Do you have a favorite .45 ACP brass?

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au_prospector

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Other than the ones that go boom when you pull the trigger, do you have a favorite .45 acp brass which reloads best for you?

I plan to start with 6.0 grains Unique under a hornady 230 grain FMJ with a Winchester LPP. I have lots of different once fired brass that my dad and I collected over a span of 20 years plus.

I just cleaned and deprimed a 2000 count mixed bag of this brass. I sorted out the Winchesters, the Remingtons, the Federal nickel, and the Federal brass.
So I have...
Winchester (some headstamps look different, but they all say Winchester)
Federal Brass
Federal Nickel
RP Remington

And then I have about 800-1000 mixed
S&B with red primer sealer
PPU
PMC
CBC
TZZ 86 and *I* and some IMI (All Israeli maybe not once fired)
FIOCCHI USA
WCC 83 (I think this is military and maybe not once fired)
Speer

a few others as well I think.
 
In general for handguns, I prefer Starline to others in all calibers. For .45ACP I've yet to find much difference between any of the major brands.
 
The only ones I avoid are amerc(sp?)and those with the spp from "nt" ammo........it think they were made by Federal? Otherwise, no real preference.
 
I will load and shoot about anything in my 45 ACP hand guns except AMERC.

I will sometimes run into a few of a particular, off beat head stamp that do not play well with my loader and they get scrapped.

When I buy new handgun cases, W-W, R-P, or Starline depending on what is available and is at the best price for the quantity that I need.
 
If I buy new cases it's Starline.

Be on the look out for the RP Remington cases, I had some problems with getting a proper crimp and the bullets could be pressed back in the case with just finger pressure. YMMV

Most of the .45acp I reload is in Winchester cases, no problems with those.
 
Starline, CBC, Speer, Federal, PMC, in that order. Remington seems to get loose primer pockets rather quickly for me. And all the Winchester brass I've ever had is on the short side, a good bit of it too short to load for me. Herter's brass is pretty good stuff too but their primer pockets have no chamfer at all and it makes seating primers difficult unless you put a small chamfer on it first.
 
If I buy new it's Starline, once fired mixed is cheap and once wet tumbled w/SS looks just like new and I don't care if I get it all picked up when I shoot off my property.
 
I have not found any problematic. I avoid AMERC due to reputation but I've only come across 2 or 3 out of many thousands I've reloaded.

Mixed brass works fine for me in semi-auto handgun calibers. The slightly different thickness or springiness or tension or whatever doesn't seem to make much difference once run through my dies and into my pistols. All are accurate and reliable.
 
Be on the look out for the RP Remington cases,
Click to expand...
I have R-P brass and it works well with cast bullets that are sized .452"
I've been saving the small primed brass in case I run out of LPP.
 
I reload whatever I can pick up, and about the only sorting I do is to separate the cases that take large primers from the small primer cases, after they're tumbled and deprimed.
 
Lately, any that are LPP. If you would have asked this around November I would have said only SPP brass. I'm glad I have a supply of LPPs so I can keep shooting 9mm and 45 at the same volume as before.


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I like RP brass.
It has more of a bell on the primer pocket.

I use Tula primers which are just a bit over-sized.
So they're great for loose primer pockets too.
 
TZ or TZZ (Israeli surplus) but only because i have way over 10,000 of them.

For competition I always used Starline.
 
I reload it all. 2/3 of the pickups from the range are Winchester and PMC. The other 1/3 is a little bit of everything. I like reloading S&B and PPU because the pockets are tight and the brass is thick. I have reloaded some of the S&B 8-10 times and they still have plenty of life in them. I mostly load in the mid range and get good use out of all the different brass.
 
My favorite is the free stuff I find all over the ground.
I do however like the spp stuff. with range brass you are going to have to sort it out no matter what. a little bit of a PIA?- yes but its a fact of life when dealing with 45. I like spp brass because A- they prime so easily, and B- I always keep a bag of spp ammo in my range ammo in case im next to another 45 shooter that is keeping his/her brass. You cant mistake a spp case with a copper colored tula primer in it.

least favorite?- Winchester. Unfortunatly most of mine is winchester, Its significantly more difficult to prime. tula, winchester, cci, S&B, remington primers... all difficult to seat and I have to check each and every case for high riding primers.

Now that I mention that, winchester is also my least favorite for 38. they are very difficult to seat all different kinds of spp/srp.
 
Starline 45 super

STARLINE 45 SUPER - It has the same outside dimensions as a common .45 ACP case, but the case head and web are substantially stronger… some say as strong as a .308. The max pressure in the .45 ACP case is 21,000 psi and the Super is 28,000 psi. There are required changes that need to be made to a pistol being converted to 45 Super.

The benefit is that if you are loading to maximum .45 ACP pressure there is probably no chance of case rupture at the unsupported portion of the case in the chamber. The extra cost is worth it for the peace of mind, especially if the chamber was chamfered and polished for more reliable feeding.
 
Unsupported case head ruptures have never been a problem in 45acp. The pressure isnt high enough to cause it generally, unless you are overloading in the first place. Not that I think it matters, but when a case is stronger its because its thicker. When its thicker its because it has a reduced internal capacity(outside is the same). This pushes pressures higher than it would with 45acp brass. While its not going to cause a case failure(like said before, its not really an issue with 45acp) it can cause excess battering of certain firearms.
 
ljnowell - Case ruptures have been a problem in modified chambers when .45 ACP cases were loaded to maximum as I stated. I’ve seen it as a range master and range officer since 1982 in our IPSC shoots. Not many, but enough to take notice.

I never said that case capacity wasn’t reduced. What I should have mentioned is that you should be using 45 Super data when loading ammo and NOT to go over the 21,000 psi pressure limit. I thought that was common sense, but it’s not for everyone who is reloading… newbies in particular. It’s good that you brought up that point.
 
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