Emotional Rollercoaster of sorts.

Howland937 · Mar 1, 2022

My younger brother, who to my knowledge has never pulled the handle on a press, called me the other day about his flea market find. An older fellow had died and the contents of his booth was left to the folks in the booth next to him by the guy's wife. They apparently didn't know what they had.

Over 4000 pieces of cleaned and deprimed brass in 9mm, 40, and 45acp.

400+ LPP
300 or so SPP
NIB Hornady digital scale. Nevermind, here's a picture.

(The powders have all been opened).
So, I'm thrilled for him. Ecstatic. A bit jealous maybe. Then he starts calling every 5 minutes to ask what "this" is. Frustration soon follows. Then he tells me he got it all for $125. I'm impressed.

There's 2600 pieces of sized and PRIMED brass. Shocked. Ecstatic again. 500 or so are Steel case 45acp. Disappointment again. Sort of confused as well. Several hundred pieces of quality brass, and the guy wasted primers on steel cases.

Still a great haul though. And if times get really lean, we'll figure out a use for the steel cases. I figure sizing is the hardest part on dies, and that's already done.

dartor · Mar 1, 2022

Get a universal decapping die (if you don't already have one) and pop those primers out. They will work fine for practice loads. I do it all the time. Never had one go off while depriming.

tightgroup tiger · Mar 1, 2022

dartor said:
Never had one go off while depriming.

Me either.

Seedy Character · Mar 1, 2022

Great find

Howland937 · Mar 1, 2022

I know I've heard of people reloading steel cases. I've never tried for one, because I've also heard it's hell on dies. I'd imagine neck tension would be more difficult to achieve too, and honestly...I don't put steel case ammo in any of the guns I reload for anyway.

I could understand desperation, but that seems beyond desperate. I do have a universal decapper, just hadn't used it on live primers.

dartor · Mar 1, 2022

Howland937 said:
I do have a universal decapper, just hadn't used it on live primers.

If they're boxer primed give it a try. I find loaded ammo at my range all the time. I wait until I have a cottage cheese tub full of them then pull the bullets for recasting. Dump the powder and remove the primers with a universal decapping die. I load them up in 357mag cases, drop my favorite BE86 load by 0.4 grains and load 'em up. Small pistol and small rifle, standard or magnum they have all shot fine.

CoalCrackerAl · Mar 1, 2022

I have decapped many live primers and used them over. They always fired. Nice score for your brother too

Jim Watson · Mar 1, 2022

I have reloaded a few steel .45 ACP just to see if it could be done.
No problems.

I have reused a number of decapped primers.
They fired.

So whichever you pick, you will get a shot off.

Bazoo · Mar 1, 2022

When I switched from 44 mag to 44 special, I deprimed 200 ish that I had loaded. They all loaded again and fired without issue. I’ve also salvaged another 100 in various other sizes and never had an issue.

I’ve never loaded steel cases but I’ve heard of it. One guy on the cast bullet forum said he did when he was going to shoot his guns in the snow and lose the cases. That made a lot of sense to me.

Cool haul, so is your brother going to get into loading his own?

vongh · Mar 1, 2022

You're brother did good. I like steel cased ammo to use in the snow. Cause if you ever had to buzzard up brass melted into ice your fingers will bleed just trying to get it all. Steel cased 45 reloaded ammo shoots just like brass in the 45 acp. I tried steel cased 223 ammo and that on the other hand got stuck in the chamber of my mini 14 and a friend's ar 15. Some guns will shoot it fine and others won't.

mstreddy · Mar 1, 2022

Is the steel 45 ACP foreign made (Tula, Wolf, etc) or is it some GI cases? If so, they may be WW2 manufactured, and I could use them.

Swampman · Mar 2, 2022

I loaded and fired a bunch of brass plated steel 1950's USGI .45 ACP cases and didn't even know it till a friend pointed it out.

If you just want to kill time, you can pull the primers and shove 'em into brass cases, but it'll be a lot of time spent for essentially zero gain.

Having a supply of steel case is kinda liberating. We used to use 'em for hunting swamp Jack's where you knew you'd never find 95% of your cases.

Catpop · Mar 2, 2022

Nice snag, I shoot aluminum and steel on occasion where I can’t or don’t to be a brass hound.

Howland937 · Mar 2, 2022

Bazoo said:
your brother going to get into loading his own?

Not sure what his plan is. I don't think he has the patience, but he mentioned trying to learn how to use my Hornady progressive, which I'd set up at my dad's since he's retired. So my brother would have just as much access to it as I do.

mstreddy said:
Is the steel 45 ACP foreign made (Tula, Wolf, etc) or is it some GI cases? If so, they may be WW2 manufactured, and I could use them.

Not really sure. I'll be over there this weekend so I'll see what I can find out.

Remington1911 · Mar 2, 2022

I wonder if they are not steel but nickel?

On the other hand the old guy could have just thought, well with the shortages I will see if this works or not.

Jim Watson · Mar 2, 2022

All that takes is a magnet.

Emotional Rollercoaster of sorts.

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