Question about 9mm brass

[Katitmail]

Reloading with progressive Dillon 650. I pick all range brass, wet-tumble and reload.

I'm pretty new to reloading but after couple thousand rounds I get a hang on what primer seating feels like and when it's too much force required.

Anyway, I noticed some brass that's problematic. Most have stamps like SB or FC and have red or green around primer. They hard to deprime and resize.

Even further, those cases usually do not expand as much as I need to reliably seat bullet. I have to hold bullet almost into die.

Can somebody school me on those and should I do anything about it? Or just keep on loading? They shoot fine, no complains.

 

[rondog]

Some brands are known to have tight primer pockets, S&B (Sellier & Belloit) is one of them. The red & green is sealant for the primers, to keep moisture out, which kinda "glues" the primers in, making them a little tougher to punch out.

If the case mouths aren't belling enough for easy bullet seating, the cases might be just a tad shorter than others. Might take some calipers and measure the length of them.

None of this is dangerous or show-stopping, just common little quirks of reloading.

 

[Reefinmike]

the FC could be a military load and have a crimped primer pocket. these take more force to decap and you will need to either swage or ream out the primer pocket to easily accept a new primer.

 

[Wheeljack]

rondog, your right on. Good information.
FC is military ????????????????

 

[Reefinmike]

FC is federal, im not familiar with the caliber, nor 100% sure my statement is true, but I could see them pumping out 124gr nato loads.

 

[oneounceload]

Being as short as you seem to state, are they 9x19, or 9x18, or even 9x17? Just a thought; otherwise, it sounds like you have some with military crimp as stated above; most civilian stuff I have seen does not have sealed primers

 

[Katitmail]

I do load 9x18 also and spot those (if they make it through) easily. Those cases look normal. I wonder if they "spring" back? Hardly beleive it..

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

military crimp hulls are difficult to de-prime then prime even the brass hulls.
steel hulls ain't worth it altho there is a tool made by rcbs that's designed to pull those primers.
in my experience the euro brass is in the range of lousy to great. the SA rounds are among the best to handload

 

[noylj]

Wish the post was clearer about the bullet seating problem. Reads as though OP is trying to seat bullets in unsized cases.
If you pick up range brass, then every case should have the case mouth lightly chamfered inside and out before first loading. At this time, you can run the inside chamfer tool around the primer pocket to ease primer seating.

 

[Katitmail]

OP Here. Cases being resized and deprimed at station 1, first step. This goes tough for those cases. Not sure if it's because of tight primer or both hard case and primer.

When you prime it on station 2 - it goes OK, slight "hump", but not huge deal.

When they charged with powder - they should be expanded with expander insert and they not bein expanded. Yes, it sounds like they shorter but they not. To me it seems like powder measure "gives" somehow and wouldn't go in deep enough to expand those cases. I adjusted it so it gives good 2-3mm of expansion on regular cases and it's just barely enough for those tough cases. I have to hold bullet all way into seating die.

 

[-Gadsden-]

maybe I'm the odd one, but I've primed 9mm brass that has the NATO stamp on it and never had noticeable trouble getting it in the pocket. Same goes for de-priming.

Boxer primers, on the other hand had me losing my mind until I figured out what they were after resetting my depriming pin a half dozen times

 

[greyling22]

some cases are thicker than others and are harder to resize. (cbc springs to mind) I don't know if that affects your case flare. I'd just crank the flare die down a bit more to get all cases to flare. You will lose your 9mm brass long before you will ever wear it out working the mouth too much. RC is right about the tighter primer pockets on certain brands too.

Glasden, do you mean berdan primed cases are giving you fits? berdan have 2 flash holes, boxer have 1.

 

[HOWARD J]

I have quite a few FC ( Federal Cartridge) 9MM luger---these never had a crimp & were 115 gr hardball

 

[GJSchulze]

I've found that using Federal primers with S&B cases works the best because they are a little softer.

I always sort my 9mm cases by headstamp because they behave differently in my press. One of the differences is the belling. Speer cases are almost perfect and S&B not so much. By that I mean that the bullet falls off quite a lot, whereas hardly ever with Speer. Other headstamps work in varying degrees. I can't use Aguila or CBC at all because my 147gr bullets bulge the cases almost every time.

I agree that the difference in belling is most likely from a difference in the case walls.

So some headstamps I give away, some I use at outdoor matches where brass tends to get lost, and the rest I keep as long as I can.

 

[-Gadsden-]

Greyling - yep I mean Berdan!

 

[gerrym526]

Headstamp Identification

Found this helpful website with headstamp identification tables.

http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=headstampcodes#F

Here's what the FC stands for
Departmento de la Industrial Militar, Mexico City, Mexico
Gerry

 

[greyling22]

you don't think FC more likely stands for Federal Cartridge?

 

[GJSchulze]

you don't think FC more likely stands for Federal Cartridge?

FC stands for three things (at least) and one of them is Federal. One of them is from Mexico and one from Yugoslavia. The Federal cases are also made in Germany and Austria for Federal.

I've also seen ".FC." I don't know if any of these are the same or not.
I have somewhere over 1000 9mm that are marked FC or .FC. For my purposes I choose to treat them as one HS until someone is able to explain the difference and tell me how to differentiate one from another.

 

[mdemetz]

I've also seen ".FC." I don't know if any of these are the same or not.
I have somewhere over 1000 9mm that are marked FC or .FC. For my purposes I choose to treat them as one HS until someone is able to explain the difference and tell me how to differentiate one from another.

I've seen postings that said .FC. are made at the CCI factory. They and Federal are both owned by ATK.

 

[1SOW]

FC--Federal Cartridge is owned by the ATK conglomerate. They also make Speer, CCI, Blazer and more.

They are fairly soft brass in 9mm and size and load easily. I haven't seen any crimped FC 9mm brass. ".FC." is just a different plant at a different location, but I also agree the .FC. brass seems a little weaker than the older FC brass. Some complain about weak neck tension with just a few loadings.

S&B & WCC 9mm primer pockets are commonly crimped/sealed and need to be swaged or reamed to improve primer seating.
S&B HAS made some copper-plated steel 9mm cases, only detectable with a magnet.