AMERC brass... what's up with that crap?

[ThreadKiller]

I bought a couple thousand once fired brass mail order. (45 ACP) I'm finding that more often than not if I have a reject out of the SDB, it's an AMERC case.

I've never seen "AMERC" brand ammo anywhere. I don't know how good their ammo is, but their brass is junk. I automatically toss AMERC brass now.

Tim

 

[HSMITH]

It is crap, smash it and throw it out. A search will reveal all you need to know.

 

[ThreadKiller]

I did a search and found a little chatter about AMERC brass which of course, was negative. I'm just curious where this stuff originates so that I can avoid it in the future.

Thanks!

Tim

 

[Mal H]

AMERC is the headstamp of American Ammunition (not to be confused with American Eagle which is very good stuff). Your assessment of their brass extends to the quality of their ammo.

 

[stans]

American Ammunition is headquartered in Florida, liability laws must be pretty lax there.

AMERC brass and ammo is pure junk and the really scary thing? They won a contract to supply the government with ammo!!!!

 

[Mark whiz]

Actually Amerc is based in Miami !!! That's a WHOLE nother country than Florida :O more like a 3rd world country.

 

[only1asterisk]

IMI is now working with American to produce a hybrid line of ammuntion. This is the stuff that .gov is buying. It also means the end of IMI ammunition it the states. Even if they use IMI brass, I will still not buy American. They have proven they know jack about QC.


David

 

[stans]

Sad, IMI was really good. I guess if you mix really good with equal parts of really bad you come out with mediocre?

 

[Black Snowman]

I guess if you mix really good with equal parts of really bad you come out with mediocre?

Unfortantely more often than not you get really bad but prettier.

 

[P95Carry]

A-Merc .... ??? ..... heck this stuff is a joke.

When I did some 9mm tests thru R9 Rohrbaugh I included this stuff .... yeah ..... STUFF!!! Bullets were crap - jackets with creases etc. And velocity figures? Well .... a joke but not funny ....... let me show here, the figures .... you won't believe them - in fact I really don't know how the gun even cycled!! NEVER again.!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Ammo type ........ ''A-Merc'', 115 grain FMJ (first time I've tried it! ... be the last too!)

Shot # 1 - 373.04 fps
Shot # 2 - 372.86 fps
Shot # 3 - 371.13 fps
Shot # 4 - 355.23 fps
Shot # 5 - 353.32 fps

Low vel = 353.32
Hi vel = 373.04
Average vel = 365 nom
Hi-Lo extreme spread = 19.72
Standard Deviation = (too lazy to calc!)
Muzzle energy (based on average vel) = 32 ft lbs !!!!!!!!!!!!! What?? Sheesh!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Third_Rail]

That has to be a joke!!!!

Are you sure that's not meters/sec?? I think my airguns would do more damage!

 

[P95Carry]

Are you sure that's not meters/sec??

Nope - believe it or not -- FPS!! Go compare with other ammo in same test ...... HERE - it is unbelievable that ANYONE can even consider marketing suck total junk!!

 

[stans]

I know AMERC is junk, but those chrono readings are either meters per second or the chrono was not registering correctly. With velocity that low, the gun would not cycle and you might be getting bullets stuck in the bore. Something is amiss here.

Perhaps debris had gotten on one of the chrono sensors? Change in lighting will also cause either consistantly extremely high or extremely low velocity readings. At least this has been my experience.

 

[Mal H]

Sure looks like something went wrong during that particular chrono session, Chris. Especially since you said in the main thread, "it didn't feel that weak."

Perhaps the Amerc ammo has a powder blend that creates a gas cloud that precedes the bullet for a longer distance than usual. The high speed gasses will trip the first sensor and the bullet will trip the second. That causes a lower than expected velocity.

How close were the skyscreens when you were shooting the tests?

 

[P95Carry]

stans .... Mal ... I agree ... one would think something very amiss here but ........

Believe me, this was a test within a series of tests ... chrono was admittedly quite close and so might have been influenced by gas vapors but it was the exact same position and set-up as used for a total of 8 ammo types.... sequential ..... 5 string sets, one after the other!! ALL running thru with it set on Feet per second!! Never use metric.

Agreed, you'd not expect this to cycle a gun ... and certainly something was wierd ..... the actual shot release ''felt'' sufficiently ''brisk'' .... but then let's say that stuff is running fast powder but low charge .. as long as bullet is forced out the barrel .. there will be reaction into cycling.

Mal .... the Chrony sky screens are 12" apart ... and that was consistent .. notice too ... oddly enough, the spread on 5 shots was only coming thru as 19.72 . in itself not bad! Lighting also was sufficiently consistent thru the test sequence .. light level was falling because later in day but ... not that dramatic. The chrono does easily register error status too if light bad ... and shows it.

I still can't explain it ... it almost defies logic! But ... five shots with that close vel? Danged if I know what'd be fooling the chrono and yet still get those close figures. It was the end of the sequence and so I must assume somehow something changed!

I will test it again next time out with chrono - gotta put this oddball event to bed!

 

[cordex]

Wow, Chris ... if those results are accurate, you could just about use A-MERC for Simunition training (with the proper eye protection, of course). Absolutely pathetic.

But really ... if you had brass as crappy as theirs, would you load it to high pressures?

 

[Mal H]

... the Chrony sky screens are 12" apart ...

What I meant was how far from the muzzle was the front skyscreen? Anything less than 10 ft. (for a 'normal' handgun, 15 ft. for an HP rifle or handgun) can give spotty results. The fact that that group was the only apparent 'problem' group is why I mentioned the powder blend. Different speed powders will give different gas pulse results. I've seen it happen.

 

[P95Carry]

Sorry Mal .... - El Thicko here!

I'd say probably the nearer screen was a tad close .... could be as close as six feet on that useage. So yeah ... may have been a prob. (still tho - five very close results!)

I have some more ''donated'' ammo coming to me in a week or so - for more tests thru R9 .... when I get that and go to range I'll set up more like my #2 R9 test program .. (that was all but 10 feet) ..... and put some more A-Merc thru - gotta do that now - just to see what is what!

 

[Mal H]

Should be interesting. Keep us posted, so to speak.