Meaning of difference in head stamps

After having several primers drop out of my 22 Hornet, multiply-reloaded brass after recent firing, I bought a primer pocket GO-NO GO gauge and checked the pockets on my 100+ cases. I found quite a few that were NO GO. This lead me down the path of sorting brass to see if one brand had more issues than another. I have about an equal number of Winchester and Remington brass. I have read that Remington brass is the thinnest, however, I had slightly more enlarged pockets with the Winchester than I did with the Remington.

Through this exercise, I discovered different head stamp markings, and I was wondering if this has some meaning as to the age of the brass or who may have actually manufactured it? And more particularly, I wonder if this might means differences case weights and thickness? In the Winchester brass, I found the markings: WW-SUPER and SUPER-X. In the Remington brass, I found the following markings: R-P, PETERS, and REM-UMC. I've read the history of the various mergers or buy-outs over the years, but wonder how this might have affected the consistency of the brass? Given that the 22 Hornet is a small cartridge, a small change in case capacity could have a significant difference.

rb288 said:

This might help...

http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/headstampcodes

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Thanks. The table lists W-W, which is Winchester-Western, and SUPER X which is Western Cartridge, and SUPER which appears to be an Australian producer, but not the combination of W-W SUPER. So, still leaves me wondering what the distinction between W-W SUPER and SUPER X might be.

Walkalong said:

I would be more concerned I might be running a hair hot for my brass first. Of course if the load is within book data, appears safe as far as velocity, primer flattening etc, and it was very accurate, I might just live with losing brass to loose primer pockets after a few firings.

I am running a 40 Gr V-Max at around 2425ish FPS from a 20" Ruger 77/22 with AA1680 and brass is looking good, but only has 3 or 4 firings on them. FPS is barely over minimum from the Western Powder 6.0 PDF.

Headstamp is R (dot) P 22 Hornet

Welcome to THR

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Thanks Walkalong. I suspect some of my brass may have been loaded 6-7 times, but haven't kept track of it. All my brass is 40+ years old and has been in storage until just recently. Given that Hornet brass is reported to be thin, it's probably not surprising I've had some primers drop out. I may have just reached the reloading limit for this brass. I've always shot 2400 in my Hornet and have a stock on-hand, but have read good reports from using Lil' Gun. I've also read that using small pistol primers may be more appropriate for the Hornet given its small case size being more comparable to pistol cartridges than most bottle-neck rifle cartridges which use small rifle primers. But, still scratching my head on whether the variations in head stamp markings from a given manufacturer have any bearing on the thickness of the case walls, and thereby case volume, that could affect how a given load performs. If I wasn't cheap, I should probably just buy all new brass of one manufacturer and not have to be concerned with any difference.