Reloading range brass

[G-ManBart]

There are certain headstamps that have failed similarly for other folks on their first reload, so it's not certain he's doing anything wrong. Also, there's no way to know how many times range pickup brass has been reloaded, or how it was reloaded.

I am assuming he is loading from a very diverse pool of brass. You are correct, I do not know.

Wow, tens of thousand? Gee, that's a couple of good months for a lot of folks here...you're off to a decent start

Do a lot of folks here really shoot 100,000+ rounds in two months?

Shoot, I must be doing it wrong!

I meant to say tens of thousands (<99,999) of 9mm though if that makes it better .

You know what they say about assumptions but you're right, you don't know, so jumping on him and saying he's doing something wrong is a bit much.

You just said tens of thousands...not really a big number here. I think you'd be surprised the number of rounds some folks here shoot in a month. I'm not able to shoot high round counts like I used to (range proximity) and I'm well into the multiple hundreds of thousands of some cartridges....lots of folks here shoot more in a week than I do in a month

[G-ManBart]

It ended up that the cases (3 out of the 200 reloaded for that competition) must have been brass from a 9 Major gun with an unsupported chamber.

Generally speaking there aren't any unsupported chambers made for anything any longer, much less a 9 Major gun. Even a non-ramped 1911 barrel supports the case all the way up the the web (which is where it gets thick enough to support the pressure by itself). When you look at an "unsupported" barrel and compare it with a supported barrel you'll realize there is almost no difference in the actual amount of support to the case...generally speaking, it's a term used by folks who've heard someone else use it and haven't had the opportunity the reality for themselves.

When folks get cases like that from their Major 9s (I've seen a few) something is seriously wrong and the case is extracting while there is still enough pressure to expand the thicker parts close to the web....that's danger zone pressure.

[JimmyE]

Looking at the headstamps, it's a pretty diverse mix of different brands but majority is Win, Rem, Blazer, PMC, and Speer. There seems to be a lot more military and odd-ball stuff from the commercial range that I have bought bulk brass from. It seems that the majority of brass used to be Win or Rem from shooters buying WalMart ammo but with the situation now, that seems to have changed. I don't think that I'm doing anything wrong per se but what likely could've happened is that one day, I grabbed from a pile of brass from some unknown shooter that WAS doing something wrong. I have found a few cases with cracked heads in my pool of polished brass. I found one that had a very slight hairline crack that I had actually loaded and spotted it when putting it in the 100 rnd box. Now that I'm shooting almost every week including steel which requires a good ammo supply, I have loaded a couple hundred rounds at a time and dumped them in a bulk box hence less inspection. I think that the moral of the story is that if you're going to load what others leave behind, be careful and don't take things for granted.

[JimmyZip]

I think one of the reasons I load so slow is that I handle the brass so much. When I pick it up, I inspect it. I get alot of free brass left be the CHP and SO that practice at our range. The .40 is usually run throu SMGs, and the 9mm too. I run it through a light 30 minutes in the tumbler. Then, It goes into the U-die on a single-stage, back through the tumbler, and finally through the SDB. I've got good light over my press, and have a good view as I put a bullet on the case, as to what the charge looks like. It may be a progressive, but I have caught a few light charges over the last few years. If it doesn't look right, I don't weigh it, I just toss it and set that one to go through at the end. I them chamber check one in every 20. I used to check every one until I got the U dies. I just don't recall even one failing to chamber as a result of sizing since I got those dies. (Unless we're talking OAL issues.)

This has given me greater confidence that what goes into my mags will not bring my shooting to a grinding halt. I have learned the hard way what not to do as far as gun and ammo over the last two years. I wish I'd listened more to what others had to say here, but live and learn I guess. Speed is not my goal when I reload any more. Quality and consistency are what I'm after. That way, my ammo isn't a variable, but a given in my shooting equation.

[rfwobbly]

It ended up that the cases (3 out of the 200 reloaded for that competition) must have been brass from a 9 Major gun with an unsupported chamber.

Generally speaking there aren't any unsupported chambers made for anything any longer, much less a 9 Major gun. Even a non-ramped 1911 barrel supports the case all the way up the the web (which is where it gets thick enough to support the pressure by itself). When you look at an "unsupported" barrel and compare it with a supported barrel you'll realize there is almost no difference in the actual amount of support to the case...generally speaking, it's a term used by folks who've heard someone else use it and haven't had the opportunity the reality for themselves.

When folks get cases like that from their Major 9s (I've seen a few) something is seriously wrong and the case is extracting while there is still enough pressure to expand the thicker parts close to the web....that's danger zone pressure.

Granted. The point is, there are some things happening to some brass that you cannot detect with the eye. Cartridge gauges help in this regard.

[2MoreChains]

I realized that when I'm picking up brass at a match I have a tendency to jingle them in my hand. A couple of matches ago that practice revealed a couple of cracked cases of .38 super when something didn't sound right. I think I fell into the practice of jingling it in my hand because the brass was hot, but the habit stuck. Or maybe it was to shake out the sand from the brass... either way, it has a nice benefit of occasionally finding a cracked case!