Best .44 Mag brass for medium loads?

[BigBlock]

Ever since I bought my .44 Mag revolver I thought I was going to start reloading right away. Still haven't. But I've got a growing collection of brass for when I start.

Generally I shoot the cheapest I can find, and so far I have mostly Remington, Winchester, Federal, and Magtech brass. Which would be the best one for future reloading of medium .44 Mag loads? (or that is, which brand of ammo should I keep buying) Right now they all look the same to me....

 

[.38 Special]

Federal has a reputation for "tougher" brass, at least in certain calibers. The .44 isn't one of them, though. Anything works, especially for midrange loads.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Haven't reloaded magtech personally. Remington is FLAT OUT STINKING JUNK in 44 magnum, in my not so limited experience.

Personal experience leads me to this list:

1. starline
2. top brass
3. federal
4. winchester
5. anything else -except remington

with 2 & 3 being a toss up

 

[.38 Special]

I've had fine luck with Remington, although I rarely load the .44 really hot.

 

[depoloni]

I load primarily Federal, CBC/Magtech, and Remington brass in approximately that order. Any of them will suit you just fine for moderate loads... expect to get a firing or two before trimming is necessary, then you should get an additional 4-5 loadings (5-6 total) before any possibility of necks splitting. A more likely number should be more like 7-8 reloads with un-annealed brass... something I recommend staying away from with this caliber.

I prefer Federal most because it does tend to last a few extra reloads. In terms of CBC/Remington however, unlike some I've found both to be equally satisfactory whether it's moderate loads or full-house, cast or jacketed. In my honest opinion Hornady brass is the toughest and most consistent I've used, but it's expensive as heck.

 

[MMCSRET]

For everyday use they all serve well, that said , I have 50 rds of Norma brass I bought new in 1983 and have loaded in excess of 11 times, I just peeled 11 labels off the box and the oldest was dated 1992 and it was used before that, several times in revolvers and long guns. I have found several CBC/Magtech virgin cases with primer pockets too big to retain the initial primer. I've never fired a factory 44 mag round that I can remember.

 

[Zeke/PA]

I like both Remington and Federal brass for my.44 reloads.
I rarely load max as I find better accuracy by staying under max.
Zeke

 

[Al Norris]

BigBlock, I did what you are doing. Before I started handloading, I saved all my brass. Mostly Winchester and Magtech.

Since starting reloading, I've found that for med-range loads, just about anything will work well. I do tend to stay away from Remington in .44 and .357, though.

IMO, Starline appears to be the best, followed by TopBrass/Magtech/Federal (for me, it's a toss-up on those three) then by Winchester.

For my full-house hunting loads, nothing but Starline fills the bill. I keep full-house brass separate from everyday plinking brass.

As always, YMMV.

 

[Walkalong]

I have been told to use Remington brass for reduced loads in .44 mag, etc, because it is a bit thinner and will expand under less pressure to seal the chamber. I have not tried it yet, but it sounded like excellent advise, and came from someone who knows.

 

[alex9328]

I shot a lot, and load a lot for pistol, at first I was a nut about sorting brass by brand. I started noticing the extra time it took away from the range. I do take care of my reloads for example checking case failure and case length.

First and always,

All range brass goes thru inspection, cleaning, inspection, sizing, inspection and trimming and final inspection.

My practice reloads are mixed cases, sized the same, trimmed to spec. Any case that has flaws scrapped. Case stretch not affected much by my loads , Case trimming handles this.

My hunting loads are more of matched grade. Cases same brand, Remington, bullets sorted by weights.
+\- 1 grain. I cast enough bullets to find fifty or so out of a batch. Now this takes awhile.

For me brass brands are not an issue and as long as the case are sound. Any brass damaged by a heavy load, has a replacement waiting in a coffee can, just waiting to get used.

Give a bag of mixed brass any day or everyday, I take it.

Just get out and shoot. Respectfully, Alex

 

[BigBlock]

Alright, thanks for the info everyone. I guess I'll save the Remington brass for "special" loads, I'll probably be loading a lot of that too. It's kind of pathetic that Remington brass seems to be the worst for the .44 "Remington" Magnum.

Can anyone tell me if the Federal Premium/American Eagle brass is the same? What about Remington and Remington-UMC brass? They both look the same...

 

[Hook686]

The brass you happen to have ? I do not recall having any unbest' .44 magnum brass used with a moderate load.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

BigBlock,
There is no difference between Federal and American Eagle brass.

 

[ranger335v]

Ben, #3: "Remington is FLAT OUT STINKING JUNK in 44 magnum, in my not so limited experience."

Interesting comment.

With your experience and long list of qualifications, would you care to expand a bit so we can know if Remington .44 brass won't shoot straight or explodes or the primers fall out or..., etc.?

 

[.38 Special]

FWIW, in the past I've reloaded Remington .44 Magnum brass a half dozen times; 240 grain lead SWC/1200 fps. Again, not the hottest of loads, but I tossed the cases after a couple of them showed mouth splits, and haven't generally found that mouth splits are much affected by load velocity.

I agree that some brands stand up a bit better than others -- and I depend upon Starline cases for just about everything these days -- but based upon my experiences with Remington I certainly wouldn't call it junk.

To be perfectly frank, I've never used .44 Magnum brass from anywhere that didn't do what it was supposed to.

 

[evan price]

The best .44 mag brass I have is whatever I can find. It's like hen's teeth.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

The last straw on remington pistol brass was a few years back.

I'd had remington brass splitting on the second or third load. I'd had it so thin/weak that neck tension didn't exist, no matter the expansion die or slug diameter. Or you'd try for a firm crimp and the case would buckle right in the middle.

But when we had 4 different 44s at the range one day, and all 4 started keyholing with plinker loads? And EVERY one that did keyhole was a remington case? And none of the other makers cases did?

That's when I quit using remington pistol brass.

Another member here has had Major trouble with his remington 357 max brass on the FIRST loading, bunch of case walls blew out.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

While I don't reload for the .44 Magnum I do reload for the .357 Magnum and I usually load at or near the top end. I use a lot of Remington brass and it doesn't split any sooner than any other brass I use to reload. The other brass I use is Winchester, Federal, Speer, PMC, Magtech and a few others. I don't buy brass, I reload the brass I saved when I was buying factory ammo before I started to reload.

 

[Snapping Twig]

My preference is for Starline and Winchester, but Federal and Remington are good too.

 

[Luke G]

I use mainly Winchester brass or all of my reloading but in 44 I have equal amounts of Federal and Remington. I dont go very hot (240 LSWC over 12 grains of Unique) and I honestly can not tell the difference in the brass. They all stay consistent with length and primer pocket size, so Im happy with using any of it.

 

[bakert]

I've had very good luck with both Winchester and Remington brass in medium to fairly heavy but not max loads.

 

[evan price]

I will say I've had a lot of nickle Rem UMC headstamped revolver brass that was split on its first reloading.
However on Magnum brasses, I reload all I can find, because I can't find much.

 

[Bula]

If your only loading med loads, everything you have will work fine. With .44 mag I find lots of the Super heavy duty loads are WAY more than I need from my pistols anyways( 255 grainers at 1000 fps still can do plenty). I get lots of loadings on my mixed brass, well over 8 or 9 so far.

 

[smith627]

At the range, I'm lucky to rarely find any .38 or .357 brass on the ground and I have never found any .44 mag or special. I just recycle what I've shot from factory loads and bought a box of 100 new brass that was on sale.

 

[Floppy_D]

The only case I've had buckle was a Rem 44 mag case (in regards to 44). Most of the splitting I've seen has come from Rem brass, but that has only been 3 cases or so in 500 reloads. I would estimate some of my hot-loaded brass on it's 4th or 5th load, with no problems.