All factory brass ok to reload?

[Potatohead]

awesome. thanks.

Thanks tendriver

 

[GLOOB]

I'll add that the plastic 9mm trays can be used as 223 loading blocks. And 45 ACP trays work for most of the larger rifle calibers. I always try to keep a couple on hand.

Now the PMC 40SW trays are pretty unique. I would pick up any I came across, just because. I don't know any other tray made to fit 40SW, exactly. Seems like everyone else uses 45 ACP trays for 40SW, including the aftermarket guys - MTM, Berry's, Plano, etc. I have a few of these trays I reuse for toting/organizing reloads.

 

[gamestalker]

I load a lot of Federal brass, both bottle neck and pistol, standard and magnum, and I haven't had any problems with it at all. If anything, Remington brass seems a bit softer than some of the others I use, including Federal.

As for nickel, I use quite a bit of it and have some dies that have had it run through them for decades with no problems of any type. Although I've heard from a good number of reloaders that nickel will not last as long as standard yellow brass, it has served me very well and is my brass of choice, you don't have to deal with tarnishing, and tumbling only takes minutes, verses hours with yellow brass.

Steel is easy to spot with a magnet as stated. And aluminum is a dull silver / grayish looking brass. Don't load with either of those, they are for the recycle bin.

GS

 

[mstreddy]

On the subject of Federal brass. I'll have to jump on the neck split wagon. I have some FC headstamp 1x, possibly Federal American Eagle that was reloaded and split on the second firing -- that is, it was once fired, reloaded and split on the subsequent firing. My buddy loaded them and out of the 100rnd batch he had at least 30 neck splits. They were full length resized, loaded with 77gr pills and did not hold up. He wasn't loading at max and no apparent signs of pressure issues. He gave me the rest of the batch as he is shooting matches and can't afford any issues.
I know there are different FC headstamps, but at least these gave some problems. These have the larger size FC at 12Oclock, 223 at 7, REM at 5. IIRC no crimp on the primer pockets.

FC headstamps, the lower 2 are the type that are splitting

neck split brass:


To the OP, and back on topic -- one thing I keep handy on my bench is a magnet to weed out steel cases. On the question you asked of the Blazer, keep in mind they have aluminum (non-reloadable) and brass cases. The brass is labeled as Blazer Brass on the box. On shooting the Blazer aluminum, there is nothing wrong with them, other than not being reloadable. Once you shoot some, or find some, you can tell them due to the aluminum case and the primer flash hole is funky.
I'll have to take some pics for you if you don't have any around.

 

[Potatohead]

thx. dont need the pics though. i gotcha

 

[Rule3]

I dig through the range trash can and steal the plastic trays people throw away. I toss the cardboard but keep the tray. My favorite for trays for 38/380/357 are the trays that come in boxes of federal/blazer 380,9mm, 38, 357. They fit nice and snug 4 to a layer in a 50 cal can. I can fit 16 boxes of 38 or 357 in a 50 can and 24 boxes of 380. 45 trays are harder to come by but my favs are tula and american eagle trays. just small enough to fit 4 per layer in a 50 can and you can fit 20 boxes in a can!

My load data never changes for all my loads, so I just put the date of production on a little sticker and put it on the tray before I box it. Then I shoot the oldest ones first.

Now if you were a real recycler you would save the outside boxes also. Take them and break them at the glued seam, turn them outside in and re-glue the seam with hot melt glue (fast). You then have a blank cardboard box to write your load data and info on.

Not my idea but stole it from another cheap skate.

 

[Squeaky Wheel]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how are spent primers recycled? And who recycles them? Thx!

 

[Walkalong]

They are brass. Sell them to the scrap yard with your brass cases.