Good brass and bad brass

[225 Fireman]

Is there a difference in brass for reloading and what is good brass and what is not so good . Just wondering I pretty much load all of it except the military and steel stuff

[JD45]

Rule number one: 1. Destroy all 45ACP A-Merc brass as soon as you see it. Even if it belongs to a friend.

[Coach]

Spent primers and "bad" brass go in the scrap bucket. If it is split try to get one more time out of it.

[Jay870]

I load 9MM.

I avoid AMERC and S&B based on reputation alone.

Another that I have added to the list is EDP... pretty much any time I've crushed a primer in the seating station, or have a had a light-strike due to a high primer it has been EDP brass.

[Bwana Six-Gun]

+100 on getting rid of Amerc brass. I have found that the best brass for reloading is Winchester, Federal or Remington, depending on caliber. I have not used it , but Starline has a good reputation.

[Gatekeeper]

AMerc's the worst as others have stated...although I'm not above sneaking it into a buddy's brass bag

Had a lot of problems with a batch G.F.L brass in 223 I ran across having shallow primer pockets

[Bigpops]

With 9mm - I have a heck of a time with SPEER. The primers never seem to punch out on my 1050 and I have had 2 primers pop while seating. Not fun...though your heart rate will increase as if you ran a mile or two.

[Waldog]

All A-Merc and S&B brass goes directly to the trash bin. Primer pockets are TOO TIGHT for the aggravation of reloading. Also, any 45ACP brass with small primer pockets.

[lugnut]

I"m a little bored so I'll take a stab... this is all wrt pistol brass- primarily 9mm, 38sp, .40, .45acp. Mostly in order from best to worse.

Federal, Starline- best IMO. last long and reseating primers is very smooth and consistent. (Note- some FC labelled brass seems ok but not as good)

R&P- brass isn't as durable as above but reseating primers is great.

Win- brass is strong but seem like pockets are snug at times with occasional high primers as a result

Speer, CCI- Decent brass sometime primers seat almost too easily. Shape of pocket area almost seams concave.

GFL- seems decent

I- seems decent

CBC- I'l use it but the pockets seem tight- maybe from more square edges

PMC- Ok brass... seating is inconsistent but I'll use it

Won't use these:

Win NT - Crimped pockets all the time... trash em

WCC- Good brass but seems like most has crimped pockets... too bad as otherwise it's good stuff

S&B- good brass (when it's brass!) but primer pockets are way to tight and don't seat primers well at all. Some of the "brass" is just brass coated steel... pita.

Amerc- completely sucks.

[Jman]

Thats a good list lugnut. You should get a little bored more often.

[Bello]

Thats funny cause WCC is my best and favorite brass to use! ill take it all. Also S&B brass is great to me too.. i lube my 9mm and i have not one problem loading primers or anything with S&B brass ill take it all again!..S&B brass is a little thicker then normal but its that countrys military brass so take it with a grain and try loading whatever and see how you like it. you cant really go on some peoples opinions you know! like i prefer a dodge ram over a f 150.

[lugnut]

I lube my 9mm brass too. A couple points I want to emphasize- WCC is good brass I agree- it's the fact that half of what I find has crimped pockets. I don't have a swager on my press so it's a no go for me. S&B... the mere fact that you need to check with a magnet to make sure they are actually brass is another no go for me. The primer pockets are the tightest non-crimped brass I've ever used... and I use Federal primers which seat very well in general. I can't tell you how many cases I've had with partially seated primers I've had to toss.

Now all that being said... I own a Dodge Ram..

[Bello]

I lube my 9mm brass too. A couple points I want to emphasize- WCC is good brass I agree- it's the fact that half of what I find has crimped pockets. I don't have a swager on my press so it's a no go for me. S&B... the mere fact that you need to check with a magnet to make sure they are actually brass is another no go for me. The primer pockets are the tightest non-crimped brass I've ever used... and I use Federal primers which seat very well in general. I can't tell you how many cases I've had with partially seated primers I've had to toss.

Now all that being said... I own a Dodge Ram..

i was just stating my opinion as you were and telling the OP to do with his brass what he felt better!

and im glad you own a ram!!!

[astroskg]

nice list looks like what i use when sorting brass for reloading. one exception most of the FC brass (the new very shiny stuff) i run across resizes strangely

especially if i use my under-sizer because of Glocked brass it always seems to leave a ring around the base of the brass. it still seems to shoot fine but i

don't like the ring. it also seems to be flimsier brass than the RP or Win Brass my fav's. some of the other brass does the same thing but not on the scale of the

FC brass.

good luck and have fun reloading

[Erik S.]

Up until now, I have purchased once fired brass from friends or places like gunbroker and sorted out the ones with small primers and Fed MATCH brass. I don't swage primer pockets and don't know if they're crimped or what, but have never been able to get a primer in the Fed MATCH. They go straight to the trash. I have had best luck with regular Federal and Win brass and am going to be investing in 500-1000 new Starline cases for matches. The rest I will keep for practice. I can't wait to see the difference I get with Starline since the mix-match once/twice fired range stuff gives me about 1.5" 8-shot groups at 20yds.

[lugnut]

Erik- usually you can see the crimp in the used brass pretty easily. If you look at the spent primer it almost looks like the primers are smaller as there is a "lip" securing the primer in the case. When you remove the primer- there is almost a sharp edge around the pocket- as opposed to a smooth edge that sometimes almost looks rounded slightly with most brass. After a while you will see it pretty easily.... and curse every time you miss one of those buggers!

[Erik S.]

Erik- usually you can see the crimp in the used brass pretty easily. If you look at the spent primer it almost looks like the primers are smaller as there is a "lip" securing the primer in the case. When you remove the primer- there is almost a sharp edge around the pocket- as opposed to a smooth edge that sometimes almost looks rounded slightly with most brass. After a while you will see it pretty easily.... and curse every time you miss one of those buggers!

Thanks for the tip! I hate crimped primer pockets. The problem is, I'm too lazy to actually sort EVERY piece of brass on my practice stuff, so I just run 'em through the press and if the primer doesn't go in, it's on the first station and I pull it and chuck it. That leaves a gap in the stages of my reloading process but that's ok with me.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Duane Thomas

[jaffo]

Ok here is some I ran acrossed this afternoon. I wondered if ya'll have any info.

G.F.L.

RG (looks a little like military)

Cor-Bon

MM

MRP

PMP

DNL

*I*

SADU

nny looks like russian script berdan primer

thanks

j

[*Paladin*]

I've had good luck with pretty much everything except A-Merc, as mentioned by several above posters. Speer/Blazer brass is ok if you run a chamfer tool on the primer pocket.

[*Paladin*]

Ok here is some I ran acrossed this afternoon. I wondered if ya'll have any info.

G.F.L.

RG (looks a little like military)

Cor-Bon

MM

MRP

PMP

DNL

*I*

SADU

nny looks like russian script berdan primer

thanks

j

GFL is common, Cor-Bon is a premium defensive ammo manufacturer, PMP is South African, NNY is Prvi Partisan (Serbian). The rest I've never seen. The Prvi (NNY) is pretty good brass, I've never seen berdan primed NNY. I use it a good bit in 7.5 Swiss and have been happy with it.

[Bouttime]

I have been selling brass and have learned alot form this thread. I have had people tell me they didn't want certain brass so I

would sort it out. They didn't seem to know why the primer wouldn't go in. I know about A-Merc, and in the 9mm I sort out the WCC and S&B. Now the S&B I didn't know some of it was steal. I have been loading some in 9mm and it ran fine through my CZ. I know the S&B runs ok in my 45's. The primer pocket seems a little tight with the S&B but have not had any problems with my 550. Will have to check the WCC. The 45, WCC cannot get a primer seated.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Bouttime

[Merlin Orr]

I run a magnet over my brass and then they all go in the 1050 brass feeder. With a properly set up swage there is no bad brass.

[Bongo Boy]

I took a quick inventory out of curiosity.

In 40SW I have:

Federal

R - P

Speer

Winchester

PMC

Blazer

*I* [no idea what this headstamp is]

CCI

In 45ACP, I have all of the above plus Fiocchi, HSM and WCC Match. I have about 4,000 45ACP cases and about 2,000 40SW, very roughly.

I've reloaded the 45ACP too many times to count, but it's all been reloaded about 5 times. The 40SW has almost all been reloaded 3-4 times I'd say. I have not found any significant differences between any of the brass listed--actually I haven't noticed any differences between them. In the 25,000 or so reloads done with this brass, I believe I've thrown out exactly 3 cases for neck splits, about 8 that were Berdan primed (and of course broke my decapper pin), about 20 that I've crushed in the press, and about 50 where I crushed primers on seating them, over-seated bullets or suspected I'd double-charged but wasn't sure--nothing wrong with the brass in other words.

The only time I've had trouble with primer seating (where my failure to keep the press clean was not the fault) is when using Wolf primers, which I don't do anymore. I don't lube anything, have never reamed a primer pocket and will likely stop bothering to tumble the brass as well. I've started putting a fairly heavy crimp on the 40SW, so I expect I'll see that brass start to crack sooner than the 45, which I expect will easily last the rest of my life. If I should somehow get a steel case in the box and I can decap it, I'll likely let it run through the press too, just so I can say I did it.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Bongo Boy