38 Special - This Ol' Brass

[Recruit]

I inherited some 38 Special brass with several old names. Even with a magnifying glass, I had to guess on a few:

WRA
3-D
Peters
WCC (?)
R-P
Rem-UMC
W-W
(unmarked)
Western
Federal
*------*

Two questions: 1) Anything of value here? 2) Do I dare reload them?

What say you?

 

[Reefinmike]

as long as they appear in good condition and dont have any green tarnish, load em up and shoot em til they split. I see 8 out of those 11 all the time

 

[BYJO4]

If not damaged, there is no reason not to reload this brass.

 

[45lcshooter]

All are fine. Any brass that is dent free is fine to reload and is boxer primed is always good for reloading.

Aluminum and steel cases are not the best to reload at all. Most aluminium is not reloadable. Steel is not the best at all, and I haven't seen 38spl in steel.

 

[Recruit]

Thanks guys. Also see one Markell and a RA56/56RA?

 

[rcmodel]

RA 56 is GI Remington .38 Spl brass from 1956.

Markell was a big player in cast bullets and other components back 40 years ago or so.

I believe they had empty brass & loaded ammo with their name on it at one time.

rc

 

[luvit]

long ago i've made a purchase of 1000 .38 range brass and have seen all these names. - i've had no splits after several reloads.
the only problem i have are that most of my brass is stamped +P...
i prefer to plink with standard loads, so i tend to only use the +P stamped brass for ONLY +P loads (just so my brass is "labeled" correctly).
.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I knew Al Markell. He used to referee our PPC matches back in the late 1970's. He marketed cast bullets and loaded ammunition, and was one of the few who understood that you didn't need super hard bullets to eliminate leading, just proper fit.

I've loaded all the brass in the list at one time or another, including the .38 Spl. without a maker's name on it. I've still got about 50 of those in my collection.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Recruit]

RA 56 is GI Remington .38 Spl brass from 1956.

Markell was a big player in cast bullets and other components back 40 years ago or so.

I believe they had empty brass & loaded ammo with their name on it at one time.

rc

Thanks for the history RC...I like!

 

[Recruit]

I knew Al Markell. He used to referee our PPC matches back in the late 1970's. He marketed cast bullets and loaded ammunition, and was one of the few who understood that you didn't need super hard bullets to eliminate leading, just proper fit.

I've loaded all the brass in the list at one time or another, including the .38 Spl. without a maker's name on it. I've still got about 50 of those in my collection.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Thanks Fred. Sounds like you had dinner with this guy a few times. Someone told me he enjoyed Basque food!

 

[ljnowell]

luminum and steel cases are not the best to reload at all. Most aluminium is not reloadable. Steel is not the best at all, and I haven't seen 38spl in steel.

I have found both S&B and PMC brass that was steel cases plated with brass. Most definately looks like brass, most definately magnetic. I can usually spot one when it goes in the sizing die, they typically take about twice the force to resize.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Recruit,

Yes, I had dinner with Al Markell several times, and it was always Basque food. He particularly like the pickled tongue, big chunks of blue cheese and the red wine........ Especially the red wine.

Fred

 

[cfullgraf]

FYI.

Over the years, cartridge companies have merged, maintained their own identity and other things to improve business.

Winchester merged/bought Western Cartridge Company.

Remington merged/bought Peters and UMC.

Comments in red

Folks more knowing than I, please make corrections.

I inherited some 38 Special brass with several old names. Even with a magnifying glass, I had to guess on a few:

WRA Winchester Repeating Arms
3-D
Peters The Peters part of Remington-Peters
WCC (?) Western Cartridge Company, the second "W" of Winchester-Western
R-P Remington-Peters
Rem-UMC Remington- Union Metallic Cartridge or something like that
W-W Winchester-Western
(unmarked)
Western The Western of W-W
Federal
*------* Starline

Two questions: 1) Anything of value here? 2) Do I dare reload them?

What say you?

 

[Recruit]

Recruit,

Yes, I had dinner with Al Markell several times, and it was always Basque food. He particularly like the pickled tongue, big chunks of blue cheese and the red wine........ Especially the red wine.

Fred

Thanks Fred. The timing of your initial reply was interesting in that I'd just done a web search for Markell and was reading a thread from 2007. In the thread, you were the last response indicating you knew Al Markell and that he liked Basque food. When you responded to my thread, it was pure coincidence but one of those deja vu moments

 

[Recruit]

Thanks cfullgraf! Interesting stuff and I appreciate your informative response

 

[Kp321]

I had a batch of RA 38 Special brass, don't remember the year, that had the primers crimped so heavily the decap pin would punch through the primer on over half of them. Ended up in the recycle bin.

 

[ATLDave]

Obligatory joke post: No, those are all terrible, send them to me for disposal!

From what I hear and am gathering from my own experience, .38spl brass has about the longest life of any common pistol brass. Low pressures and revolver extraction means the stuff just keeps going and going and going.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I'll add that 3-D is the Zero Bullet Company brass. Federal has been making ammunition since about 1922, and is now owned by ATK.

I don't have a clue who made the .38 brass without a headstamp, other than caliber, but will take some of it to the SHOT Show next year and see if I can get one of the big companies to fess up to it.

The only bad .38 brass I've ever found was A-Merc, and some Berdan primed brass from Europe.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Sounds like my .38 brass. I acquired most of it used over 20 years ago. There are some oddball/oldie names in the mix.

 

[Zeke/PA]

Sounds like my .38 brass. I acquired most of it used over 20 years ago. There are some oddball/oldie names in the mix.

I also have a ton or so of .38 brass acquired years ago, mostly once fired stuff.
I have it sorted by brand though and before loading I de-cap and tumble.
Should last awhile.

 

[FROGO207]

I used to get a lot of 3D brass in the late 70's that was from the local PD range I will see if I still have those old boxes my GF added to the mix when we met. IIRC they were waddcutter loads she used for qualifying or target shooting mostly. Inexpensive quality ammo from what I have shot of it.