Which 9mm brass to avoid?

[buenhec]

My reloading session did not go too well last night. There were three 9mm cases (range brass) that caused my lee decapping pin to recess. I looked at them and they seemed to have a rounded out primer. Im not sure if it was overpressure or a different type of case, however my lee decapping die would not decap them.

I set them aside and kept going. Unfortunately my wife threw them away. What brass should I avoid and how do I tell them apart?

 

[RustyFN]

You don't want to reload Amerc brass. Just throw it in your scrap bucket. If you are using range pick-ups then you might have some with crimped primers, that will make your decaping pin push up if it's not real tight.
Rusty

 

[Walkalong]

It could have been brass with crimped primer pockets, but usually they just pop out anyway. Tighten up the decap pin a little. If the flashole is off center it can do that.

Like RustyFN said, Amerc is the only thing to stay away from. I know folks who will reload it as well. I just sent some .45 Amerc I picked up some time back to a fellow THR member who was glad to have it.

 

[The Bushmaster]

You should avoid all of the major manufactures such as Winchester, Remington, Federal, etc, etc. Keep the Amerc brass and send the rest to me and I will "properly" dispose of them for you...Gladly...

Inspect all your brass for pitting, cracks (splitting), off center flash holes, creased dents and excessive corrosion (tarnish). Amerc is probably best recycled with other waste brass...

 

[4sarge]

Do they have Berdan primed brass for pistols? I've run into Berdan primed cases on mil-serp 5.56 and 30-06. I've destroyed the threaded decapper stem in my RCBS 30-06 die twice, I finally replaced it with a LEE. Now the decapper just pushes up.

 

[ChuckB]

I found three Berdan primed 9mm's from my range "collection" last week. Glad I looked first- no center flash hole.

Chuck

 

[Seafarer12]

I tell you I was decapping some of the cheap Academy monarch 357's the other day and those things were in there tight. I had to reset the pin in my decapper three times. If I wasn't so cheap I would pitch them.

 

[scrat]

biggest problem stuff is either black or gray. most i found from wolf avoid it like the plague for reloading.

 

[evan price]

I've found foriegn milsurp 9mm that was Berdan primed brass- not reloadable, but good for recycling.

The aluminum Blazer stuff is not safe to reload due to the ductile properties of Aluminum- which is why CCI was Berdan priming them, to discourage people from trying.

I'm the A-MERC guy Walkalong was talking about- as a matter of fact this weekend I reloaded all those A-MERC .45's and put them into an A-MERC factory ammo box.

Kind of odd, since I don't sort out the "good" headstamps anymore, that I now have some segregated A-MERC, isn't it?

Anyway, as long as it's brass not aluminum or steel, and it's boxer primed, and it wasn't fired for 9mm Major I would reload anything that was physically in good shape.

As far as nickle brass goes, some people love 'em, some hate 'em. I sort them out of the regular brass, and use them for either load development cases (I know shiny=careful) or else I load my self defense ammo clones in them. At least, that's for semi-auto cases.
Nickle revolver cases I don't bother to segregate them. My 357 38 and 44 finished ammo boxes are a nice random mix of nickle and brass.

 

[EddieCoyle]

S&B makes some 9mm with brass plated steel cases. These are Berdan-primed. You can separate them with a magnet.