New brass for Matches

[Jeeper]

I know this is a repeat of this thread

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=747

but that was 2 years ago. I am curious if any opinions have changed.

So here we go again. Do you use new vigin brass for big matches(section, area, state, Nationals)? Or what do you use? Sort for headstamp?

I am debating buying new brass before Area 4 or possibly some new once fired stuff.

[Flexmoney]

I know a lot of people use brand new brass. I disagree with that. It needs to be tested at least once. I've heard too many stories of defective brass coming from the factory.

I'd shoot it one time before going to a big match.

[A33435]

I agree with Flexmoney for a great part.

Myself i always buy oncefired brass and select it on headstamp.

When i reload i do a visual inspection of the brass, i shoot it once on trainingsessions and after that i keep it as "oncefired" (in my barrel)

and use that for the ammo at the bigger matches.

Btw, i am talking .40 brass.

Greetings

Adrie

[Loves2Shoot]

ditto for 40, new brass for .38 super, and all are guaged, and for major matches, all are weighed, I'm just paranoid. Proper prior planing prevents a piss poor performance.

[uscbigdawg]

New brass at big matches. You're spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for an Area or National level match. Why skimp on $ 30-40 in brass?

The same goes for new batteries in the scopes. $3 is pretty cheap insurance.

Rich

[Jeeper]

New brass at big matches. You're spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for an Area or National level match. Why skimp on $ 30-40 in brass?

The same goes for new batteries in the scopes. $3 is pretty cheap insurance.

Rich

I was tending to think the same as Rich here. I mean the $25 of brass you leave there is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the costs. Hell you leave $20 of bullets there too.

[Matthew_Mink]

I am a cheapskate. I only buy once-fired brass when my supply gets low. I also scrounge at ranges. I also case-gauge everything, so I know when I get a bad one. Having said that, if I am going to a major match and it is a lost-brass affair, then I take my junkiest, cruddiest, crap that still functions the gun with zero problems. I take my good brass to the matches where I can pick it up. Yes, I'm a cheapskate.

And one more thing: my brass supply gets cycled through pretty quickly, so the stuff I'm dropping at majors only has been loaded 3 to 5 times max. And .40 minor is pretty easy on the brass anyway.

[JFD]

I bought 500 new Starline nickel cases with the SC Sectional in mind. Loaded it up with 230 JHPs from Rainier, which is a huge jump in cost over the $5/1000 cast bullets I normally use. I don't want smoke to be an issue.

I now realize I'm too cheap to risk having to leave that new Starline brass on the ground. I shot up all my Federal and PMC cast bullet ammo and loaded this with the same Rainier bullets. Both head stamps have been used quite a bit in practice, but all were tumbled to a mirror finish, inspected closely, and guaged after loading.

I have no idea when I'll use that new Starline stuff. I normally use cast bullets in local matches, so I guess I'll keep it around in case of a "dead air" condition that would make cast loads a bad thing due to smoke.

[warpspeed]

For "major" matches it is new brass or brass that was new to me and is once fired from my gun.

For all other matches, I buy once fired brass and roll size it.

<Shameless plug mode on>

For those w/o a roll sizer try Competition Brass.Com

<Shameless plug mode off>

For practice, it is the "practice" bucket consisting of multi-fired brass picked up form just about anywhere. This brass gets roll sized too.

[CSEMARTIN]

I just use what I practice with. The only thing I do differently is to case gauge every round. I'm always afraid that if I start changing things before a match that I'll regret it.

[texasag93]

Same old same old for practice, local or big matches. What ever comes out of the tumbler. TXAG

[Jim Norman]

For my .40 I buy once fired, prefferably R-P. I then clean it and run it through my gun.,I generally use a 5 gallon bucket full and dump the fired cases in another. When the first bucket is empty I clean what ever I have managed to recover and start again. Eventually I have to start over since it seems that 30% loss is common and more is not uncommon. A 5 gallon bucket holds over 5K. I keep an eye on the condition, I use the EGW sizing die and with that I've never not sized good. I also mark my brass and while I do that I verify the primer depth. Big match, regular match al the same ammo. I have however stopped trying to see just how many rounds a 650 can really load in an hour.

Now for .38super, I have used Starline and Armscor as well as range brass. I shoot open only on occasion. I try to use once fired thru my gun at matches, assuming I have enough. I only own 2k and that is dwindling. THe Armscor is cheaper by a third and as long as it works, it is worth the savings to me.

Jim

[tightloop]

Winchester once fired from my gun for any big match. Preferrably buy a case of Winchester and then after you shoot it in practice, just keep the brass for big matches.

[benos]

I've shot way more new brass in matches than once fired brass, and have never had a single problem. Although the once-fired brass theory makes the most sense, the variable is that you must be absolutely certain every single piece of brass actually came out of your pistol's chamber. To me it was less worry to just use the new brass. (Starline)

be

[Cameron]

Benos,

Why the concern that the brass is from my chamber? I understand why with tapered rifle cases, but not with straight walled pistol.

I guess I am a low buck guy right now, but I am using well used brass that came with the gun I bought. No idea how many loads thay have seen. Headstamps I have never seen before. I have loaded and fired about 4000 round of this stuff without (knock on wood) a single failure!

Question 2..How many reasonable 170 PF loads can I get from a .38 super vs .38 super +p? If I am losing brass at a match, is +p justified? No, I have not seen any pressure signs in the standard brass with my load.

Thanks,

Cameron

[Jim Norman]

I used to mark all of my brass with a marker across the case head, I looked great in the boxes and was easy to do.

Shameless unremunerated product plug mode on>>>

Check out the Brass Marker at Hosercam.com. Nolan is a USPSA Shooter.

This little gadget easily makes two stripes around the case sides and checks for high primers while you do it. The brass is unbelievabley easy to spot lying on the ground or in a pile that the squad picks up. Cost is $15 plus shipping

Plug mode off<<<

Makes it real easy to recover only your own brass and more of it.

Jim Norman

[wadrew]

I use 1x fired brass in my 40 and 38supercomp chambered guns.

I paint the head stamp of new brass with red tool maker's ink, so that I know it was mine the first time. Then I use a red stripe with a sharpie after that.

I measure and trim any that need it, and only keep the ones that are within a 0.003" extreme spread on legnth, but nothing that is more than 0.002" shorter than my chamber. I have shot holes within my dot diameter consistently out to 100 yards, and I use a 6moa dot on my open gun. I have a ransom rest and test my barel/ammo to see how it's doing. I also only pass completed cartriges that have an extreme spread of 0.003" COL. Everything else that case gauges but is longer or shorter than 1.2385 to 1.2415 goes in baggies for the test fire range. My chrono results have always been very consistent. No more than 7fps ES at Bend in 2003. I had an ES of 3 out at the Idaho State match in 2002. I've never had an ammo or gun jam or failure of any kind since the 2001 nationals in Barry, where I learned some very hard lessons, and made some very needed changes.

I use Starline 38supercomp and speer 40 nickel. At local matches and home, I use OPB (other people's brass) until about 3 months before the big matches to give me a chance to buy and shoot about 2000 rounds of 1x fired brass. I have been using the same 700 rounds of OPB in my super since Nationals in Bend, and have gone through 10,000 Zero 121's. I still case gauge and use an EGW Undersized siging/decapping die.

OK verbose enough.

-Drew

ty43772

[gm iprod]

I use new brass at all the important matches (NRA AP). My gun runs better on it, it is always loaded on a Dillon. I used new brass for over 3500 rounds in May last year before the Bianchi Cup. All this brass was loaded on either my Dillon 650 here in NZ or on a borrowed Square Deal in Missouri. Never once did the ammo give me a problem.

If checked and sized properly all pistols should work fine on new brass. You can get as many dings and problems with once fired (even if only fired in your handgun) if the monkey is on your back.

[Al Capizzo]

I'm with Matt Mink. I shoot whatever I've been using lately. I case gage everything anyway and I've never had an ammo problem at a big match.

I might be slightly pickier about the brass condition, but only slightly.

Al

[jef]

I don't know! We aren't shooting benchrest rifle matches, so do you really think brass makes that much difference? In my superstitious(I made the spelling of this word up) opinion, brand new brass is not work hardened enough to be considered reliable. If it cycles, it is good enough for me, but then I suck when it comes to "Action Pistol"!

[kevin c]

Why the concern that the brass is from my chamber?

IIRC, time was that .40 shooters were loading very hot 175 PF plus clays loads over 200gr bullets. Lots of pressure. Some early .40 chambers weren't fully supported (still aren't, on some factory guns). Some folks also deliberately oversized their chambers to ensure feeding. The result was overworked brass that was more prone to case head separations and other kabooms. Many conservative shooters (such as yours truly, and, it seems, our gracious host, as well) like to be sure of the history of the brass we are using, and there is no better way than to use brass only shot in your own gun.

That being said, even though I ascribe to that point of view, and mark and only use my own brass for my (relatively hot 165 PF) match loads, I do buy once fired commercial brass to start with. I figure if it's a factory load, the pressure won't be over SAAMI spec, and likely won't have been shot out of anything but a factory chamber at a police range.

[Jasonub]

i use any brass that i case guage after loading. for practice its lead for matches its plated. both are loaded to 172-174 pf. when shifting to plated you have to add .2-.3 grains using n 320 to get the same pf

[n2299]

...Myself i always buy oncefired brass and select it on headstamp. When i reload i do a visual inspection of the brass, i shoot it once on trainingsessions and after that i keep it as "oncefired" (in my barrel) and use that for the ammo at the bigger matches.

FWIW I do the same as Adrie for L3 matches, ie "twice" fired brass.

For regular L1 and L2 matches, I just use whatever I have loaded at that time.

I case gauge every round for matches.