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AndyC wrote:.... - much to the annoyance of reloaders, who now have to cull out these small-primered cases manually.

Lately, small-primered .45 brass is up to about 25% of range pickup brass. It started with NT ammo, but has now spread since it is a cost savings to the ammo companies.

airboss wrote:Hmm. So is it OK to use the identical powder charge in either (large primer or small primer) case, or charge one slightly more than an other?

Standard loading practice for just about any caliber is to start the powder charge about 10% under the maximum charge, and gradually work up from there, looking for the typical signs of pressure.

Well, you are not going to see any signs of pressure in .45 ACP unless things have really gone horribly over the maximum, since .45 ACP is such a low pressure cartridge anyway.

But it is still good practice in .45 ACP to start under the maximum charge and gradually work up your load. Simply treat the small primer and large primer cases as two entirely separate loads and work up your charges independently, starting well under the maximum.

mr surveyor wrote:I cull all the small primer pocket .45 acp brass.... not enough of them around here yet to worry about keeping them

I ended up with 750 pcs of small primer .45 ACP cases, out of about 3750 pcs total. Seemed to run about 20%. At 750 pcs, that is enough to make it worthwhile. Ended up selling to someone who wanted to simplify their calibers and load small primer in all of them.

mr surveyor wrote:I use standard large pistol primers and mostly Unique and AA#7. If they cycle well in my old 4# Kimber with a heavy mainspring, they'll work in most any .45 acp pistol

Personally, I was not a fan of Unique or AA #7. There are so many modern powders that meter reliably like metering water, I see no point in using a poor metering powder like Unique.

As far as AA #7, it is almost the opposite end of the spectrum. The powder is so fine is sifts down everywhere. Which is fine, I didn't really care about the mess. I didn't continue using it because I got smaller groups and less recoil from Universal Clays, W231, Ramshot True Blue, Bullseye, and Clays.