Pistol cases you just won't be bothered with...?

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I decapped about 500 pieces of old miscellaneous 9mm range leavings this weekend. Set the APP up in the TV room and went to town. About every 40-50 or so the decapping pin on my (Lee) sizing die would press up - meaning a primer too stiff for it to extract without breaking. I kind of like that "feature" of the Lee dies and have the collet set a little light. I've got enough 9mm brass I really don't need to keep brass with soldered-in primers. Mostly it was NATO/milsurp (1987 head-stamped) but a few were CDC and a couple of RWS were sealed with what looked like red LocTite. If the brass looks good otherwise I'll set it aside and give it some time later - use a stronger pin to pop it then size and chamfer the pocket - but this stuff looked "wrong" somehow. The CBC and RWS in particular. I know some folks have said CDC goes straight into their recycle bin and I'm kind of curious what other headstamps people chuck because they just don't want to be bothered.

 

[lightman]

I guess I went the other direction? I really tighten down on my collet and try to feel through the press handle. I've broken one pin but thats going through thousands of cases.

 

[Demi-human]

A USA, A MERC, and any I punch a hole through trying to deprime them.
I don’t have a problem decapping CBC or any Euro stuff, but priming then can be tough.

I got my APP out this weekend and did about sixteen hundred in an evening.
I love that thing!
They all fit in my tumbler, too!
I suspect the Lee spent primer jar will hold three thousand small pistol primers.

Four hours from grungy to sparkling!

 

[Charlie98]

As Demi mentions... A USA, A Merc for sure. I don't care for GFL (Fiocchi, I believe...) I don't fool with crimped in primers in anything 9mm, even though I have the equipment to take care of it.

It would probably be easier to tell you what I keep vs what I scrap. As far as rifle brass... nothing, (although there are very, very rare exceptions... like what I know are fired factory 6.5CM brass, for example.) I only reload MY sourced rifle brass... that is my brass from factory ammos, or new brass that I've bought. Pistol ammo is a little different. I don't pick up anything but 45ACP brass, quite honestly... I have enough 9mm, and I'm pretty picky there, anyway. I have very rarely seen .45 Colt brass, and have never in 35 years seen .41MAG brass just lying there.

With .45ACP brass... I keep RP, PMC, Winchester, Federal, and Speer. Everything else gets scrapped.

 

[AJC1]

I dont scrap very much but I do share the off brands with my buddy in Mississippi. I just put them in a bag and drop them off. He doesn't do any of the sorting that I do, and one is good as any other. I never deal with crimps in pistol brass and only keep lc 223 brass with crimp in rifle.

 

[cfullgraf]

Before I moved to my current location where I can shoot in the back yard, I had pretty much stopped picking up range cases or buy “once fired cases”. There was always too much aggravation processing the cases.

When I bought a new to me firearm that was chambered in a cartridge I did not I have reloading gear, the next purchase would be dies and a box of new cases.

When inventories were normal, I’d buy cases from Starline or domestic ammunition company head stamp cases.

I know many are frugal and do not like buying new cases.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Before I moved to my current location where I can shoot in the back yard, I had pretty much stopped picking up range cases or buy “once fired cases”. There was always too much aggravation processing the cases.

When I bought a new to me firearm that was chambered in a cartridge I did not I have reloading gear, the next purchase would be dies and a box of new cases.

When inventories were normal, I’d buy cases from Starline or domestic ammunition company head stamp cases.

I know many are frugal and do not like buying new cases.

You’re a true gentleman. “Frugal”. Nah, I’m cheap. And I know it.

 

[armoredman]

I use A USA, haven't had any problems, but AMERC and Perfecta, (found WAY off center flash holes in that brand), plus any NATO brass all go in the recycle bag

 

[ericuda]

Norma brass just sits here in a bag. The flash hole is so small my decapper won't even fit through hole.

Same with + crimped primer brass.

 

[Hugger-4641]

I sort mine pretty much this way: Blazer, Federal, CCI, Win, R+P, Norma, Hornady, Lapua, Barnes, all get separated by caliber and head stamp, bagged separately, and labeled. All others get thrown in a "misc" bag and saved for posterity. I don't throw any away that are still usable, but I guess one day if I get cramped for space, the "misc" bag will get thrown out or donated to someone. I try to buy new brass or "once fired by me" for the batches that I intend to keep in inventory, I use the range brass for plinking and testing.

 

[bullseye308]

All my brass is range pickup and the only brass I squash is AMERC. Everything else if it deprimes it gets used and thrown together. I don’t sort anything except 233 for my bolt, it only gets LC.

 

[FROGO207]

The only things I recycle without even trying would be A-MERC, steel, and berdan type. Others that I decap and find really off center flash holes and whenever I find internally stepped 9MM brass those go as well. All others are inspected and processed as needed. I find that the crimped 9MM like TZZ and such are great brass once you swage the primer pocket back into place. In the past 9MM was so plentiful that the prrocessing of oddball brass was hardly worth it. Now even this is becoming a rare occurance just laying on the ground. I guess it all really comes down to what you are willing to take the time to deal with.

 

[Otto]

Here's a partial list of the brass that goes to the dumpster....plus anything that's steel, aluminum, stepped, crimped (primers) or bulged.
I didn't include A-MERC because they went bankrupt 15 years ago. My favorite brass is IMI, Federal, Lake City, Lapua and vintage Winchester.

Maxxtech
MXT
FM
Aguila
Ammoland
ZQI
WMA
Xtream
A USA
Fiocchi
Troy
Shell Shock
GFL
NORMA
DoubleTap
TECH
OMPC
Perfecta

 

[Walkalong]

I scrap crimped 9MM, aluminum cases, & toss steel cases should I get fooled by a coated case. I haven't seen any A-Merc in years, but it got scrapped as well.

GFL

Good stuff in .38 Special.

 

[CQB45ACP]

I throw away nothing unless it’s damaged or aluminum. Even though I use only range brass, I must buy it and each case is at least .06.

Here is a picture of my “library” of 45ACP cases…80 different headstamps. (72 large primer, 8 small). I use em all equally because I believe in reloading justice.

(If you think there are duplicates in the library, look more closely…subtle differences like capital letters, punctuation, and symbols are considered different headstamps by master librarian.)

 

[lordpaxman]

@CQB45ACP, my quarter collection isn’t that complete!
I throw away stepped 9mm cases, and that’s about it. I’m an ecumenical reloader and try to make all HSs work. The biggest problem I encounter when reloading is getting a .380, .40, or one of those silly longer 9mm cases mixed in with my 9mm lots. Save your typing and letters on how you can avoid this, I have a number of steps I do and the volume just is too large. Good luck.

 

[Zendude]

I don’t look at head stamps, but when I get a primer that won’t pop out with normal effort I just trash it.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I have been buying and selling a bunch of range brass for over a year now. That is all we shoot. If I process any of it I f the primer uses to much force to be removed I squeeze the case with a set of Chanel locks and toss it in the scrap bucket.
For crimped primer pockets I have two Dillon 600 staggers set up, one for small primer pockets and one for large primer pockets and I have an extra Dillon swagger just in case something happens to one that is set up.
If I break something I don't like waiting for a replacement part I want it now not tomorrow.

Same with dies, I have atleast one extra set of dies for every caliber I load for.
I have two extra sets of dies for the calibers we shoot a lot of.
But I take my grandson shooting every weekend either Saturday or Sunday and we shoot all day long from 8am until dusk which equats to several hundred rounds of ammunition for the day.
At ten years old he can out shoot most adults but he has hundreds & hundreds of hours of trigger time.
Actual target shooting, no cowboy crap. Aim at your target, hit your target. No rapid fire BS.
He can hit gold balls with my revolvers and pistols, 22lr, 32 short, 32 long 32 H&R magnum, 327 Federal Magnum, 38spl, 357 mag, 44spl, 44mag, 45 Colt, 9mm, 10mm, 40 cal, 45acp.
He shoots them all and accurately.
He is very efficient with any rifle as well.
If it is reloadable I reload it.
I want to get a 300 blackout pistol and rifle upper for a couple of 80% lowers I got ready. I have hundreds & hundreds of 300 blackout brass and I bought two of the jigs to make 300 blackout out of 223 brass which I have thousands & thousands pieces of brass.

The 308 brass, 7.62x51 I look at the inside of the cases because they come with burden primers, I set them aside, when I get a few thousand of them saved up I will advertise them on the forum.
Someone took four or five hundred pieces of burden primed 308 brass last summer.

 

[Walkalong]

I throw away stepped 9mm cases, and

Yep, forgot about those

 

[LiveLife]

I throw away stepped 9mm cases

Along with aluminum, steel and brass coated steel cases that attract magnet.

Pistol cases you just won't be bothered with...?

miscellaneous 9mm range ... CBC and RWS in particular. curious what other headstamps people chuck because they just don't want to be bothered.

I found once-fired S&B/RWS 9mm brass to have tighter primer pockets and when using slightly larger Metric diameter SP primers like Fiocchi/Tula, even seating primer cup to flush is "No Go". So when I am sorting brass, I set these aside to be used with domestic brand primers like CCI/Winchester.

Another brass that I separate out are those with really thick case wall like CBC/PPU as case neck bulge around bullet base can rub the chamber wall to prevent finished rounds from fully chambering.

During the myth busting thread measurement .200" below case mouth where 115 gr FMJ/RN bullet base seats to, there were significant differences in case wall thickness (Not to mention inconsistency of thickness on same case) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...nd-bullet-setback.830072/page-3#post-10713822

Here's a listing of average case wall thickness .200" below case mouth from the myth busting thread:

Average Case Wall Thickness .200" Below Case Mouth (Around Bullet Seating Depth for 115 gr RN at 1.130" OAL):

.0144" - CBC
.0138" - PPU
.0137" - GECO
.0135" - HRTRS
.0135" - Tulammo
.0133" - S+B
.0132" - WIN
.0131" - GFL
.0130" - AGUILA
.0130" - PERFECTA
.01225" Starline
.0122" - PMC
.0121" - R-P
.0115" - .FC.
.0111" - SPEER
.0110" - BLAZER

 

[gifbohane]

For too many years I was ankle deep in 9mm and took all of it home. If one had a military crimp or ledge it went to scrap. I do not include A-Merc since I only saw one or two, ever.

Curious why you guys dislike A-USA, it seems decent but I toss it.

I now recycle WIN, Blazer, R-P (although I find crimping them finicky), FC, and GECO. Everything else goes. I stopped picking up range brass but will accept "donations."

 

[unwashed]

I use to buy all my brass, new until the plandemic and started picking up range brass. This only confirms why I buy new , Starline, hornady, Lapua. But I do use FC and a couple others for backup and 223 brass only to convert to 300 BO.

 

[Spare Parts]

In 9mm, I keep the usual range pickups - Blazer, FC, R-P, Speer, Win. It's hard to go wrong with those.

I looked through THR for brass opinions about a year ago. There is consensus (good and bad) on many head stamps. There are also a lot of personal opinions. I took notes and keep them next to the decapping die.

I'd recycle these:

Amerc, AUSA, ACP - thin brass = split cases
SB, CBC, (Herters?) - off-size primer pockets
GFL/Fiocci - off-center flash hole
WCC, FCnn - NATO, too much bother to ream/swage the crimped pocket
Fed NT - non-toxic primer; off-sized flash hole
Anything stepped or crimped - weakens the brass

 

[Mike L.]

The only stuff I've rejected lately is some old Norinco 9mm and 45 ACP brass from back in the day.
It has a triangle on the headstamp.

 

[Lee Q. Loader]

I scrap crimped 9MM, aluminum cases, & toss steel cases should I get fooled by a coated case. I haven't seen any A-Merc in years, but it got scrapped as well.
GFL
Good stuff in .38 Special.

And .357 Mag!