Question of Weak Brass

[TheBigL]

so i pulled the old ruger super blackhawk .44 mag 7 1/2 barrel with a bisely grip out of the closet and decided it was going with me to the range , as its been awhile since i put some rounds through it and was feeling a little strong lastnight. I went to my local dealer and he recomemded i try some PMC 44 rem mag 240 gr JSP, as I have been a WWB guy my whole life. And since he didnt have my caliber in WWB, nor in fedral i gave the PMC a chance. After shot my first 6, I was having trouble extracting 2 of the rounds from the cylinder (as if the brass had expanded to big to fit, i was using a good amount of force to push the empty casing out of the cylinger)... and was having one or two rounds out of six everytime after that until I shot all fifty I purchased. So my question is....is this a case of weak brass? or maybe something else I'm not aware of? Has anyone had a similar experiance as the one I was having? any adivice is appreciated

 

[Dustinthewind]

Pmc 44 mag

I bought a box of it some years back 180 grain Hp. Tried them through my Redhawk, not only were they sticking in the chambers, but they locked the entire cylinder up tight as a drum. I don't know why this happened, but they seemed pretty hot. Too hot maybe? Pulled the bullets and reloaded them with Unique, worked fine.

 

[JoeHatley]

The brass is fine. The PMC is just loaded hotter than the WWB you are used to.

Probably...

Joe

 

[Steve H]

Interesting.......................a few years back I had cylinder lockup with PMC and my Anaconda. I stopped using the stuff.

 

[unspellable]

Brass

I have some 445 SuperMag brass that will stick badly no matter how light the load. Dan Wesson advised me that they had had the same problem with the same brass. Switched to Starline on DW's advice.

More recently, I bought some Winchester 44 Mag brass for my 357-44 B&D. This brass also sticks with a light load. Switched to Remington. But in the past I've had good 44 Mag brass from Winchester. Just a bad batch I guess.

For safety's sake, make sure it's not too hot a load first. But as a last resort, suspect the brass.

 

[TheBigL]

thanks all for the advice, i plan on getting a few different brands tomorrow and give them a run, let you know how it goes

 

[Slamfire]

I suspect the brass was not "weak", just not as work hardened as other brass you have used. Which, then means that its yield is probably less, so you could say it is “weak”, but really it is probably not much weaker. When you shoot a more ductile brass, it expands more and does not retract as much. Much harder to extract.

Military brass was often described in terms of quarter hard, hardness relating to the amount of work hardening left in the brass. Brass cannot be heat treated like steel, the stuff gets stronger through work hardening. But it also gets brittle. When it is annealed, it becomes more ductile, but less “strong”. Brass is annealed several times from brass strip to brass case as it gets too brittle from the drawing operations.

Heck, you might be able to reload it a few more times than the more work hardened stuff as it will take longer to have neck cracks.