Fiocchi brass...

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375supermag

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Hi...
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with reloading Fiocchi brass.
I have had some issues lately with off center flash holes with their .357Mag brass.
I have had to replace one decapping pin on the RCBS die set that I use on my RockChucker and my son has had to replace two if them on the set that we use on the small primer set up LNL.
This is the first Fiocchi brass I have ever had...my son bought 1000 rounds of their .357Mag brass some time ago and we have just recently started to reload it.
I have reloaded thousands of rounds of ammunition since the early '80s and until this batch of Fiocchi brass have never encountered off center flash holes prior to this...never had to replace a decapping pin heretofore.

Wondering if this is common with Fiocchi brass???

Thanks in advance for any comments.
 
I have not had any problems with Fiocchi brass that I can remember. I haven't loaded a lot of it but I have loaded their .357 Magnum, 9mm and 32 Auto brass at times without issues.
 
I THINK Fiocchi brass is CBC. I have found that CBC is thicker across the board. It very often "feels different" in my single stage press but usually it functions OK. I DO need to separate CBC brass out for the 500 mag but that's a long story for another time.
 
I may have been confused with Magtech being CBC...I get confused sometimes in my advanced middle age.
 
tightgroup tiger said:
Yes I have had problems with Fiocchi and GFL branded brass having flash holes so far out of center I couldn't de-prime it.
GFL and Fiocchi brass are the same brass.
Click to expand...


My Fiocchi brass is stamped GFL.
So far only three pieces have caused problems but I am beginning to get a bit tired of replacing decapping pins.
It's not the expense of replacing the decapping pins as they are relatively inexpensive but the waste of time is aggravating...having said that, I am not particularly happy about having to buy decapping pins when I happily went about reloading for decades without needing to stop in the middle of a reloading session to run out to the local gun shop to buy decapping pins. I literally reloaded tens of thousands of cartridges in a wide variety of calibers without even thinking about replacing a decapping pin. I have used Rem, Win, Fed, PMC, Magtech, S&B, Hornady, Starline and I don't know how many other brands of brass without ever needing to replace a decapping pin for any reason.

Just very annoying...
 
I’ve got 400 pieces circa 2008 that were purchased for my first AR for the explicit purpose of reloading. The ammo was accurate and the brass of good quality to the point that much of it is still around after a dozen loadings.

Never a problem with flash holes or primer pockets, and I started reaming with my Lyman uniforming tool but could find no reason to finish the batch. In fact I reloaded some of those cases again this week. Still have half a box on the bench I never finished shooting.

1BEFC2D1-ED45-4404-8D07-A3D560E2A16B.jpeg
 
My old Winchester brass is pretty good to. I've been loading it since the early 1990s.
But people complain about the new Winchester brass saying it's has problems now (rifle brass).
My GFL brass and new Fiocchi pick ups I get at the range is quality brass as long as I don't look at the flash hole.
Like so many people have said here, the ammo companies aren't making ammo with reloading in mind. They want to sell loaded ammo.
 
I recently bought 1k of Fiocchi brass and keep thinking that I'll get that reloading bench set up, so I hope it's decent to reload.
 
Other than the off center flash holes it is very decent to reload. Don't pitch it, you just have one more thing to sort for. Really off center flash holes.
But to see them you have to deprime them first.
Get some extra depriming pins.
 
The Perfecta ammo that Walmart was selling a while back was made by Fiocchi, and imported by Tulammo. It was very reasonably priced with 50 rounds of 158gr fmj running $15.84 or so. The 38 Special was about $12 a box. A buddy and I bought and shot a ton of it in 9mm, .380, 38spcl, .357 magnum and 45cap. It all shot find the first time and the brass has held up nicely for reloads. I haven't had any off center flash holes at all. Probably have 300-500 pieces in each caliber
 
I've reloaded a lot of 9mm Fiocchi. Bought 5K rounds back in the early 2ks. This was NATO marked GFL 124gr with sealed but not crimped pockets. Some is still in my pipeline with an unknown (a lot) number of loadings.

I have also loaded some in .38 SPL, 5.56 NATO (also NATO marked GFL), and .243 and .308 commercial GFL stamped. Only problem I've ever encountered was the .243 was a little soft and I had to be careful to avoid stovepiping them while resizing.
 
Can't speak to the 357 cases, but I've had no problems reloading their 44 mag and 44 special brass. I'm using a Lee 4hole turret press
 
My .32 long brass has some off center holes that look to be made with a dull icepick.
Still reloads ok.
 
I had issues with way off center flash holes on GFL .223 brass, don't know how the rest of it is.
Privi ammo seems to be a decent brass doner if you are looking for one.
 
I have a bunch of them sorted and saved up. I'll use them when I can't pick my brass up. And not picking it up won't hurt my feelings any either.

I notice that most of you that don't have problems with it are using old brass, 10, 15, 20 years old.

Their new brass isn't what it used to be.

Edit. Their new cheap line of brass isn't what it used to be.
 
Last edited:
GFL = Giulio Fiocchi, Lecco Italy The founders initials and the town he started the business in, Lecco.

The 3rd generation is now involved with this family owned business.
Click to expand...

I don't know why this bothers me, but..,

I'll bet the third gens are the ones that came out with the GFL line.

If I was in the Fiocchi family and my Grandfathers name that started the company and provided me with a very good living, was used on the headstamp of our product, that Ammo would be the best in the class that it was made for. My Grandfathers name on THIS brass, that would bother me a lot. I mean a lot.
If my company was going to make brass and ammo on the quality level as A-merc, it sure wouldn't have name of, or any form of that name, of the original founder on it.
 
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