Brass to avoid?

[moxie]

Forgot, I also toss the IMT and the AMMOLOAD.

The AMMOLOAD (the As look like triangles) does have that "shelf" and it's the one I most commonly encounter of that type. I know some people use them but I toss them. I just don't know how much case volume is taken up by the shelf and I haven't seen any of the major reliable ammo/bullet/powder companies publishing any reloading data using them. So this old reloader tosses them.

 

[homatok]

Quote "The AMMOLOAD (the As look like triangles) does have that "shelf" and it's the one I most commonly encounter of that type. I know some people use them but I toss them. I just don't know how much case volume is taken up by the shelf and I haven't seen any of the major reliable ammo/bullet/powder companies publishing any reloading data using them. So this old reloader tosses them."

Happily, grains of powder and water measured in grains are close enough in weight for our purposes SO;
Take a sized, de-primed case (your favorite brand) and seat a bullet in it.
weigh and record the weight.
Do the same with an (in your instance) Ammoload case.
Use a syringe to fill each case with water through the empty primer hole and reweigh each one.
The difference in weight between the two is the difference in powder grain capacity.

 

[moxie]

Thanks. I know how to do that, and it's not worth my while. I should have simply stuck with the point that there isn't any published data out there by the major outfits using this brass. And somehow I don't think there ever will be.

Have you one of these cases and measured the water weight? Are you reloading them?

 

[9mmepiphany]

I have enough IMT and CBC brass, several hundred, to make it wasteful to just chuck.

I just don't use them for hotter loads...reduced about 10%. Just loading them up for range rounds or when shooting at a venue where I'm not likely to get them back

 

[Average Joe]

I reload everything except berdan primed cases.

 

[mstreddy]

On the FC NT, my buddy ran into a large batch and he crushed several primers trying to seat them. He finally culled them out - around 200 of them. I asked him for them as I wanted to check them out. In my LNL I crushed a couple of primers trying to seat them. Measured the primer holes compared to "normal" brass and they were a few thousands smaller. I don't have the numbers, didn't record them, but they were smaller, don't know if it's the crimp ring or that they are just smaller. Even the primers I pulled out "seem" smaller. I didn't measure them though.
I still have the bag of them in the garage, I guess I'll have to do some measurements.

 

[Toprudder]

Any NATO 9mm will be crimped. They will have a "O" with a + inside on the headstamp. Many of them are WCC or WCA headstamped, but there are many others. It is simple to remove the crimp with a primer pocket reamer or swager.

The S&B I have run across do not have a crimp, but there is not much of a radius (hardly any) on the opening, so it is more difficult to line up the primer when seating it. Again, the pocket reamer will help with this.

All of the "NT" brass (Win NT or Federal NT) appear to be crimped, at least to my eye. This includes 40 and 45 caliber brass that I have found.

I toss all of the Ammoload brass that I have found. My reason is that I got a batch of Freedom Munitions reloads with Ammoload brass, and about 6 out of 100 lost their primers when shot. They shot fine, just the recovered brass I noticed the primers missing. The ones that lost the primers were tossed. When I later reloaded the rest, I had the same problem in addition to one that lost the primer BEFORE firing. The pockets in the batch seemed slightly loose when seating primers, so I decided not to chance it and just tossed the rest. Another reason to toss them is the obvious difference in internal volume.

I toss AMERC just because I find so few of them and I hear they are bad. But, I did see the test someone ran where AMERC came out on top.

I always manage to collect more brass at the range, so I can be picky about what I use and I choose to toss these.

 

[mstreddy]

I have also experienced the ammoload loose primer syndrome. A buddy bought some rounds, factory loaded in (supposed new) ammoload brass and they were dropping primers consistently. He gave me the remains of one box (around 25 rounds) and of those, several more dropped the primers on firing. And most pockets were so loose you could seat a primer by hand. I even pulled the remaining batch and loaded them with some of my recipes, thinking that maybe they were loaded hot, but no, poor primer pockets.
Other ammoload brass has been OK. So, maybe bad batches in different lots?

 

[homatok]

Quote "Thanks. I know how to do that, and it's not worth my while. I should have simply stuck with the point that there isn't any published data out there by the major outfits using this brass. And somehow I don't think there ever will be.

Have you one of these cases and measured the water weight? Are you reloading them?"

No to both questions. I learned that method in the 1960's when I (finally) saved enough to buy a 300 Wby mag and the cartridges were a buck apiece! 300 H&H mag fire-forms nicely, but there are differences in the case volume available for powder. Using that method I was able to get cheap(er) cases and was able to shoot more.

 

[tcoz]

I just ran into a few Berdan primed GCL headstamp 9mm cases. I would take a glance inside the case to make sure you don't try to decap any Berdan primers.

 

[vaalpens]

Forgot, I also toss the IMT and the AMMOLOAD.

moxie, there is no reason to toss the Ammoload brass since some of us will reload them. If you have enough of them, just PIF it and I or somebody else will gladly take them off your hands.

 

[sealer]

i'm leary of the a-merc brass because of all the bad reviews
dennis

 

[LT.Diver]

Captains. Oh wait, I only read the title.

 

[tcoz]

I just mentioned this on another thread, but I just ran into a couple of Berdan primed 9mm NATO cases. That was a first for me. GCL headstamp.

 

[horseman1]

I definitely keep the small pistol primer 45 auto separate, but don't toss them or avoid them. So far, I've never met any pistol brass I didn't like, but I haven't been at it as long as many have.

Observations:
Seems like Remington brass is a little thinner
S&B primer pockets are a little smaller
No show stoppers for me yet.

H1

 

[celem]

Tula Max-Brass 9mm - poor quality control. My experience is 1% of cases are too long for pistol to go to battery. Something about the case width or thickness is funky in every case and is very noticeable when reloading. I now throw away every Tula case that I encounter.

 

[1SOW]

The Ammoload cases have a distinct ledge where the brass thickens suddenly and A LOT.

If you have a 9mm bullet that seats too deep it can cause a big jump in pressures generated---like with FP or HP 147gr.

There are plenty of 9mm cases out there to pick up without adding one-off cases to compensate for when reloading.

 

[Bigdog57]

For my Colt M1991A1 in .45ACP, I toss any brass marked "SPEER". It will never chamber. Same with their bullets. They always seem outsized. Any other brands work fine.
Speer for my Ruger Securitysix in .38 and .357 work fine.