What 40s&w Brass Won't You Reload

[mcb]

So I am just getting into some serious amounts of reloading. I had been using a friend's Square Deal and had loaded some 40S&W with it. For Christmas my Girl Friend with Two Rings got me a Dillon XL 650 with powder check station. (Yes she is a great wife!) and so I have been getting my own reloading setup going. In addition to the press I also picked up a Lyman brass tumbler and have been cleaning up brass from my big bag of range brass I have been collecting from various ranges I have been shooting at this summer. Needless to say I have many different head stamps and I'm trying to figure out which ones are the good one and which ones are not worth the effort.

At present I have been sorting them as follows. All the Remington (R . P) headstamp, Winchester, and Federal headstamp brass get sorted into a box and that is the brass I am presently using.

All the nickle plated brass (almost all Federal and Speer head stamps with a few Remington in there) get sorted into a second box. Figure those might be good for match ammo.

The rest gets sorted into the "I'll figure it out later" box. There's a lot of Win NT, Federal (F C), CCI, S&B, Zero, Speer, CBC, and a few others I don't remember.

First up what do you guys think of Speer? I have alot of both nickle and brass cases and it seems OK but I don't know much about it.

Second Win NT I have a lot of that too but I believe I have read bad things about that brass. Would you guys use it or toss it.

Finally the random other stuff, just pitch it, use it for practice, will it jam up my 650?

Thanks guys

mcb

[davidball]

I use all of it for practice and club matches. After I pick it up from the range I inspect it for cracks or other flaws. Clean it. Check again for cracks or other flaws. Load it. For practice, I just use it out of "the tub." For club matches, I case gauge enough for the match.

For major matches I am more careful - only new or once used (carefully sorted) or range brass (very carefully sorted).

[al503]

Win, rem and federal are fine

I wouldn't use the win nt, amerc, or FC.

I think Speer is good brass but I've always had problems de-priming them. Some say they've never had any problems so ymmv. I just don't like anything that either slows me down or causes a problem due to the risk of double charging a case.

[shred]

I'd dump the FC. It's very old Federal and was present in a lot more glock blowups than it should have been.

[Crusher]

All but Win NT, Fed FC, A-merc (primer pocket issues in the case of NT and A-Merc and case rupture reports on Fed FC). Major Match stuff is once fired Win and new Starline (phasing that out though too expensive vs. the once fired stuff, and you should see those major match ROs begin to drool as starline hits the ground). A Lee U die (with spare decappers) and a good case gage insures -0- ammo related malfunctions for me.

Every once in a while I find cases that must have been skewed in maunfacture (ie. rimless designed .40/ strange) so far 2 rem, one win and one spear last year. The dillon shellplate has spit them all during reloading (they just pop out and upon inspection is where I detected the problem) so they were pitched.

[HI5-O]

Won't use the Federal with the headstamp of "FC". Lots of separations with this brass.

Using the nickel "Federal" headastamp brass with good results.

barry

[Sean Gaines]

All good advice, I've heard pmc is not good. Stay with RP, Federal (not FC), CBC(magtech), Winchester and you should be ok, but be sure to inspect the brass always. If their is a doubt for a second, throw it out. Just not worth it.

[mcb]

Thanks for the great advice. I have loaded a lot of shotshell on a Mec 600 jr but this Dillon XL 650 make it fun and very very easy.

Thanks

mcb

[BigDave]

S&B

[MasterLefty]

About 8-10 years ago, I saw a lot of GFL brass let go in both Glocks and STIs. The failure was full case head separation. 3 of the 4 cases, on my home range, had been roll sized.

Kenny

[Jasonub]

i use everything since i load long with n320 and have not experienced any case failures to date.

I ditch the shell when it cracks or does not case gauge properly

in fact i shoot the same loads for any matches. club and major. I just case gauge when i shoot in matches

[Keninaz]

S&B +1 Never had any luck with that stuff. Toss it.

KW

Edited January 12, 2006 by Keninaz

[wide45]

I won't touch brass that has been roll sized.

CBC that's been glocked is no good.

PMC is super thin down by the web. Light loads maybe, except I don't load light...

[Flexmoney]

I don't load:

- PMC (I know of two Ohio shooters that had blow-outs with factory PMC 40 loads).

- "F C" marked. (Old Federal)

- S&B (primer pockets are a pain)

I do load:

- Winchester

- Remington

- "FEDERAL"

Most of the other stuff...I don't see a lot of it, so I sort it out and throw it into a bucket for a rainy day.

[Squishy]

The only brass I use for IPSC major is Winchester and R-P, Starline. Production brass is Federal nickel and brass. Everything else I give away.

[TCK]

I keep Winchester, federal, R&P, Speer...the rest gets tossed.

[R/T Performance]

I use speer nickle allot.But have wincherster, fedraland speer all seprated for sneaking it in the indoor match all the head stamp when I load.Primes seem to go in the cci to easy so I pitch that now.After having a couple pop out

[Duane Thomas]

All good advice, I've heard pmc is not good. Stay with RP, Federal (not FC), CBC(magtech), Winchester and you should be ok,

I've had very good experiences with PMC in .45 ACP. It's some of my favorite .45 brass, actually.

In both .45 and 9mm I've had very bad luck with CBC; the primer pockets are, in my experience, way undersized in both calibers.

[Duane Thomas]

- PMC (I know of two Ohio shooters that had blow-outs with factory PMC 40 loads).

There was one particular batch of PMC .40 years ago that was blowing guns with factory ammo. I wouldn't take that as a blanket condemnation of PMC brass in all calibers though. Like I said, I've shot a lot of ammo loaded into PMC .45 ACP brass with great results.

[steel1212]

Hate, Hate, Hate, Hate.....Did I say HATE? S&B!!! I try to pick out all the FC headstamped brass but if I find it its usually range pick ups anyway as I load all nickel for my stuff. I still pick up enough at the local match to keep me going pretty much all season. It all gets rotated out because I shoot 3 matches where we leave it there so I don't get to load it several times anyway. For majors is all once fired Winchester nickel for my .40s, Win brass for 9mm, and .45.

Edited January 10, 2009 by steel1212

[el pres]

American Amunition, headstamp AMERC (out of spec brass)

more finicky in 9mm...

[revchuck]

In both .45 and 9mm I've had very bad luck with CBC; the primer pockets are, in my experience, way undersized in both calibers.

Duane - FWIW, this hasn't been my experience. No problems using Federal and Winchester primers in my 550.

[kimel]

I've run into the same problem with S&B as Duane in .40. That gets tossed along with RP, etc. (see list above).

I'll reload Winchester, Federal, Speer and Starline for .40. That's about it. The rest goes into the trash brass bucket.

[LPatterson]

I give all the 40 brass I find to Bubba and let him deal with it since 90% is LE pickup.

[DonT]

I think Speer is good brass but I've always had problems de-priming them. Some say they've never had any problems so ymmv. I just don't like anything that either slows me down or causes a problem due to the risk of double charging a case.

Wow, I thought I just had a bad batch. The first batch of Speer's I ever used, I ended up do just a decap process alone on the whole batch before being able to run them thru progressively. After four firings the primer pockets are still tighter than other brass. They may be good but I'll be glad when I wear 'em out or lose 'em.