Herters 45 Colt?

[Mogorilla]

Back when ammo was mostly plentiful, I bought 500 rounds of 45 colt made by Herters. I was not fond of them.  They shot really dirty and took me longer to clean up than when i shoot black powder.    I have been reloading and finally tapped into the rounds of Herters.   Loading a mix of brass that include Winchester, Starline and Hornady.  They all take the cci large pistol primers, except the Herters.   10 for 10 they did not seat, rather they crushed.     Is it possible they were made for small primers?   Anyone have experience with these?   

[August]

You can measure them to determine if they are small primers.  Also, there's a good chance the original primers were crimped.  You'll see a ledge, or burr around the opening to the primer pocket.  If they were crimped, they'll have to be cut, or swaged, to eliminate the crimp.  This will require a tool.  Not worth the trouble IMHO.

[Mogorilla]

Thanks.   There is a ledge.    Took me a bit, but I have sorted all of my brass and I think the bag of Herters will be in my trash pickup.

[Major 2]

Hmmm...I bought several boxes at Bass Pro about 6 years ago , added it to my Bug out stock.
It was on sale.....
I don't think I tried to reload any as yet    though ?

[Mogorilla]

Major,
That was the time frame and location I got mine.    I picked up 250.    They shot dirty, real dirty.    At the time I was just thinking about reloading, but I had always kept my brass just in case.   Doing some winter reloading when I got to a few Herters.    After 10 failures, I went through all my spent casings.   Thankfully I still have a lot of other varieties. 

[LongWalker]

If the primers were crimped, you can ream the pockets just as you would for military brass.  If you've only got a few hundred* of them, pick up one of the Lyman pocket reamers on Gunbroker/Amazon/etc. 

*If you have thousands, get a swage tool.  Trust me on this--I still have nightmares about using a hand tool to ream the pockets on a couple of 5 gallon buckets of milsurp 45 acp brass.  I've got two more buckets, and if I ever get around to doing anything with them the first thing I do will be to order a swage from Dillon or RCBS. 

[pony express]

The RCBS Swage tool works great. I used it to do a bunch of .223 brass I bought, as well as some 8mm brass. The mere thought of using a hand held reamer to ream more than a couple of primer pockets makes my hands hurt.

[wildman1]

Crimped primer pockets are so easy to rectify. I use a small cordless drill and a bit that is larger than the primer pocket to bevel the top of the primer pocket to get rid of the crimp. I have done this for thousands of 5.56 Lake City cases and hundreds of 45 acp cases,takes a second or two per case. When I am reloading if I get a crimped case I throw it in a container. When the container gets full I take the cordless drill and do it.
wM1

[Major 2]

I does not look like I cracked open or shot any of the Herter's stash yet.
A that same time I picked up 5 boxes of Blazer 9MM (brass cases) on sale at Bass Pro.

I have several bags of new Starline 45 ACP, and a couple of Auto Rim 100 count bags.

I'm not sure I'd bother with Herter's either, but I do have some milsurp 30/06 just given me that would need a Swage tool.

[Mogorilla]

I only have ~250 of the Herters, and still about 700 other varieties of empty brass.   I may keep them around as a just in case, but not going to fool with them for now.   Major, when you shoot them, they are a dirty round.    I spent as much time cleaning my converted Remington after shooting them as I did shooting blackpowder.

[Major 2]

When I acquired Bill Roberts Ithica 1911, I got 3 boxes of Miisurp 45 ACP made in 1944.
Two of the boxes were unopened, the last box had 7 rounds missing.

Several months after Bill had passed away, I got a call from his daughter in law. She had found a second magazine in his "stuff" it was loaded with 7 rounds   
I have not shot these; I suspect they are some dirty maybe even corrosive primers 
I think the complete boxes are more valuable    as collector ammo and I have them in a framed shadow box.

*ROBERTS,
WILLIAM FRANKLIN
William Franklin Roberts, 97, died on August 11, 2019 in Gainesville, Georgia.
Born February 16, 1922 in Jacksonville Florida, William served as a B-26 Marauder pilot with the 386th Bomb Group, 555th Bomb Squadron during World War II. He flew 50 combat missions and was in Paris on VE-Day.

[NCRanger]

It could be that the herders ammo is made by Sellier and Belot. I bought 500 rounds of S&B from the Sportsman Guide and the cases do take large pistol primers however I'm not sure if they're metric or what, but they are very tight. I called S&B and they said that they're a very tight tolerance case with their primers.
What I did was ordered a primer pocket reamer from Midway usa. It has a hexagonal shaft that it'll fit in a drill or a battery screwdriver. After I cleaned all my S&B cases I deprive them and use the primer pocket reamer on them. For the most part now they seat fine, with every now and then having one that's still tight. S&B brass is a good quality brass, just has the problem with the tight primer pocket.

[Major 2]

up-date on the 30'06 Milsurp brass  (not to highjack the thread but)
Try as I will, I can't get the crimped primers out.

Lee Dies just push the de-caping pin up 

[Montana Slim]

up-date on the 30'06 Milsurp brass  (not to highjack the thread but)
Try as I will, I can't get the crimped primers out.

Lee Dies just push the de-caping pin up

I generally use a separate Lee hand held press & universal decapping die.. but, my technique should work with the size/decap as well:
I use acetone to clean the clamping surfaces (pin & nut) & crank that sucker tight. Tighten as necessary to prevent movement. Still moves? - Remove the pin & roughen the clamping area slightly with abrasive paper. Be sure the pin is hitting the spent primer & not the case...& Watch for occasional berdan case that may have gotten mixed in.  I've deprimed a lot of 06 brass from those CMP matches where ammo was included in $10 match fee.
I also have a few spare decapping pins..just in case I break one - that has happened to me.
Regards,
Slim

[Crow Choker]

I knew Herters ammo or the great percentage of it was of European manufacture. NC Ranger mentioned Sel & Bel. I have shot a large number of various caliber (bottleneck rifle) made by them and never had any issues. They seem to have a pretty good reputation as ammo manufacturers. Hard to say about Mog's (OP) 45 Colt stuff.

Present day Herters is a far cry from the Old Herters of yesteryear when they operated out of Waseca, Minn. Loved that place, ordered alot of items from them. A Saturday afternoon trip with friends from our N Iowa town to Waseca was always interesting-around a 2 hr fun filled journey. We still talk about some of those trips.

Herter family sold name rights/business years ago, never the same World Famous, Model Perfect, Outdoors Man Approved, Non-Drugstore Outdoorsman, Alaskan Guide Approved products now as they had back in the 60's-70's. Loved reading that catalog!!! Bought three of them at juck stores, one given to me-Blasts from the past 

[Slamfire]

 Thanks Major 2,, brought a tear to my eyes (you're an honorable man).


  coffee too you,   Hootmix.

[Mogorilla]

The majority (not all) of my Herters boxes list the manufacturer at Fiochi.   I have not bought Fiochi before, but I think some is made in southern Missouri.   

[Ranch 13]

up-date on the 30'06 Milsurp brass  (not to highjack the thread but)
Try as I will, I can't get the crimped primers out.

Lee Dies just push the de-caping pin up

just for kicks and grins you might want to shine a light down into the case to see if those are Berdan primed.

[Ranch 13]

Back when ammo was mostly plentiful, I bought 500 rounds of 45 colt made by Herters. I was not fond of them.  They shot really dirty and took me longer to clean up than when i shoot black powder.    I have been reloading and finally tapped into the rounds of Herters.   Loading a mix of brass that include Winchester, Starline and Hornady.  They all take the cci large pistol primers, except the Herters.   10 for 10 they did not seat, rather they crushed.     Is it possible they were made for small primers?   Anyone have experience with these?

it is possible those use small primers. More likely they were crimped. Lyman sells a primer pocket reamer tool, a few quick twists of that and the crimp will be gone.
38-40 cases for what ever reason many times have the primer pockets crimped.

[Bunk]

Powder is the cheapest part of the cartridge. Get an impact bullet puller and few at a time pull the bullet and reload with a good powder like GOEX FFFg like God and Col Colt intended.
Yes S&B primer pockets need to be swedged to fit a large primer but with primers at $80/K + hazmat  primed cases are worth the effort.
Respectfully
Bunk