anyone know the reasoning

[Lloyd Smale]

just bought 2000 once fired 45acp brass. i noticed something that didnt look right at the top of the box. a piece with a small primer. then figured id better sort through it and found around a hundred of them. why after a 110 years did some idiot get the idea to use small primers? for the life of me i cant see any advantage to it.

[Ranger99]

As far as I know,  the logic was
that for a while, any large cup
primers were getting fairly scarce,
because of the effort was being
directed toward small rifle and
small pistol primer production ( 9 luger/223)
because of the burst of popularity.
I've been told that by one of the
only local gun shop owners left
in this area. ( I wouldn't doubt it)
JMHO- I'd just load em with the
same powder you have been unless
it was already a hot load, then you'd
want to work up
It'd probably be less trouble to
cull em and trade em off to someone
else. Not much 45acp brass to be
had in this area

[Graybeard]

I have several hundred of those small primer cases and they are a pain in the ass. Just try putting a large primer in them. Ya got to keep them separate, not so terribly bad in the loading area but if you shoot them same day as others they will get mixed and need to be separated again. Hate those things.

[Ranger99]

(In this area) large rifle and most
large pistol primers are fairly scarce

[Bob Riebe]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-328499.html

All the early .45 ACP collector ammo I have has either a large (.210"), or the Frankford Arsenal 0.206" diameter primer. I have never seen a US example of small primer .45 ACP factory ammunition manufactured before 1980. If somebody can show one I would appreciate a photo of the headstamp.
Here are some typical early .45 ACP rounds, all large primer:

188990188991188992188993188994188995

Modern use of small primers in .45 ACP ammunition was brought about by the need for nontoxic range ammo with lead free primers. The small primer pocket was used as a manufacturing expedient so that the ammunition factories only needed to produce one size of nontoxic, lead-free primer for use in all calibers of handgun training ammunition in .38 Special, 9mm Para, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. The small primer also serves as positive identification of nontoxic .45 ACP work-in-progress ammunition moving through the plant.

In my .45 ACP testing a small pistol magnum primer produces the same pressure, velocity and accuracy as a standard large pistol primer.

Using standard small pistol primers with H&G #68 200-grain SWC bullets and 5 grains of Bullseye powder, the velocity drop over a large primer of the same manufacture is about 40-50 fps. When using standard small pistol primers and Bullseye powder to obtain the same velocity as obtained with the large primer, simply increase the powder charge by 0.2-0.3 grain of Bullseye.

[scattershot]

Anyone who would like to get rid of those small primer cases, I’d be happy to take them off your hands.

[Graybeard]

Mine are all loaded but when I shoot them I really don't play to pick them up to load again. I don't recall but would guess I have 250+ of them loaded.

[Lloyd Smale]

sorry but they went out in the trash. i load on a progressive and dont want to run into these. the 50-100 primers just werent worth the bother. agravating thing is now while im loading these i will have to slow down in case i missed one or two

Anyone who would like to get rid of those small primer cases, I’d be happy to take them off your hands.

[Lloyd Smale]

thought of that bill but i do most of my shooting at my range at home and at camp where im the one picking them up. i think bob hit the answer i seem to remember something about 45 lead free primers for indoor comp shooting just didnt know they did it with small primers

Mine are all loaded but when I shoot them I really don't play to pick them up to load again. I don't recall but would guess I have 250+ of them loaded.

[Graybeard]

I do pretty much all of my shooting on my range in my back yard. I have a lot of fired cases still on the ground there to include those made of aluminum and the rimfire brass. Prolly some made of steel even. Perhaps someday someone can mine the then precious and rare metals up there.

[Lloyd Smale]

same here bill. theres two benches at camp and my nephews will pick it up for me there but a made a shooting course that runs about 50 yards in tall grass that has thousands of emptys. ends in my shooting house and the nephews will pick up there too. at home i have to con my wife into doing it. buy my back will screem for days if i do it. i bought one of those roller cage brass pickerupers but havent tried it yet. problem here is if its sits out in the snow its pretty much not worth the bother anymore

[Graybeard]

My thoughts on that roller cage thing is it might work OK on concrete or some other smooth surface but I can't see it working on the uneven ground with limbs, twigs, grass, weeds and such. Ain't no biggie. I figure at the rate I shoot these days I have all the ammo I will ever need already loaded.

No way it's worth the aggravation to my back to try picking it all up. I have a hard enough time putting on socks cuz I can't reach that low. Trying to pick up thousands of spent cases, not gonna happen.

[Lloyd Smale]

bill im honestly to the point that i could never load another piece of ammo and shoot till i die. still fart around for something to do in the winter. i loaded 2k 300b0 cast loads last month and just got the 2k 45acp. what i told myself is no more replenishing components so when i run out of primers or powder i stop loading that kind of ammo. i already quit casting to stockpile bullets. if i m going to load say a 44 mag  and no longer have them on the shelf ill cast them when i need them. i used to keep 10s of thousands of ready to go bullets. saying to myself you might get old and not want to or cant cast anymore. well im here.

[Graybeard]

Yup me too, I've not cast a bullet in a long time. I really don't think my left hand/arm is capable these days. I don't see any hope I could hold the molds to cast bullets. But I still have all the stuff to include the alloy to do it, just don't think the hand/arm are up to it.