix. I have only separated out a couple hundred pieces, mainly Federal and Blazer.
What little I have reloaded of the SP 45s, they worked as they should.
 
To me they shoot the same both with 185 gr hp and 230 gr lead rn. When I find brass at the range I separate it pretty quickly. To me they are pretty easy to see. For me I have plenty of small pistol primers. So I'll just use them until things calm down. As far trading I do that for ftf but shipping primers it cost to much.
 
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vongh said:
To me they shoot the same both with 185 gr hp and 230 gr lead rn. When I find brass at the range I separate it pretty quickly. To me they are pretty easy to see. For me I have plenty of small pistol primers. So I'll just use them until things calm down. As far trading I do that for ftf but shipping primers it cost to much.
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This is heresy, no?:) There are a bazillion 9mm shooters just begging for SPP.
 
I've loaded both. I don't hot rod loads so I noticed no difference. As soon as I started to load 230gr bullets a littler hotter. The accuracy of the spp ones started to go off. I won a bunch of brass from Starline and told them to send me 45ACP brass with lpp. So now I discard all spp 45ACP brass I find. Mainly to avoid mix ups.
 
Demi-human said:
One is made the way it should be.
The other has a smaller primer hole...:)

I, as well, found little meaningful chronograph difference and standardized on the large primer.

At times like these, there may be advantages to keeping a supply of both...;)
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Well, small pistol seems to be the one that is harder to find-meanwhile I have 4000 of them given to me some years ago by a friend who is still on the fence about reloading. (not trading or selling, don't ask) I only load one caliber that normally takes them, .38 Spl., but I have about 400 Spp .45 ACP brass, and as a contingency measure, about 400 aluminum Blazer cases sized and flared (flaring them is not easy-probably cracked another 100 trying to get it right!) with spp pockets, ready if needed. I intended these for a .45 ACP revolver I have yet to acquire.....

I too, notice no difference in any aspect of performance between Lpp and Spp.
 
I suspect the large primer in the 45 is simply a matter of production. going back to the day, it's design origins for the military, and the war effort, since it shares the same shell plate and primer size as the 30-06. loading and supply are simplified. no need to retool, shared components. Stocks of used or bad 06 brass could be cut down to make 45 acp brass.

I'd be willing to place money that during the height of war production - the primers themselves would have been the same between the 06 and the acp.

If the cartridge was created today - there's no reason it wouldn't have been small primer. it's ignition needs simply do not require a larger primer.
 
anothernewb said:
I suspect the large primer in the 45 is simply a matter of production. going back to the day, it's design origins for the military, and the war effort, since it shares the same shell plate and primer size as the 30-06. loading and supply are simplified. no need to retool, shared components. Stocks of used or bad 06 brass could be cut down to make 45 acp brass.

I'd be willing to place money that during the height of war production - the primers themselves would have been the same between the 06 and the acp.

If the cartridge was created today - there's no reason it wouldn't have been small primer. it's ignition needs simply do not require a larger primer.
Click to expand...
Interesting line of thought. :)
 
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