[AKMac]

Hey guys.

I just wanted to ask if anyone else has had major issues using CBC brass in 9mm?

I setup my Dillon 650 last night to try a new load. I set it up to go with 1.050" OAL, 4.0gr of HP38, and a 124gr MBC smallball. After making my dummy rounds I threw in 100 pieces of CBC brass (I segregate all my brass by headstamp) and the seating depth was all over the place. Were talking + or - .015". The flare was now too small and it started shaving bullets. Also primer seating was way too hard and inconsistent on some pieces of brass.

I went back to my tried and true Win brass and OAL was now within + or - .001" and the flare was consistent. From what I've read elsewhere, this is pretty common with CBC brass.

Anyone else notice this?

[Josh45]

I have some for .45 ACP and have not encountered issues you mentioned. I know you mentioned 9mm but I figure I throw my 2 cents out there.

BTW, Isn't an OAL of 1.050 on the extreme low for 9mm? As for the brass, I have noticed a lot of other head stamps do this as well. One way to get it constant OAL is to trim it. I know a member or two on here who does it but the majority don't.

Is this the only brass you have that does that?

[AKMac]

I think I've reloaded CBC in .45 as well with no problems. I would have to check my reloading files to be sure.

Yeah 1.050" is pretty low, but for that particular bullet to not hit the rifling of some 9mm barrels (i.e. XD, and CZ75), it needs to be that.

Yeah it's the only one I have doing it. Everything works great when switching to other brass.

[floydster]

I load tons of CBC brass in 9mm and 45 ACP, never encountered a prob, my OAL for my 9mm RN is 1.060., I run these in a CZ 75B.

S&B brass is another story--very hard to seat primers.

[Nick93]

Nope, they make great brass in my experience but maybe you get a bad run... they have over thick case walls in my experience an that is great with jacketed bullets but not so much with lead bullets-can reduce the diameter of the bullets- trust me my loaded cartridges OAL variation is less than 0.002" and seating the primer is normal ,I´m on my 11 reload and they look and work as the first shoot (124 gr plated bullet at 1110 fps)...
I don´t like to support my neighbor economy but when something is good you have to admit it :/

Since you segregate by headstamp i would recomend Speer or Federal brass for your lead bullets becoause the have thinner case walls :)

[mbopp]

My only issue with CBC is the small primer 45ACP brass. Even after running them through my RCBS primer swager the pockets are still tight.

[beatledog7]

I've loaded a few, and ever had any problems with CBC.

[parisite]

I've had major problems with 38 and 44 Mag CBC brass.

A lot of the rims of 38 brass are too large to fit in my Lee shellholder.

And I have to crimp my bullets a LOT more in 44 Mag brass or my bullets will remain loose as compared to other brands of brass.

[ssyoumans]

I've had problems with them too, 9mm. Primers hard to start, brass doesn't resize right. Hard to explain, but I have so much brass now that I toss them in 9mm if I pick any up.

[gamestalker]

The variance your seeing with the belling of the case mouth and closing of the case mouth, is because your brass isn't all trimmed to the same length. The crimp and belling die will contact the case mouth inconsistently if your brass is all different lengths. This can under or over bell the mouths, and as well cause inconsistent tapering of the mouth when seating the bullet.

The seating plug in the die only seats the bullet to the depth it is adjusted to. Any OAL inconsistencies would be because of olgive inconsistencies of the bullet. Even if one case head is thicker than another by .010" it won't change the OAL of the finished round when measured from the head to the bullet tip.

And so far as loading them, they work great. I'm not too picky about the brass I use so long as it is in good condition.

[GLOOB]

BTW, Isn't an OAL of 1.050 on the extreme low for 9mm?
Not for MCB Small Ball. That's right about where I put it, too. The ogive is really wide on it, and the lube band is pretty far forward.

they have over thick case walls in my experience an that is great with jacketed bullets but not so much with lead bullets
This is my experience, too. At least with my semiauto cases. I haven't noticed it with .357.

If your brass is thick, it makes for a tight fit with cast bullets, esp if you crimp while seating. I dunno if I'd go through all the trouble of actually trimming 9mm. I'd first try and make sure my seater fits well, that I'm flaring enough, and that I'm putting a light crimp on the case mouth if any at all. If you wanna do a tighter crimp, you might have to sort out your brass, or crimp in a separate step, or you might even try chamfering the CBC cases just a touch.

I like CBC brass. It gives really good neck tension, and I've never noticed anything weird about the primer pockets.

If you really wanna get anal about sorting brass, use up your R-P and Speer for your cast bullets!

[ArchAngelCD]

I've never had a problem loading MagTech (CBC) brass and I have loaded their .38 Special, .357 Magnum, 45 Auto, 45 Colt and 9mm brass. But, I haven't loaded any on a progressive press, just a turret press.

[evan price]

I've never had any trouble with Magtech (CBC) brass, and in some applications I prefer it to make a standard round that I can use for consistency.

[ReloaderFred]

CBC (MagTech) brass is good brass. The inner taper of the case wall may be a little more pronounced, which would push a bullet seated deeply back out a small amount during the seating process.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[AKMac]

CBC (MagTech) brass is good brass. The inner taper of the case wall may be a little more pronounced, which would push a bullet seated deeply back out a small amount during the seating process.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Yup this is it. I tested a few cases today and with seating a bullet deep such as the MBC smallball, it springs the bullet back out and re-sizes it slightly.

So I guess I will just turn all this CBC brass into plinking brass and not pick it up.

Thanks.

[Striker Fired]

Couldn't you save it to use with bullets that don't get seated so deep.Then the ID taper shouldn't hit the bullet and the oal should stay. I've alway seperated most my brass by h/s,so I can use certain brands for thsi load and another brand for another load .It also keeps my mouth bell and crimp cosistant.

[dnmccoy]

I have had zero issues with mine. Only issues I have had was tight pockets on S&B

[AKMac]

Couldn't you save it to use with bullets that don't get seated so deep.Then the ID taper shouldn't hit the bullet and the oal should stay. I've alway seperated most my brass by h/s,so I can use certain brands for thsi load and another brand for another load .It also keeps my mouth bell and crimp cosistant.

Good question. I tried seating some Zero 125gr HP's to 1.100" on my single stage and here's what I found.

CBC brass produce about a .008" increase in OAL vs any other brand of brass. Since it has the thicker case walls it also made a much more pronounced "coke bottle" effect than the others.

Would these still shoot OK? Probably. Are they a pain to use in a progressive? Yup.

Here is a picture showing my dummy rounds.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a53/AKMac/CBC.jpg

[Striker Fired]

Yep,thats quite a difference.If they do chamber ,and didn't have a whole lot of brass I'd use them, but....

[Walkalong]

The .32 Auto CBC brass I have is thick as well, but it loads and shoots just fine.

[Rule3]

Feel free to send me all your CBC "junk" brass.:) I find it works just fine in all calibers. It's probably better than a lot of other brands out there.

[JRH6856]

I've found quite a bit of CBC brass with crimped primer pockets which can explain the hard seating.

I setup my Dillon 650 last night to try a new load. I set it up to go with 1.050" OAL, 4.0gr of HP38, and a 124gr MBC smallball.

That might be flirting with +P+ pressures.

[colt1911com]

I was given a few hundred rounds of cbc 9mm brass to reload for a friend as i dont own a 9mm yet but have been reloading for 15 years and i have reloaded 1000's of 9mm rounds in my time. My favorite load is 147 gr. jhp or fmj with 3.8 grs, of bullseye. But since i have aquired these cbc cases I noticed the bulge as well. Primer seating was easy. and the cases sized and flared nicely no problems there. I do not remember the cases bulging from all the prior loads with a different brand?

[flyskater]

As long as you don't load CBC brass hot, you're good. I have experience with 9mm and .40 SW and 3x I had a case head separation (near max pressure but not over). All other brands I have never had a problem. That's why now the best place for my CBC brass is in the trash and I've never had a problem since.

[GLOOB]

Good question. I tried seating some Zero 125gr HP's to 1.100" on my single stage and here's what I found.

CBC brass produce about a .008" increase in OAL vs any other brand of brass.
Hollowpoints are collapsing. Check the diameter of the HP opening with your calipers. What you need is a better seater plug fit for your bullets.

[tightgroup tiger]

I have had issues with CBC brass like your having as I have had with Win, Speer, Federal and all the rest.

I use a auto-progressive and to get rid of the problem I had to use a lot of spray lube to ease the re-sizing process and tumble them after they were loaded to get the lube off.

I took someone elses advise and used my hornady powder check die to take the flex out of the shell plate by setting it up as opposite to the sizing die as I could to touch the shell plate the same as my re-sizing die does, to stabilize the shell plate on the up stroke.

After I started using spray lube and tumbling afterwards my OAL came back into spec. My OAL was bouncing all over the place as much as .010-.015 also. I found out that sizing die was deforming the point of the plated bullets because the seating stem of my die didn't fit the profile of the truncated bullets, the plated bullets were to soft to stand the extra strain of pressing them into thicker brass. the seating depth was correct but the bullet was reading all over the place with my dial caliper. I am loading Berry's plated bullets so they would be softer then small balls so this may not be in line with your problems.

Looking back, I think the biggest thing that helped my problem was using the case lube to ease the re-sizing process.
Something else that was plaguing me was that my 9mm shells were shot to many times and they had work hardened which also make them hard to resize and again causes what I described above. That also make them hard to resize and could cause deflection problems without the case lube no matter who made them.

I do mic all my 9mm brass when I get a load of range brass and pick out anything under .742 since with my equipment, shorter than that is out of the range of my neck sizing die for flaring and that causes more problems. I trim anything over .752 but I don't know if I would have to do this because I've never had a 9mm case that was to long to chamber. I have shot up to .755 with no problems but I try to keep all my 9mm brass within .010"tolerance. Since I have done this, my press has ran flawlessly and to me, running flawless is priceless.

[Hondo 60]

I have about 100 pcs of CBC 44 Magnum brass.
So far (3 reloadings) it's been just fine.

[Reefinmike]

Ive noticed not all 357 cbc brass likes to fit in the shellholder. I think the rim is thick on these guys...

Not to derail, but has anyone noticed that Winchester 38 and 357 brass tends to have tight and shallow primer pockets? I prime first and then run my finger along each casing in the box. I usually have to reseat 10 primers a box. and to reseat those, I have to put all my weight into the press. Im afraid the wood knob is going to break off and gash my wrist open.

[TonyT]

I have used CBC brass in 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP with jacketd bullets. The only bad expereince was attempting to load the 9mm frangible bullets - every CBS case puckered up while W_W, R-P,and Fed loaded smoothly.

[donkee]

No issues that I can ever recall like that. The only "junk" brass that I don't even fiddle with is Amerc. That is the wosrt brass I have ever seen.

[ds7br]

I reload S&B 357 Sig brass and have found that brass to have "crimped" primers. I primer pocket uniforn it and the problem goes away. I dont know if all S&B brass is that way or not.
Dennis