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Post by crazycarl on Feb 7, 2017 21:14:48 GMT -5
Getting ready to start loading some .357 & sorted the small pile of brass I've collected over the years.
When loading straight wall pistol cartridges, is there any real advantage to be had by sorting by headstamp/mfr?
What's the consensus on nickel plated brass? I've heard it's more brittle & will survive fewer loadings. Is it worth messing with, beyond practice/plinking?
I've got a goodly number of Federal, Win & R-P brass & am under the impression that it's "good" brass & planned on using it for accuracy/hunting loads & figured on using the FGL (Fiocchi), S&B, nickel Win & the odd pieces of other brass (range pick ups) for practice/blaster/plinking use. That sound about right? I've heard the S&B is decent rifle brass, but no idea of the quality of their pistol brass.
I did toss any questionable brass into my "trash brass" bin, particularly the 7 or 8 pieces of Win brass with severely flattened & flowed primers.
Truthfully, I'm thinking of relegating the whole lot to blaster duty & just ordering up some new Starline brass for the "good stuff".
So, am I overthinking this whole thing? Never worried about it with .45ACP or 9mm, but that's strictly range ammo, whereas my wheelguns will be hunted with & I don't cut corners or take chances with taking a shot on game.
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Post by contender on Feb 7, 2017 21:41:59 GMT -5
I have found that sorting brass helps a little in things,,, for several reasons. You can delegate certain brands & develop loads accordingly. MOST often,, you may not notice any real difference in the Federal, Winchester, or RP brass. But,, you are on the right track in using the other stuff for plinking stuff. Now,,, if you get real serious and are using cast bullets,, the best accuracy will be with virgin brass,, as long as the neck tension is properly adhered to.
But you may be over thinking things a bit. I'd take the good brass, load some ammo, and let the gun tell you if you need any new brass right now.
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Post by Encore64 on Feb 7, 2017 21:45:10 GMT -5
Trim all the same length too. Greatly affects crimping with different case lengths.
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Post by crazycarl on Feb 7, 2017 23:45:37 GMT -5
Cool. Thanks guys.
I prefer shooting cast & think I'll just trim/even-up this lot of mixed brass & pick up some Starline for serious work.
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Post by dougader on Feb 8, 2017 0:57:50 GMT -5
I separate brass mostly because it's more likely to be the same case length. If it's new/once fired brass that I've used and set aside then I feel fine using the brass for more serious loads like hunting.
For plinking rounds I don't sort brass.
Starline is great brass at great pricing.
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jsh
.327 Meteor
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Post by jsh on Feb 8, 2017 9:02:06 GMT -5
I went down the same road, with 44 and 357. I still have a bunch of virgin WW 44 brass, but I sold and swapped the rest and went to starline. Price range brass, then price starline. The little bit of extra is well worth it in the long run.
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Post by bulasteve on Feb 8, 2017 9:18:48 GMT -5
My favorite use for nickel cases is in BP loads. Cleans back up easier. I segregate brass more as a way to differentiate between loads than searching for last Nth degree of accuracy. If I competed or spent more time at a bench I would re-think that ! I do lightly chamfer ID of brass to help with getting cast lead bullets seated with less trauma. It's that or flare more. IMHO..
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dmize
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Post by dmize on Feb 8, 2017 9:29:10 GMT -5
Only thing I can add is on the S&B brass. A guy gave me a bunch of once fired 44 mag brass. I don't know if they use a metric primer but a CCI or WW large pistol primer is almost impossible to seat. I even used a pocket reamer. I ended up tossing the whole mess.
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Post by medicdave on Feb 8, 2017 10:01:43 GMT -5
I run three classes on my handgun brass. Mixed brass for plinking loads, same lot from virgin for serious loads, and nickel brass for ammo carried in a gun belt or ammo slide to try and keep the vertigris off the leather. Trimming to length at least once is a must for good repeatable crimps.
Rifle brass is a bit more involved.
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Post by magnumwheelman on Feb 8, 2017 10:26:39 GMT -5
I always sort my brass... errr... well most of the time ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) with cowboy action shooting I use mixed headstamps on all the calibers I shoot, as I often don't end up getting all my original brass back, couple that with only medium pressure loads, & accuracy good enough to be minute steel of plate at 25 ft... all other brass I do, to satisfy my OCD... often times I'll load the same caliber with different loads for specific guns... when I do that, I use one brand of brass for one gun, & another brand for a different gun... for new brass Starline is my favorite... I'm not a big fan of nickel plated cases... I've had nickel flake in the past, brass seems to last a shorter time, & have a scratched 357 mag die I attribute to nickel cases... ( in all fairness I was not wet tumbling when I got a scratched die, so it could be possible it was grit or dirt... though I've always tried to insure my cases were clean before sizing ) I have several sets of nickel cases both 357 & 44, that the nickel has worn thin, from tumbling, back when my FIL dry tumbled with cob or walnut shells... now that I wet tumble with pins, I'm sure the nickel will still wear ( which the cases look terrible ) but also the brass cases gleam like gold with a little Dawn dish soap, & a CC scoop of citric acid... the nickel cases often don't look as nice after wet tumbling like I do, as the brass does...
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Post by crazycarl on Feb 8, 2017 17:29:39 GMT -5
I noticed, pricing brass online, that mixed headstamp/range pick ups/once fired usually costs more than Starline, which totally boggles my mind.
I went with Starline straight away for .41, as I knew going in that reloading was gonna be the only way I could afford to feed it. Looks like I may as well do the same for .357. I like for "me" to be the limiting factor in accuracy & can't see any reason not to just eliminate that particular factor.
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Post by dougader on Feb 8, 2017 19:11:09 GMT -5
When I buy brass from Starline, I usually buy 1,000 to get the lower price. Then I sell 400 or so to people on here and the Ruger forum. It saves me money and is a good deal for others who just want 100 or 200 pieces.
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Post by crazycarl on Feb 8, 2017 20:48:39 GMT -5
Their prices per 500 are very reasonable, too. I got 200 pieces from some Georgia Arms Ammo's 210gr LSWC .41 load ("only" $25/50rds in new Starline cases- valuable trigger time AND brass. lol!), then bought 500pcs direct from Starline when I picked up the .41 BisHunter. Just measured all my RP, Fed & Win Brass & picked out every piece less than 1.275" long. I'll trim those to 1.275" to even/square 'em up for practice/blaster duty & toss the rejects in with the rest of the other brass & sell it. Gonna order 500pcs of .357 Starline & a 500pc box of these- Missouri Bullet Company 180gr boolits.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 21:46:51 GMT -5
My two cents worth... I do match case headstamps wherever possible. Although it's almost meaningless unless the lots are all matched, it does give me some chance of greater uniformity. I always seem to end up with a few pieces of oddball brass. I put all the oddballs in a separate bag and sell them at gunshows. At least I get something out of them. Nickel cases- I keep some for to identify special purpose loads like my 9mm subsonic loads, but I'm not a fan of it otherwise. I wet tumble my brass, and as a consequence of the the super-clean cases I've noticed that the case mouth expanders are really, really sticky in nickel cases. It concerns me that it's so much harder to withdraw the expander from nickel that it has to affect bullet pull as well. This is of course in addition to normal neck tension. So now (you guessed it), I bag up my nickel cases and sell them at gunshows. Cannelured cases- You didn't ask about them but hey, I'm rollin' ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) . I do keep some cannelured cases. I really don't like these cases, but will grudgingly use them for plinking loads. Why grudgingly? because when a case is originally cannelured it slightly shortens the case a mite. If the cannelure would blow out completely on firing, we'd be good to go, but they don't. It takes a few firings before they do, and some never do completely. So your case may stretch a little with each firing, or it may not. Cannelures that are still pretty tight can potentially damage a cast or swaged bullet base during seating. 99% of the bullets I shoot I cast myself. I'll decide what size they'll be not some inanimate object. For jacketed bullets, I don't care, the bullet will help iron out the cannelure during seating anyway. Trimming handgun brass- If I have handgun brass that I feel needs to be trimmed, I throw it in a bag and sell it at gunshows. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) You knew that was coming, didn't you? If the brass is total crap and needs trimming, it goes into the scrap bucket. BTW, I used to trim handgun brass for silhouette shooting. I also kept it sorted by lot, and the number of times it had been fired. I don't take things quite that seriously anymore.
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Post by Rimfire69 on Feb 9, 2017 8:02:30 GMT -5
I buy 500 lots of new starline everytime I pick up a new caliber, or just think I need more brass, like the consistancy idea of it. But as a scrounger I never turn down any brass/nickel of any kind and have a lot of mixed, I sort the nickel off and use it for plinking. I have been accumulating .38spc since I was a kid and its measured by the 5 gal bucket around here, I just shoot it till it cracks and scoop out another handfull.
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