ny32182
Member
I've loaded plenty of stepped brass, never had an issue with it yet in my medium loads. It might be different if you want to load a bunch of firewall loads.
Like others, I load 9mm (and .40) till it splits or I lose it. Well over 100k rounds total in the last four years.... Zero case head separations.
I split probably one out of 500 on average. The vast majority of my brass comes from indoor range floor sweepings, so I have zero insight into its history... it could be fired one time or 50; I couldn't care less really.
I have had a small quantity of nickel plated cases that I owned from new that came from Speer and Federal high dollar self defense ammo. These load fine but split faster, especially the Federal. Those are often split within four loadings or less. So if you are paying specifically for brass that you intend to recover and load repeatedly, I would stay away from nickel cases. But like anything else that shows up in my brass supply, when I get them, I load them without regard to how many times they have been loaded in the past.
Like others, I load 9mm (and .40) till it splits or I lose it. Well over 100k rounds total in the last four years.... Zero case head separations.
I split probably one out of 500 on average. The vast majority of my brass comes from indoor range floor sweepings, so I have zero insight into its history... it could be fired one time or 50; I couldn't care less really.
I have had a small quantity of nickel plated cases that I owned from new that came from Speer and Federal high dollar self defense ammo. These load fine but split faster, especially the Federal. Those are often split within four loadings or less. So if you are paying specifically for brass that you intend to recover and load repeatedly, I would stay away from nickel cases. But like anything else that shows up in my brass supply, when I get them, I load them without regard to how many times they have been loaded in the past.