What is wrong with Amerc brass?

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Size it. It feels like it is squashing the case. If an Amerc case slips through, I can feel it when sized, every time.
 
Primers have fallen out of my AMERC 45 ACP brass. I reloaded the stuff, and primers fell out in the ammo can, or in the M1911.

Now I cull AMERC brass.
 
Glad I searched first. I have 50rds of .38spcl sitting around and was thinking about reloading it, but figured I would do a search first. Glad you guys are around to keep me on the straight and narrow.

At least the box/Styrofoam will be usable for reloads ;)
 
The two .45 acp cases of A-merc brass I have reloaded would not chamber in my Kimber 1911. I will throw this stuff away from now on. LM
 
In fact, I bet if I started a thread asking whether or not people liked the taste of antifreeze, we'd get at least couple of people that like the sweet flavor of green propylene glycol.
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Actually, I dont think I have ever seen green propylene glycol anytifreeze. Ethylene glycol is the original antifreeze that was green, the propylene glycol is used in the long life/non-toxic antifreeze and is usually a yellow/pink/red color to designate the difference.

But, yeah, AMERC sucks. The only case failure I ever experienced was with amerc brass.
 
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I don't know what you guys are talking about. I love amerc brass. I've never had any problems with it, and I try to keep a good supply of new R-P brass to trade for it whenever I can.

They load easier, feed better, and last longer than any other brand I've tried. I can usually get 40+ loadings before they wear out, and even then they can still be used if you just trim them down. For example: .45acp brass will trim down nicely to .40 S&W and will be good for another 40+ loadings, then you can just trim it down to 9mm for 40 more. I've never been able to do this with other brands, only Amerc.
 
Sorry, I should have finished my post... just kidding, of course :D
Never been called a troll before..:eek:

My experience with amerc has been the same as everyone elses; pure garbage, good only for recycling.

I don't know why they even bother to make the stuff, or how they can sell it with a straight face. Rarely do you find a brand so universally bad.
 
Actually, they are trying to get a government-mandated change in the formulation of ethylene glycol antifreeze so that it WON'T be sweet tasting anymore- there have been too many EG poisonings where the EG was put into sweet tea or soda and the victim didn't taste it. They want a bitter flavorant added.

I used to use a lot of A-MERC brass when I didn't have anything else. I got about 2-3 loadings out of it before the primers started falling out. Plus I had lots of primer pockets so off-center that you couldn't deprime them. Now I chuck it all in the scrap bucket.
I do have some A-MERC .223 and .38 spl and .357 Mag that seems to have better QC. It's doing fine. Maybe it's the semi-auto calibers, only, that suck.

Otherwise, A-MERC is great for filling my scrap buckets.
 
AMERC has the worst quality control I've ever run across.

I observed one soldier firing .223 AMERC on our range...he couldn't get a decent group...though I know him as a very capable shooter...and there was a distinct difference between the sound of his shots.:confused:

Then he had a misfire...the primer fired and backed out of the case, but the powder charge didn't go off. When we checked the cartridge, there was no flash hole!!!:what: I still have that cartridge...
 
Amerc brass is crap, it sucks. You can tell its Amerc as soon as it hits the sizing die.

Throw it away immediately.
 
Another member of A-MERC fan club here. One of the fellow CAS shooters gave me his 45 Colt brass supply, as he was switching to another caliber.
Most of the A-MERC brass split upon firing the 1st reload, with mild Cowboy-type loads.
I tossed the rest.

I cannot understand how a domestic maker can make a product this bad.
I had better results reloading Nigerian .308 brass!

LT
 
You can tell its Amerc as soon as it hits the sizing die.
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Yep. If one slips by inspections, I always feel it when it's being sized. Feels like it is being crushed when it isn't.
 
i've loaded ameic cases a few times. then i just shoot them at the range and i don't pick them up. along with my military brass .
 
Hey guys, great news. I FINALLY found out what Amerc brass is good for! When we had a lot of snow recently and I developed some pretty big pot holes in the road to the house, I put all the accumulated Amerc brass into the hole with some clay, and after driving on it for three weeks, I can accurately report that the Amerc brass worked very well to hold the clay together and fill the pothole. Send me all your Amerc brass-- I feel summer rains coming on! :D:D:D
 
I can verify that most of the negative comments about A-MERC brass from my past experience (mis-aligned flash hole, poor case dimensions, poor case finish, etc.).

While going through the range brass from this past weekend's shooting, I found enough "new looking" A-MERC brass in the mix to think that someone shot a new box of them. I carefully inspected the spent casings and all the flash holes looked good. I am planning to clean these separately and see if the deprime/sizing goes ok and reinspect them. Perhaps they improved their production/quality control process? I doubt it, but will give them my benefit of doubt by "stress testing" through repeated reloading. Of course, older A-MERC brass you may pick up in the range brass mix may not necessarily be new, so I would be cautious with them (I normally segregate them for scrap).

I am planning to "stress test" these cases with various powders and charges that are near max. I will also use several new Winchester/Remington/Federal/Speer/PMC, etc. cases to use as reference and see which brand cases fail first or show signs of stress.

I got cases that have over 50-100+ reloads so this may take a while.
 
BDS, please be carefull...you are dealing with cases that have been proven to been manufactured with unusually poor quality control in the past...and, probably for that reason, there seem to be few of them available, while better cases are plentiful. I suggest that, if you are intrigued enough to test them, you most definitely wear good safety glasses and cease at the cratered primer indentation stage rather than go higher. There's just not much to gain in the way of knowlege...:scrutiny:
 
I suggest that, if you are intrigued enough to test them, you most definitely wear good safety glasses and cease at the cratered primer indentation stage rather than go higher. There's just not much to gain in the way of knowlege
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TooTaxed, will proceed with extreme caution. :D

walkalong, thanks for the PM. Actually, I have been reloading occasional A-MERC brass "carefully" over the years - never really had much problem with them other than flash holes not quite centered. I do agree, of all the brass I have used, it is the crapiest.

However, these "new" looking cases are actually well made - I was surprised that they were A-MERC head stamped (first I thought they were brand new PMC). That's why I thought it would be fun to do a stress test to see what happens.

Vaya con dios.
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Goggles - Check
Hearing Protection - Check
Gloves - Check
Family jewel protection - Check

Amen.
 
Honestly, when you can buy 1x fired 9mm brass for 2 - 2.5 cents each, why bother with Amerc?
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I have 5 gallon buckets of brass for each caliber and normally scrap the A-MERC brass while sorting.

Only reason for the stress test is that the batch of A-MERC brass looked much higher in quality than what I have seen in the past - So the curiosity in me wanted to find out if they improved their production/quality control process.

I shoot regularly anyways. I will just replace some of the brass with marked A-MERC brass and see how they compare and when/how they fail.
 
Interesting.

I will add that I have some A-MERC brass in .38 special and .357 magnum. They are not bad... Still not as nice as CBC for example. It appears to me that the .45 acp is the creme-de-la-creme of asstastic for A-MERC.

I just had a few .45 A-MERC that still had the little circle that would be punched out of the flash hole attached to the rim of the flash hole, inside the cartridge. And, it was still off center. This would have been recent production, in the last 12 months.
 
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