What is ammoload headstamp?

[Alamstutz]

I was sorting 9mm brass the other day and out of 1000 cases I found 8 with the headstamp ammoload. These cases are different from all the other in that the inside of the case has a "ledge"where the brass is thicker about halfway down the side. In my research I have not found any discussion of these unusual cases. Does anyone know anything about them other than "guesses". I wonder if the reduced case volume will produce additional pressure with the same load. Also the flash holes are a bit ragged rather than perfectly round. Any information would be interesting and helpful.

[Sarge]

Pitch it. I brought this one up last year sometime. Probably not a major issue for 9minor loads but I won't load it to 9MAJOR because of the apparent reduced capacity.

There is plenty of "first line" 9mm brass out there that I just pitch all the junk brass I find.

[razorfish]

Pitch it.

My first thought was that the ledge was a pretty good idea... more brass toward the base of the case and the ledge prevents the bullet from pushing beyond it.

In practice, the ledge creates a failure point in the case. These cases undoubtedly fail at the ledge. Once they fail they leave the upper part of case deep in the chamber. This can lead to all sort of nasty scenarios.

Although Ammo-load may be a great idea for factory ammo, I view it as a one-shot case. As stated... toss this brass in the recycle bin as save yourself any head-aches.

[MrVvrroomm]

It's crap brass. Pinch it shut with a pliers and pitch it in your recycle bin.

[Vanniek71]

That extra material will also cause your powder check sensor fits if you run one.

[ClintDismore]

Good info. Haven't seen any but I will have to keep a look out for any of this in what I pick up at the range

[pcschwenke]

I was going through some range brass picked up several months ago. Some of the Ammoload brass was mixed in and this was the first I've seen it. The step inside the case would definitely change the volume. Depending on how far the bullet is seated within the case, the volume can change 6-20% which could be catastrophic if running max loads already. Mine is going into a bin for scrap brass! I'm trying to worn people I work with about this brass.

[danman00]

I've never seen any of these as well. I googled it and found some pictures.... very odd.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/reloading/288787-ammoload-headstamp-9x19-brass.html

[PiratePast40]

Quite a bit of Freedom Munitions remanufactured ammo has this brass. I sent them an email asking about the brass and they replied that all of their ammo meets SAMMI specs. Not that any other comment would have been expected. I will say that I've fired thousands of rounds of their ammo without any problems.

There are quite a few posts about this with varied opinions. Those who have reloaded the Ammoload brass report that they haven't had any problems whatsoever. Don't mean to be flaming anyone, but will say that there are many who have never seen or reloaded this brass that have strong negative opinions.

Edited April 16, 2014 by PiratePast40

[Vanniek71]

Well Freedom munitions = Ammoload = Howlett machine, so Ammoload brass makes sense.

Only reason I didn't like it was you set your Ammoload up (auto powder check) and then the Ammoload brass messes it up! (Ammoload makes commercial loaders as well as brass)

[Ace38super]

I watched a friend shooting 9 major have a death jam at a match. We took the gun apart and discovered there had been a total case separation of the Ammoload case at the point of the ledge. The bottom of the case had ejected leaving a perfect round piece of brass so firmly lodged in the chamber that the gunsmith had to get it out. After that I make certain that brass is destroyed if I find any. Certainly a real problem for 9 major and if it was me I would not reload it for minor.

[PiratePast40]

Thanks to both Vanniek71 and Ace38super. It's good to hear real experience and comments. Since I shoot a lot of FM reman ammo, I' have quite a bit of Ammoload brass and was looking for comments from people who had actually used it.

[Therealkoop]

Ive shot some of it over a chrono with minor loads (3.7g WSF, 147g extreme, 1.155OAL) and it made no noticeable difference in velocity versus normal brass. Ive been shooting it as normal, but 3.7g of wsf gives a lot of leeway in the case.

Now that Im giving Red Dot a shot, Ill keep an eye out. I wouldnt want to use it in max or compressed loads for obvious reasons.

[Vanniek71]

Thanks to both Vanniek71 and Ace38super. It's good to hear real experience and comments. Since I shoot a lot of FM reman ammo, I' have quite a bit of Ammoload brass and was looking for comments from people who had actually used it.

We would sort it out before we reloaded the brass, that's how much we liked it!

[EngineerEli]

I load 9mm minor and don't worry too much about it. I let it run though the press and it loads and shoots fine. I think in most 9mm brass there is a gradual taper as the thickness of the case wall gets thicker near the base, where as this ammo has the ledge. I would agree about the stress riser making this a bad idea for major, but so far I have had no issues with minor PF. (This has all been though guns with well supported chambers) I haven't measured it but I wonder if the case wall thickness near the rim and near the webbing are the same as any other brand even with the ledge. That would suggest the volume should still be pretty close to all other brass depending on how deep your bullet seats.

[danman00]

After reading this thread a couple days ago, I decided to take a quick look into my tub of polished-resized 9mm brass. This "quick look" turned into a 2 hour project as I did in fact find a small handful of these ammoload cases in my stash. I can't believe I'd never noticed these before and I wonder how many of them I've loaded and shot already. Oh well, live and learn. Thanks for the heads up!

[PiratePast40]

Tried to copy and paste the email from Howell Munitions concerning the ammoload brass. Unfortunately, the forum doesn't allow cut and paste.

To paraphrase: ... "We produce the ammoload cases and there is no change to reloading these. They have gone through extensive testing and reload testing."

The manufacturer is Howell Munitions and Technology, Inc. in Lewiston, Idaho.

Edited April 17, 2014 by PiratePast40

[Vanniek71]

Tried to copy and paste the email from Howell Munitions concerning the ammoload brass. Unfortunately, the forum doesn't allow cut and paste.

To paraphrase: ... "We produce the ammoload cases and there is no change to reloading these. They have gone through extensive testing and reload testing."

The manufacturer is Howell Munitions and Technology, Inc. in Lewiston, Idaho.

I have developed probably 50 loads now, and I can say that the extra lining in the case will most definitely set off a powder check.....on their machines!

I will say this the powder checks are set very sensitively, so it may be that the test probe is hitting the lip in the case and not the powder, but it makes a difference!

on a Dillon, not so much.

[XD525Shooter]

I found a new one today. The same step was present inside a case with an IMT head stamp. I am going to load some of these and shoot them over the my chronograph.

[razorfish]

I found a new one today. The same step was present inside a case with an IMT head stamp. I am going to load some of these and shoot them over the my chronograph.

I ran into a handful of those IMT head stamps in 9mm about a month ago. Identical to Ammoload... tossed them straight in the recycle bin.

[ToddKS]

I did some testing where I loaded dummy rounds, chambered them 5 times, and then measured how far the bullet had set back based on the original OAL.

The ammoload brass was second to last in my test. The only load that performed worse was the Blazer factory ammo I tested as a baseline/control.

My problem is that I am sitting on quite a bit of it. Having trouble convincing myself to send it to the recycler even though I know I should.

[JohnnyD]

I run across it almost every time I sort through brass after shooting even if I only have 100 cases.

Everyone gets through in the scrap bucket with the AMERC.

[AdamM]

I decided to load up some of these and chrono them just over a week ago. Unfortunately I forgot to have the non-Ammoload of all the same brass manufacturer, so that probably skewed the results of those somewhat. I loaded up 5 Ammoload, 2-FC, 2 Blazer and 1-other (forgot what it was, since I decided I'll have to rerun the test again some time with all the same headstamp). The amazing thing is that the Ammoload Standard Deviation was much smaller than the other brass and was amazingly consistent.

Note the first column "3.3" is the "mixed" brass, the second column, while labeled 3.4 is really 3.3 in the Ammoload brass. All rounds were loaded on a Dillion XL650 letting it "drop" the power as normal. I did *not* measure the power manually.

Throwing out the two really out high readings, you can see that the Ammoload was really only about 7 FPS faster than the mixed brass. Can't imaging that that is all that bad at all?!?!?

Edited July 29, 2014 by AdamM

[AJE]

I did some testing where I loaded dummy rounds, chambered them 5 times, and then measured how far the bullet had set back based on the original OAL.

The ammoload brass was second to last in my test. The only load that performed worse was the Blazer factory ammo I tested as a baseline/control.

My problem is that I am sitting on quite a bit of it. Having trouble convincing myself to send it to the recycler even though I know I should.

You could always sell it for cheap. I'd buy it.

I'll load it, Aguila, WCC, etc for lost brass matches.

[spencerhut]

The Ammoload brass is odd, but water weight measurement shows them no worse than GFL or WCC brass. The major loads coming apart is a concern, I'll be tossing them from now on.