Which .380 Brass for Reloading?

[Gearhead Jim]

Over the last 30 years, I've shot up a mountain of WWB range ammo in .45 ACP, .38, and 9mm, then later reloaded the empties multiple times with Winchester primers. It has been excellent brass.

So when I bought a pair of Glock 42's last year, I bought WWB ammo to test and practice with, and to later reload.

When I got my Dillon 650 set up for .380, I had problems with the WWB brass- many of the primers were slightly high or just barely flush, no matter how firmly I seated the primers. The problem was only with the Winchester brass, not with any of the dozen or so other brands I had also tried. Thanks to some help here, (a big thanks to "gamestalker" ! ) I discovered that my Dillon .380 dies had a new fangled spring-loaded decapper that flings the spent primer off the pin, but the assembly was hitting the inside of the case head and actually flattening it slightly. That made the primer pockets shallower. Other brands are apparently a bit thinner in that area and the decapper was not hitting them as hard.

Now that I've put a normal decapper in my .380 sizing die, I can use any brand of brass without this problem.

So I'm back to deciding which brand of .380 practice ammo to buy in order to get good brass for reloading. Of course, that ammo must be reasonably cheap, good quality, and readily available both now and hopefully in the future. I've narrowed my choices down to the following:

Winchester- Primer pockets are still a little shallow, I get occasional primers that are flush but none that are high. Seems good otherwise.

Blazer Brass- Primer pockets are actually a little too deep, my Winchester primers are considerably below flush. Some people claim that all brass from ATK is soft, and future availability/quality is unknown as they gradually blend all their product lines together.

PMC- Primer pockets are just right. Extractor groove is a bit short but functions well in my guns. Not sure how it will hold up with multiple reloads. Future availability unknown (Korea).

Which of those three brands do you recommend?

Thanks!!!

 

[gamestalker]

Good to hear you got that primer pocket issue figured out, what a nightmare that was.

I'm still a big fan of Winchester brass, but when it concerns pistol brass I'm not real picky and will use anything that doesn't create additional work in the reloading process.

As far as handgun brass, I currently use Blazer, PMC, RP, Win, Federal, Speer, CCI, and just about anything I come across. So I don't think I can help much in the decision process. Basically, if it primes, produces good neck tension, I load it.

GS

 

[Rule3]

For 380 brass the best kind is the ones you do not loose into the black hole or other dimension as most of them do,

 

[Gearhead Jim]

"Good to hear you got that primer pocket issue figured out, what a nightmare that was."

Well, it was you that did the figgerin', not me.
Thanks again.

 

[wlkjr]

Go ahead and buy some used brass for about 8 cents per piece. You'll only have about .20 each round vs .30-40 for store bought.

 

[gamestalker]

Well, at we have some idea of what was causing the problem. That said, I wouldn't be too worried about which brass you decide to go with. As long as the decapping assembly kept up high enough from causing a re-occurrence, you should be good to go with any of the common head stamps.

But I think you'll be just fine with Win, RP, Fed, Blazer, or really any of the usual stuff. I personally like Blazer, and CCI / Speer.

GS

 

[Mad Chemist]

Magtech (CBC) has been some of the tightest and most uniform .380 brass I've found. The ammo is decently accurate for factory stuff and about the same price point as WWB. I actually prefer the new magtech brass over starline for .380 at least.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Go ahead and buy some used brass for about 8 cents per piece. You'll only have about .20 each round vs .30-40 for store bought.
wlkjr

Usually, I only buy new practice ammo if I'm out of reloads and don't have time or components to load more.
If one doesn't mind the usual mixed headstamps, your idea is certainly a money saver.

 

[ku4hx]

In addition to range pickup, I bought a 500 count bag of mixed head stamp stuff via Amazon. It's all on at least its 3rd loading and I've had no problems.

 

[Conservidave]

WIN, RP and Blazer have all worked fine for me

 

[Dudedog]

I have had good luck with Privi - PPU and S+B in 9mm Mak. Reasonable price for case donation ammo and both seems to be good brass. Some people don't like S+B brass (tight primer pockets) but I haven't had any issues with it.

I don't know about the brass but Target Sports USA has Tula Brass boxer primed for $11.99/50 and Fiocchi for $12.99/50
http://www.targetsportsusa.com/maxxtech-380-acp-auto-ammo-95-gr-fmj-tlptgb380b-p-58686.aspx

 

[X-Ring]

Buy some Starline brass it is new, good quality, all the same headstamp, and only 15 cents a piece
https://www.starlinebrass.com/order-online/all-cases.cfm

 

[Gearhead Jim]

BAD NEWS

After having yet another problem with my Dillon 650 (indexing ring broke) and fixing it, I started doing some serious reloading.

Unfortunately, it looks like my Winchester .380 brass is indeed bad- primer pockets are too shallow. I have new factory loaded ammo from WW (95 gr FMJ-FP) that's probably about 2 years old, from two different lots. I fired 50 rds from each lot, tumbled the brass, and reloaded them using the standard (not spring-loaded) decapping assembly to avoid striking the inside of the head around the flash hole. I really pushed on the lever for priming, hard enough that I could feel the machine flexing under my pressure. One lot produced 5 rounds with high or maybe barely flush primers, the other lot produced 6 rds. That's about a 10% rejection rate.

Then I took a bunch of my once-fired brass, nine different headstamps except no Winchester, and loaded a hundred rounds, but with only normal force for priming. Out of that hundred, one primer was high enough to be exactly flush, barely useable but I marked it for "fire and discard". The rest were fine.

Back to the Winchester brass, I took another hundred once-fired from mixed lots and loaded them using the "push until it flexes" technique for priming. I got 11 primers that were barely flush and 2 that were definitely high.

Throughout all of this, I have used the same loading machine/dies, same technique (except pushing harder to seat the primers in Winchester cases), same box/lot of primers (WSP from about five years ago), same powder and bullets.

Of course, I could individually deepen each primer pocket by hand, but the whole idea of reloading on the 650 is to produce good ammo in minimum time. With anything except my WW .380 brass, it does that just fine.

Perhaps my Winchester .380 cases would be ok with a different brand of primer, but I still have about 10k of the current primers that have worked just fine with Winchester .38 and 9mm brass, mixed 9mm brass, mixed .38 brass, and the mixed .380 brass I mentioned. Not sure whether to try selling my ~500 rds of Winchester .380 brass (don't want someone to be loading high primers) or just throw it in the trash.
Not to mention my 2,000+ rds of Winchester factory .380 ammo that's ok to shoot but leaves me with more problem brass.

Grrr....

 

[Ironicaintit]

Have you ever tried to prime by hand, like with an RCBS hand press, to see how they seat?
I only ask because thats primarily how I do mine, and have never had a problem with any brand of brass (with primer seating)

That being said, Im a big fan of Midway brass.

 

[Reefinmike]

I load 380 coated cast bullets for my little lcp, i maaaybe shoot 25 rounds a month, its not fun to shoot. I originally bought a thousand mixed 380 as the brass is hard to find for free at the range. Most micro 380's tend to erradically throw brass into the mid to upper stratosphere. Between the random internally stepped federal and blazer cases and the frequency of too thick cbc, gfl, ppu etc brass... I would much rather ponied up the cash for new starline brass. Have not bought a round of ammo since i started loading 4 years back. $6-7 a box handloading with purchased bullets vs $20+ for factory.

Winchester brass is nice besides the generally tight primer pockets. Across 4 calibers it will give me high riding primers from time to time. S&B pockets tend to be extremely tight but i dont see those often.