Newbie reloader brass recommendations

[nonquixote]

Hi all, as the header says I'm a reloading newbie, having just acquired a used Dillon Square Deal B set up for .45 ACP. Along with the press came 1000 rounds of mixed .45 fired brass, which I have been sorting by headstamp. Most of the brass is marked Federal, R-P, PMC, S&B, Winchester, WCC, and WCC Match, with lesser numbers of Speer and other miscellaneous brands.

I have a couple of questions. Firstly, while most of the headstamps are pretty self explanatory, can I assume that R-P is Remington brass and WCC is a version of Winchester brass? Secondly, does anyone have any recommendations of which is the better brass for precision reloading, which is ok for casual plinking, and which should be avoided altogether?

Thanks for the help,

Nonq

P.s. A friend advised that any A Merc brass should be destroyed on sight, actually he said "Kill it before it reproduces!" And this perhaps makes sense as I've heard bad things about that brand from the factory.

 

[tbeb]

I believe R-P stands for Remington-Peters. I believe WCC is Winchester brass that was made for the mlitary. At one time or another I have reloaded all that you have named. All my reloading is for casual target practice. I have a personal preference for Winchester. It is good brass and also the first brand I ever used.

(Offhand, I can't remember what WCC stands for. I have that info, and can find it for you if you want. The letters tell either who made it or where it was made. For instance I know that military brass stamped "LC" stands for Lake City.)

 

[HogRider]

WCC = Western Cartridge Company
(Military contractor)

 

[HSMITH]

Quit sorting it and load it all in mass quantities. Practice is far more valuable than a half inch of accuracy at 25 yards.

I load mixed brass with bullets I cast and shoot unsized, they will hold 3" at 25 yards with no problem at all in my gun. My gun will do 1" or a little less at 25 yards with proper ammo but quite honestly I can only do 3-4" out that far so I am working on cutting 6-7" groups to 3" right now instead of cutting a 3-4" group to 1". In doing so my loading is vastly faster and simpler, not to mention costs are extremely low lettting me shoot enough to do some good. Look for round groups centered around POA and keep shooting.

If you have a ransom rest or a scope on your 45 and are trying to get the Nth degree of accuracy the Hornady brass is really consistent as is the military WCC brass.

I will crush AMERC on sight, S&B brass is also terrible but it is fully loadable. CBC brass is hard and thick making it a little tough to size but it shoots and lasts well. I prefer Speer brass of the commercial brands.

45 acp is the most forgiving caliber out there, as long as the load is reasonable a good gun will stack the bullets. You can load your ammo and focus on the front sight without worrying about anything else.

 

[nwgunman]

The .45acp round is fairly low pressure so if you use moderate loads you will get many re-loadings out of each case. The most common case failure will a split down the case, which you will notice only after you pick up the spent case. Starline brass is my personal pick for factory new brass. Good quality and great price.

 

[nonquixote]

Thanks for the input everybody. By the time I read these responses I already had the brass sorted, but thanks anyway HSmith. I like the thought that all rounds in any particular box will be uniform. A-n-a-l retentive I know, but there it is.

I assume that the numbers on some of the cases refer to year of manufacture. I hope so because some of my WCC is numbered 41 and 42, and I like the idea of shooting ammo whose brethren were used in WW2.

Well, I have to finish putting together my loading bench and then I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend getting loaded. Er, getting my ammo loaded. If anyone else wants to offer opinions or info I'd like to hear it.

Thanks,

Nonq

 

[Peter M. Eick]

I sort mine at load time. I find that the different types run through the dies a little different and help with the averall consistency. Basically while I am on the downstroke I grab a piece of brass and inspect it and then either use it (if it is the type I am loading) or toss it into a coffee can with others of its type. It is slow at the start, but once you get really rolling it goes quite quick.

Sorry, now to answer your question, I feel that winchester makes a very tough brass that seems to handle a lot of reload cycles well. Frankly though I have switched to Starline for nearly everything to just get the consistency. I am now cycling out my none-starline brass (hence the filtering).

 

[Mike Irwin]

"WCC = Western Cartridge Company
(Military contractor)"

Which is a division of Winchester.

 

[JollyWhiteGiant]

I haven't had any troubles with S&B brass. Only thing that I have had problems with is Fionchi (sp) brass. Try to de-prime it, only the bottom of the primer cup will come out leavign the rest there.

 

[HankB]

I also have a Dillon SDB which I use to load (mostly) .45 ACP.

Of the major name brands of brass, the only one that's given me trouble is Remington. The Remington brass was so thin near the case mouth that it simply couldn't be sized down enough to grip the bullet properly, no matter how much of a taper crimp I tried to apply. (BTW, besides the Dillon dies, I tried both carbide and steel RCBS dies - no joy.)

When I belatedly took a vernier caliper (you DO have one, don't you?) to the case mouth, I found the Remington stuff was a full 0.002" THINNER than ANY other brass I evaluated.

 

[Black Snowman]

HankB, I ran into this with Remington .40 S&W brass, which is a nice high pressure cartridge. As a result of this I toss all my R-P brass for pistols. Set-back in a .40, and in my Glock to boot are not a good combination and if I need more brass all I have to do is pick it up. There's always plenty of Winchester from WWB at the range.

 

[45auto]

The only brass I hear people say, "stay away from" is American.

Other than that, I have loaded most brands and all seem to work.

Speer is good, seem to last long. I've had Winchester brass appear to "last" forever. So, I bought some new ones and they split before I had 8 loads through them...go fiqure. Next batch might be different, who knows.
Aquila has worked for me also.

I have the same machine, good one, but do yourself a favor and lube the cases. Much easier and faster to load. Your elbows will thank you.

One shot lube is good and easy to use. Try it once and I doubt you will go back to loading "dry" again.

Have fun.

 

[cordex]

For me, S&B is a little tougher to resize, but reloads well and has a great case life.
Not much experience with A-MERC, but I've heard it is pretty low quality stuff.
Winchester tends to have slightly looser primer pockets than S&B too, I think.

Don't fret too much about it. Just reload.

 

[Steve Smith]

I'm with HSmith 100%.



If you insist on doing this, I also suggest you wring your hands over the following things:

How many times have each of your cases been loaded?

How many times had the brass been stepped on before someone picked it up?

Did a tiny bit of ammonia waft toward the brass in a menacing way...was the brass weakened?

Is your pistol barrel of adequate construction? Perhaps it was dropped on the shop floor before it ever got to you.

Is your press straight? You'll never know unless you put several dial indicators on it in different axes in order to find out!


See where this is going?


Friggin SHOOT!

 

[Jeeper]

My opinion on sorting brass. If it gets jammed in the press I toss it. Other than that I dont sort.

 

[nonquixote]

Thanks again for the input everybody. So let me see if I got this straight. Most brands will work fine, some has worked slightly better than others for some people, A-Merc has a dubious reputation, most reloaders don't really worry too much about it, I should just load up and shoot it. Gotcha. Btw Steve, I wasn't trying to be fussy about it, but being a complete newbie I just wanted to find out any obvious things that I should know. Also btw, I loaded some this past weekend but stopped when I lost a locator button through my own clumsiness, but had finished enough by then for my next trip to the range. I emailed Dillon asking if they could send me one or two replacement buttons.

Thanks all,

Nonq

 

[larryw]

Sorting 45 brass does serve a purpose: sort it by split and not split. Pitch the split brass (and maybe the Amerc), dump the rest into a bucket and reload it.

I've found Dillon's service to be outstanding, but they respond much quicker to a call than e-mail. To Dillon, lost, damaged due to owner neglect or defective are all the same: it gets replaced. I've broken parts due to my own stupidity and Dillon flat refused to let me pay for the replacements. The only brand of press I recommend to all who ask (and a few who don't ) without qualification is blue.

 

[nonquixote]

That's why I chose Dillon as well, for the customer service. They've responded to the email I sent yesterday, my locator buttons are on the way, no charge.

Nonq

 

[larryw]

One of my favorite quotes comes from an Indiana Jones movie, "You've chosen wisely."

 

[Steve Smith]

It's easy to find split cases when you put them in the press. Just watch what you're doing. The bottom line is if it's not split or not Amerc, then you should just stick it in the press and shoot em up.

 

[Mike Irwin]

It's fairly easy to find split cases by putting a few in you hands or a cloth bag and shaking them. A split case will have a VERY distinctive sound.

It's like people who look for silver coins. They take a handful of coins and shake it -- the silver ones have a VERY different ring to them.

 

[larryw]

Yep, even someone like me (deaf in one ear and mostly tone deaf in the other) can hear the difference when a split case is rattling around in the emptys bag or hits the concrete floor after being ejected.

My "sorting" is done after tumbling: listen for that flat tone while working the media seperator. I occasionally catch a split case during my second round of sorting which is done as I place the case on the shell plate; I give it a squeeze and half-spin between my thumb and index finger to feel for case give/click from the split.