Is the Large Pistol Primer going the way of the dodo?

I've done a bit of reading on the topic, and it seems that in the old days, bigger cases needed bigger flash holes and more priming compound to reliably ignite the larger charge. Hence the need for large primers.

Now it seems primers have gotten better. Blazer .45ACP comes with small primers now. There may be other brands, too. Many reloaders are seeking out small-primer .45 brass to avoid having to switch priming systems on progressive presses, or to consolidate to all small primers, or both. It seems to be working for them.

For manufacturers, eliminating large primers has obvious benefits. They can trim down to one primer production line instead of two, and fewer popular handgun cartridges use large primers. Of the "big 3" calibers (9x19, .40S&W, and .45ACP) only the .45 uses large primers. Other less popular calibers (10mm, .45LC, .44Mag to name a few) use large as well, but 9mm and .40 probably account for more production than the other calibers combined across the industry. So the vast majority of ammunition produced nowadays uses small primers.

So why keep the large pistol primer around? I say, let it go.

I never thought about it much. I have a mess of .45 brass, I wonder how much of it is large vs small primer...

Mike

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.44 special,  455 Casull , .45 Super, 460 Rowland ,  480 Ruger,  .50 AE , .500 S&W,  all the Linebaugh proprietary rounds,  some of the Reeder proprietary rounds, I believe the 44-40 and 38-40 as well.  There may be more but those come to mind immediately.

.44 special,  455 Casull , .45 Super, 460 Rowland ,  480 Ruger,  .50 AE , .500 S&W,  all the Linebaugh proprietary rounds,  some of the Reeder proprietary rounds, I believe the 44-40 and 38-40 as well.  There may be more but those come to mind immediately.

.500 S&W switched to large rifle primers about a year after it was introduced.
.454 Casull uses a small rifle primer.

I'm not saying stop producing them immediately. I have tons of large-primed .45 and 10mm brass, and about 5k large primers to burn through.

I'm suggesting all future production of factory ammo be switched to small primer.

Any suggestions on reloading .45's with small primers? I have quite a few from my recent brass order that I didn't know what to do with. Also, the guy that I buy brass from locally has small primer .45acp brass for only 30 bucks a thousand because nobody around here wants it. If I can safely reload it for practice rounds, I will definitely grab some from him.

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The large pistol primers are much easier to reload with strike anywhere match heads.