FA 42 .45 ACP case

[joem]

I've come into a bunch of FA 42 , .45 ACP cases. The primers are dead but they have not been fired. The primers are quite different from LG pistol primers. I can knock out the primers but the primer pocket is a different size. It's a tad smaller and not as deep as todays primers. Anybody run into these or have some information?

[raymeketa]

Many of the 45 ACP early cartridges used a special sized primer. No. 27. It was about .005" smaller than the LR primer in order to be sure that LR primers were not used by mistake. After WW II, most Cal 45 ammunition was made on contract by Remchester and they used the standard LP primer.

Ray

[mhb]

The original military .45 primer...

is .204" in diameter, rather than the commercial .210" which large pistol primers of commercial make share with large rifle primers, including U.S. standard military ones.
It is possible to ream-up these primer pockets to accept the standard primer (and possibly swage them), but, unless you had a large quantity of such cases, would hardly be worth the trouble.
mhb - Mike

[psteinmayer]

I have an entire box of Fiocchi .45 ACP brass that uses a Small Pistol primer... I never understood why Fiocchi did that...

[joem]

I have a 1000 of these cases. I've learned how change them to use LP primers. The unfired primer is removed, Pocket swedged out and I have a large primer pocket uniformer that fits my drill press. It's a extra step but only takes less than a second to make it LP size.

[Hecklerusp45]

I have an entire box of Fiocchi .45 ACP brass that uses a Small Pistol primer... I never understood why Fiocchi did that...

They are not the only one that does that. I really can't understand why, it is a pain to sort them out when I reload.

[emmagee1917]

Federal came out with a " green " load for 38 spl and 9MM and maybe 40S/W for use in indoor ranges. This was to cut down on smoke / lead levels and used a special primer , powder selection , and plated bullets. When they came out with a green 45 load , they used the same SP primer as the others.

I bought 1,000s of the Federal " FMJ " loads from Walmart because they were cheeper than the Winchester FMJs. When I started to reload the cases after stocking up on 5,000 LP primers , I found they were SP cases. Also found out that Federal was false advertising because thier 230gr FMJs .... arn't . They're cheep plated lead .

On the bright side , the cases reload well and the small powder charge and case ( compared to a 45 Colt , 44 spl or Magnum , etc. ) does just fine with the SP primers.
Chris

[Tuna]

Winchester also makes a .45 ACP round that uses small pistol primers. The cases are marked NT if I remember right meaning Non Toxic so no lead in the round what so ever.