[cptkeybrd]

Can I get some ideas from you guys what you think the best brass once fired brass to get for reloading. Thanks for any info

[Walkalong]

RP brass is sometimes thinner, which requires tighter sizing.

S&B is said to have tighter primer pockets, which some folks do not like.

I use all kinds of head stamps, and it all works, except Amerc, it's junk.

With a little experience, cases which need to be scrapped will become apparent.

[rg1]

Can't say it's the best but Winchester pistol brass has worked well for me in 9MM, 40 SW, and 45 ACP. Win pistol brass seems to have dimensions that always gives good neck tension on bullets in these calibers and my sizing dies work perfectly for Win pistol brass. Seems I prefer RP rifle brass but lean towards Win pistol brass? I use Winchester pistol brass for my primary premium bullet loads and most other brands for FMJ plinking range loads.

[crracer_712]

I've use the most of Federal and Winchester, but that's because thats the ammo I most frequently buy at Wally World. However, I use brass from Aguilla, PMC and CCI as well. It's almost gotten to the point that when I load a primer, I can tell what brass I happen to have. Some load really tight, some slide right in. All seem to work good in the end product.

[Galil5.56]

Don't load .40, but hands down in 9mm and .45 ACP, make it WW/WCC. Super long life, great feel, good dimensions, no surprises across many lots.

[Bud0505]

I load all brands of brass as long as it functions in my Dillon 550B. If a case doesn't want to size easily or a the primer doesn't want to seat I will toss that case and move on. I would venture to say that the majority of my brass is Winchester. I haven't bought new brass in years but when I was buying brass I bought Starline.

[Nick93]

For light jacketed bullets thick walled brass: Winchester or Magtech

For plated and lead bullets thin walled brass: Speer or Remington

[joecil]

I bought 2000 rounds of RWS 124 gr in 9mm and love them. It seems WalMart could sell them locally as no one had heard to them here. I paid about $300 for 2000 rounds from them. I've shot 500 so far and when I run out will reload them. I also use a lot of Winchester and Magtech brass but have bought Starline in 45 Colt though I have about a 1000 rounds in Winchester and Magtech already loaded. I have some other assorted brands of brass in all also some even from Georgia Arms reloads I've bought over the years. I don't mess with 40 at all so don't know there.

[JO JO]

I like winchester and starline, have had some issues with r-p brass and 40 s&w,

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Nick93 (or others) - to follow up your comment on Magtech being thicker brass and better for jacketed bullets: is it really a lot less suitable for lead?

I ask because at the moment I am planning to shoot up a case of Magtech 38 special and then use that as my main 38 brass stock, and I plan to reload almost exclusively lead bullets for plinking and informal competitions.

I have a case of PMC 38 - half is already shot, will keep other half as my factory ammo reserve. I plan to sell the PMC along with some other mixed brass when it gets to 1,000. Just reducing my stocks to what I reload, plus a small factory reserve.

But if I will be loading almost only lead in the 38, should I sell off the case of Magtech (CBC) brass and keep the other brass instead - or is the difference not that great? I load to a pretty basic level - rounds need to be easy and consistent to load, go bang, and be reasonably accurate but no better than that.

[gamestalker]

I use almost all head stamps, except Amerc. RP is softer, and said to be thinner(never measured it), but myself, I've never had a problem with a lack of neck tension or loose primer pockets. But for the money and quality I find Starline is great long lasting brass.
GS

[Nick93]

is it really a lot less suitable for lead?

It depends on various things: How tight is your sizer, How much your expander bells and expand the lower part were the bullet get the neck tension and also how hard are your bullets ... If some of the 3 reasons combined with a larger boolits diameter don't mix the its likely to reduce the diameter of you bullets quite a bit. In lead bullets its going to produce more leading and less accuracy.

I had some issues with 9mm Magtech brass and soft plated bullets before I seated them the diameter was .3565" and after pulled they were .353" so the accuracy was fairly low ... to fix this I decided to change to Speer bullets and they didn't undersize.

To know if you have to change your brass or not the only thing you need to do is load 1 cartridge and pull the bullet out, if your diameter its the same as the beginning the you are good to go ;)

Hope this helps !

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Thanks Nick. Yes I need to do a few dry runs, load/pull a few lead bullets from each type of brass, see if there's a difference. Will play with the expander die setting as well. I tend to bell the absolute minimum I can get away with, seems the most efficient way to load and lengthens brass life. I use MBC #17 in 38, think they have a BHN of 12. I get some leading at the cone on a K-frame, but measurements of throats and bore show everything about right, so I'm resigned to some Chore-Boy scrubbing, etc., for now.

[AABEN]

Can I get some ideas from you guys what you think the best brass once fired brass to get for reloading. Thanks for any info
what i get free!!

[GT1]

Yeah, the best brass is whatever I pick up for free. :D

I have no qualms reloading mixed head stamps in 9mm and .45 which are all that I reload at the moment.
If I had to buy brass, mixed head stamp wouldn't bother me either, as long as they aren't crimped primer or SP 45 acp.

As long as it reloads okay I'm not particular.

[Walkalong]

whatever I pick up for free.Kind of the way I feel about it. Mixed brass is still more accurate than I am.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=163001&d=1334834801

[cptkeybrd]

Thanks to all, I do buy starline and like it, I will try to stick with win brass from now on.
Walkalong you summed it up nice with that pic. I like Strawberry glaze the best.
Good shooting and loadin to all

[blarby]

I personally prefer Winchester for 45, but thats more of a uniformity thing than anything else. They are consistently within the same weights more than any other factory brand....even moreso in rifle than in pistol. I do like the federal LPP in 45 as well, but thats mainly due to the quality of the extractor groove.... I don't believe either performs any better than any other.

I must say however, that since I got this box of starline in 44mag .... I don't think I'll be saving anymore range brass....I'm going to be selling it off to buy more starline ! That stuff is awesome !

[Walkalong]

Starline is excellent stuff. If I buy pistol brass, it is usually Starline or Winchester. I did buy 500 Hirtenburger .32 Long brass (http://www.larrysguns.com/Products/Hirtenberger-32s-plus-w-Long---Brass__Hirt-spc--prd-32L.aspx), but it is stuck back for a rainy day. I am using the 400 Starline I bought. A fellow just doesn't find .32 Long brass laying around at the range.

But, the question was about 9MM, .40, and .45, and for that I use range brass. If I was good enough, and shot Bullseye, I imagine I would sort a bunch of brass to get uniform cases, but I am not, and do not.

[evan price]

Best brass is whatever I can get for free. It's easy to say the WORST brass (Which, if free, is still good to have, just not to load and shoot) but the BEST is highly subjective.
Walkalong has a nice start with his brass collection.
I've been lucky enough to have found a thousand or so 32 Long cases and another few hundred 32 Short cases so my 32's stay happy.

If I were forced to buy new pistol brass it would be Starline & Magtech.
Rifle brass- Lapua, Norma, Hornady.

[kingmt]

I like free best. Of the free I favor WC. I use everything I find. Speer has very tight pockets even after swaged & is the only handgun brass I have ever stuck in a die, WW is the only brass I have had loose pockets in but who knows how it was used before I got it, & PMC seem to have their flash holes off center. This doesn't keep me from enjoying any of my free brass tho it is just things I need to keep in mind when loading it.

[dragon813gt]

It's not rifle so I really don't care. I use what I pick up for free. I do sort by headstamp but that's only to work up a load. If it performs the same as another brand then they get put together. Now for self defense rounds I use the nickel plated cases that are from Federal HydraShocks. I forget who makes them right now. They were sorted by weight and I only use certain ones to carry with. Rifle is a completely different game when it comes to brass.


Brought to you by TapaTalk.

[gamestalker]

I am very fond of Starline brass. Not only is it competitively priced, it is really good brass. I also like Winchester brass, but it is often a bit more costly than Starline can be had for.

I'll tell ya, I was sceptable the first time I bought Starline for .357 mag. because it was so inexpensive at $12 per 100. But time has proven other wise, and now I use it almost exclusively for all my pistol loading.
GS

[Hondo 60]

If I had to buy new brass??
I'd buy Starline if possible.

I just recently dumped about 1,500 IK03 in 38 spl.
They had 20 reloads on 'em.
I was finding 1 or 2 cracked cases per box.
So I just wasn't comfortable reloading 'em again.

[GLOOB]

PISTOL, in my limited experience:

PMC and WIN - just good brass
CBC - a little thick in 9mm, but good. Seems just a hair thicker in 45, too. Perfectly ordinary brass in .357.
FC - most variation of any of the more common headstamps, IME, as judged by sizing, flaring, and seating feel. Also has the deepest primer pockets.
Fiocchi - no complaints, but the alloy is hard
S&B - tight primer pockets and hard alloy
R-P - 45 ACP - thin brass, less neck tension. Good brass in 9mm
Speer - 40SW and 9mm - thin brass, less neck tension

But like others have said, it really depends on your dies. If I were to choose a "prototypical" pistol case, I'd say WIN is what I compare all the others too. It just seems fairly consistent and middle of the road in 9mm, 40, and 45.

[1SOW]

For 9mm jacketed and plated bullets, my press and I prefer WIN brass hands down.
*** info: all of the WWB of 100 loose rds I've seen lately use WC Brass with crimped primer holes. The WWB of 50 rds still uses WIN Brass.

I also like R&P in 9mm. Primers seat easily with that big primer hole bevel.

PPU 9mm brass is a similar brass hardness to WIN, but the primer hole is just a little tighter. It still loads nicely, if you don't have a primer seating issue with your press.

ATK brass is noticeably softer in 9mm---FC, Speer, CCI, Blazer et al--big company.

JMO

Jeez, Walkalong, you've got more 9mm brass than I do.:what::D
I've only got about 20 "coffee cans" full of tumbled & ready-to-load 9mm.:o

[Nappers]

Having only used Winchester, Federal and Remington, the Winchesters seemed to work the easiest for me anyways.....

I plan on buying some Starline, but their site says backordered until 5/29/12 I think!

[Fishslayer]

Can I get some ideas from you guys what you think the best brass once fired brass to get for reloading. Thanks for any info

For lead bullets I like RP. As has been mentioned it has thinner walls & doesn't resize the .001" larger bullet.

Surprisingly, my favorite for plated is PMC. While it's usually cheap range fodder I've found the brass to be good quality. Also WCC .mil .45 and any NATO 9mm brass is very robust.

Other than that, the only brass I really stay away from is Amerc and TZZ.

[beatledog7]

I've loaded 9mm, .38SPL, and .40 mostly in a mixed brass mode, meaning I didn't sort. Since I'd been loading mostly plinking rounds, this presented no problems. For .357 Mag, .44SPL, and .44 Mag I sort, but haven't found any issues with any brass I've used.

Recently though I've been experimenting with a wider range of loads--some close to max--so sorting by HS makes sense. Winchester, Federal, Speer, and many others are working well for me in .40 and 9mm, and .38SPL.

I recently acquired a bunch of mostly PMC in .45 (my range sells a lot of it to people renting guns, so it dominates the buckets), and I'll be loading my first batch of .45ACP in some of that. Good to hear most of the folks on here find it to work ok.

I agree with what many have said: FC sizes quite easily compared to others because it's thin; I can usually tell a piece of FC brass by how it feels in the press. These I save for lead loads.

If I buy new brass, it's usually Starline. I never find much of it in my pick-up.

[rodinal220]

Starline