Why does Winchester put small primers in 45ACP?

[wwillson]

I picked up a bunch of 45ACP brass at the range today. Unfortunately, some of my find was the Winchester NT brass that has small pistol primers. Really makes for a bad day of reloading when you accidentally run those through your progressive.

I can't think of a good reason why Winchester would do this? It just can't save that much money in component cost, or could it?

Wayne

[steves]

They are the Lead free primers you can I reload them with small primers.

[wwillson]

Steve,

I understand the lead free lead free part, but the part I can't understand is why put small primers in 45ACP?

Wayne

[steves]

Do they make lead free in large pistol?

[rugerman1]

Just another instance of the man sticking it to you Wayne

[wwillson]

Just another instance of the man sticking it to you Wayne

But how much could they really save?

[Dan1045]

When you manufacture millions of rounds each year even a .0001 cent per round savings adds up. And that money goes straight to the bottom line.

Kinda like the few pennies added to every phone bill in the nation...after a while it adds up.

Dan

[woodsoup]

It might just be that a large primer format is not necessary using the ecco priming compound. Maybe the compound in the ecco primers is to hot when used in the large primer format. I believe the flash hole in the ecco cases is larger also. which leads me to believe the preceeding,or a similar variation there of.

Not everything is motivated by profit. Just 98.76%.

[wwillson]

ecco priming compound? I'm assuming it's a new priming compound that has no lead or mercury?

Wayne

[woodsoup]

Correct.

[Crashbox]

Is that the tetrazene stuff that's being used in some store-bought ammo?

[wwillson]

I couldn't find anything that references the use of tetrazene in Winchester NT ammunition, but it very well could be.

[steves]

Bringing up an old"er" post I have been using the small primer pick up brass and find it easier to prime on my Dillon 550. Seems no matter what I do or parts I replace the small primer setup works almost 100% and the large primer has at time feeding fits.

[NavyVet1959]

From a purely theoretical standpoint, brass that uses small primers would be slightly stronger than the same brass if it was designed to use large primers.

Looking on the bright side... If you run out of large primers, you will still be able to shoot your .45 with small primers in that brass.

[xtell]

Frome the 45 ACP brass I have, which is mainly range pick ups, Winchester cases take large or small pistol primers, Federal is the same. Speer and CCI only use small pistol primers. Remington large pistol primers.