Mixing headstamps on .45 ACP reloads?

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Koobuh

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I am getting close to enough .45 brass to do a full-burn loadup on them (my first big reloading adventure), but I am kind of torn on whether I should only use the ones I have the most of, or load up everything the same.
I'll be using them all for practice and plinking, with 200 grain copper-plated lead bullets over AA2 powder. The pistol I'm using is a Ballester-Molina 1911 knockoff in .45 ACP.
I have hundreds and hundreds of Winchester (bless you, WWB), but a little less than a hundred total of a mix of CCI, Speer, Federal, and *I* (whatever that headstamp is).
I'm fairly confident I'll be alright using them, but I just want to be certain before loading them up and risking limbs over a few pieces of brass.
 
*I* = Independence. I doubt there would be any harm in loading all of the brass the same. Would recommend steering clear of some brands such as A-Merc, Wolf, CCI, S-B, etc. Better yet I would suggest finding one or two brands of brass you really like and sticking with them use the others that you pick up to garner good will with friends or other reloading acquaintences or as possible trade bait.
 
Unless you are a very serious target shooter, the difference between different brands of brass is not going to matter much.
 
Vitamin G...You can have the CCI, but the S & B are mine,mine,mine...:evil:

Koobuh...My address is...................:D

If you are not picky, like me, there is no problem mixing your brass. Just stay away from A-merc...:)
 
ABA
Anything but A-MERC.
Although, I have to add that I will no longer mess with "FC," stamped brass. The primer pockets are just to crimped (even after reaming, I still get crushed primers going in, so they are going out).
 
I am with the others, the only thing I use sorted brass for is ammo for chronograph and Ransom Rest testing. The stuff I take to IDPA is mixed.

A-MERC is poor quality and Wolf is steel. I discard them, although I did reload a few Wolf steel cases just to show it could be done.

I have a S1050 with primer pocket swage so I have no trouble with crimped or tight primer pockets, the FC and S&B go right through.

Do get out any Winchester or Federal "NT" brass; it has a small primer pocket for reasons connected with the lead-free priming compound used in that ammo.
 
As everyone has said A-Merc is garbage and I just toss them.
But I very seldom sort my 45 auto brass. I do keep a box of Virgin new .45 acp Winchester brass on hand should I want to do some testing, but for basic shooting, mix away.
 
I reload with a single stage press, and notice a difference between certain head stamps, when sizing, priming, and bullet seating. I guess this may be do to the hardness of the brass :confused: two extremes would be PMC and Remington, the variance is enough to through me off, so I sort my brass.
 
What is the problem with CCI brass?
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Dunno, except it's big flash hole. I shoot it. It seems fine. I have started seperating big flash hole brass and shooting it seperately, but everyone says it does not matter about the size of the flash hole. It probably doesn't matter at all. I'm just funny about some things. :)
 
I don't sort for batches,but I do toss certain brass during reloading.
I usually toss anything crimped rather than waste the time removing it.
AMERC is terrible. I found one in this week's batch by the totally different feel it gave during belling.
PMC,certain old (30-40YO)Winchester,IMI,S&B and various foreign make brass tend to have thicker walls or a different internal taper of some kind. They usually tend to bulge the case wall at bullet seating; something that big name domestic brass doesn't do. Curiosly,they also tend to be very tight fitting into the case holder/shellplates. I haven't quite figured out why. Anyway, the Lee FCD usually resizes the case back to proper dimensions.
 
The only boxer primed 45ACP brass I cull is A-MERC. The rest load just the same... INCLUDING polymer coated steel cased Wolf. Thats right, I happily reload polymer coated steel cased Wolf 45 ACP (the old style lacquer coated ones don't load as easy but theres not much of that left these days anyway). Its boxer primed and reloads just fine. Theres no way on earth that the mild steel that they use in those cases will ever wear carbide dies. Never.

Also, since the material is a bit tougher than brass you get a lot more loadings out of each case. They also wont stretch as much on you (though i never trim pistol brass anyway). Ive got some Ive loaded about 15 times by now. The only real limit to the life of these cases is when you tumble off the polymer coating and the case starts to rust a bit if exposed to moisture. Apart from that, they load just fine.

No, really. If you've got some you don't want to load I will happily buy all you have for the price of shipping.
 
I throw out Amerc, and I sort brass into 2 categories, military and commercial, because the military brass needs a little different handling, often it has crimped primers, but as long as the rest of the brass is boxer primed, don't sweat it!

If you are shooting competitively in the Master Class, you should be particular about your brass, anything less than that, you are just wasting time sorting.
 
INCLUDING polymer coated steel cased Wolf. Thats right, I happily reload polymer coated steel cased Wolf 45 ACP
Click to expand...

I have not tried it myself, but a fellow shooter tried reloading a small number of such cases and successfully fired them.
 
I did a video with Ron Avery, one of the great .45 shooters around, and the ammo cans he brought had the most widely diverse varity of .45 brass all loaded the same as I have ever seen! He and I were the only two doing the class for the video who were shooting .45s, the SWAT guys were all on Glock .40s (BCSO SWAT) Ron was teaching this class for the video series "Secrets of a Professional Shooter" and he was shooting 7 rounds bsically thru the same hole from 7 yards easily and almost the same from 10 yards with what I would have called bulk junk ammo!

He even did a 100 yard draw fire reholster on two pop up shilouttes in about two seconds with this same ammo sooooo....I don;t think you'll have any problems!

Oh, he also aid I was the best shooter there!!! :what: :neener: Besides him of course!
 
I generally mix them all, but I have some old WWII headstamps (R-A comes to mind) that won't hold a bullet, and the occasional Aguila that won't hold a FMJ but works fine with Ranier. So I sort those out.
 
I have 400 RA-65 brass that looks more like copper than brass.(reddish copper color) Anybody know anything about them?
 
Throw out the american stuff and load the rest. I have every type of .45acp brass imaginable and load and shoot them all. I will sort out winchester headstamped brass for my pin shoot ammo but I really don't see a differece between the sorted and non sorted ammo as far as accuracy is concerned.
 
Walkalong said:
I have 400 RA-65 brass that looks more like copper than brass.(reddish copper color) Anybody know anything about them?
Click to expand...
Mine is from 42. I can't bell it, not that it matters since the bullet drops right in anyway, and I can't crimp it. It's more like spring steel than brass. Could take a torch to it and see if that softens it up a bit I suppose.

How does yours (the '65 stuff) work? Will it hold a bullet?
 
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