For the 9mm I have picked up lots of range brass for my 9 mm. So I am not short of brass.

Are there any headstamps that should be thrown out. Cheap euro stuff.
I have noticed the odd one hangs up and will not easily drop out on the shell holder of my dillon 550b.

Or do you guys just stick to american brands and throw the rest?

Sgt Preston here. I have about 3000, 9mm casings. They came from a variety of sources. Some were picked up off the range floor. Others were bought in bags & jugs at gun shows. There are probably at least 30 different head stamps. I have run into a few which had "European" primers & our standard "boxer" primers were too big. Those frequently broke the knock out pin on my die. Other than those odd balls, I always discard any shells fired out of Glocks because of the "unsupported barrel issue" which allows the brass to "baloon out" & could cause a "blowout". Glocks have a "I" shaped firing pin & the brass is easy to spot. "European" primers can be spotted by looking inside of the brass. There is a circle of very small flash holes but no center through hole. I also inspect each & every piece of brass after cleaning under a lighted tabletop magnigying glass. I throw away anything that looks less than perfect. "If in doubt, throw it out". I have had no problems with any of my brass, but I only load to the mid-range of the charts. And most days every round will go to the bullseye at 10 yards if I'm doing my part correctly. Hope this helps. Sgt Preston USMC LLA.

Throw away the A-MERC brass. It's too hard, and it will creep-relax on you after loading, sometimes to the point of not fiting into the chamber a few weeks after it's resized.

Any military brass may have had crimped primers - you can usually tell this from the force it takes to resize them. The primer pockets on this stuff have to be swaged or trimmed so that they can be reprimed. If you have a lot of this, get the RCBS primer pocket swager die.

BTW, Berdan-primed cases(the "European" stuff, usuallly Mil-surp) can be reloaded with the right tools, but it's usually not worth the trouble for readily available Boxer primed cases. However, if you've got a 1905 Mannlicher or a 1907 Roth-Steyr, Berdan cases may be all you have to work with.

Buck

P.S. With the A-MERC exception above, almost all of my shooting is done with range brass, and I don't have any problems. I do shoot .45ACP rather than 9x19, though.

I agree that A-Merc is to be thrown out on sight. Even worse is this stuff with the headstamp L Y. I believe it is Norinco and I have found that even one reloading with a mild charge will cause hideously bulged case heads, especially in the Glocks. Just yesterday somebody left a good quantity of this brass at the range, so it's still out floating around out there.

A few days ago some guys were shooting 5.56 and they said their ammo was also Norinco. This stuff had a headstamp of C J. I picked up some of the brass but I will not reload it if I can verify that it is Norinco.

I reload everything else generally without complaint, though I did find some S&B .38 Special with very tight primer pockets that crushed the primers.

Dave Sinko

In 9 mm I discard all military brass, all brass with crimped or glued primers and all brands I never heard of before. This amounts to about 10% of my range pick 9mm cases.

With a decent press one can actually load almost all of them. Problem is that force you need to apply to the handle is very different between e.g. RP and 820 mil cases. It makes me stop all the time and check what's wrong with the case. Not worth it - takes too much time.

Mike

Some rounds I have picked up have a red mark around the primer.

Is this glue?

OPB brand is the best value in brass.
he only problem Other Peoples Brass poses is some time is required for sorting.

I only load new brass - preferably Remington.

1 of the problems with picking up range brass is I do not know how many times it has been reloaded. The last shooter might have left it because he/she reloaded it 20 times already.

I reload Amerc .30 Carbine brass using a moderate loading of 12.5 grains of Alliant 2400. I hear a large group folks damn Amerc brass in reloading for handgun.

Has anyone had similar problems reloading Amerc brass for rifles/carbines ? I've reloaded my Amerc brass perhaps 3 times thus far.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hook686,

(Sang tot he tune "Gloom, despair and agony on me.)


"IF IT WEREN'T FOR RANGE BRASS I'D HAVE NO BRASS AT ALL"

Like the Sarge said, those funny primed ones will do you in. They are called Berdan Primed. Easy to spot when looking inside the case, more than one flash whole.

I haven't run into much A-merc brass but have heard that it is trouble.

One of the other cases that I have heard was a pain to seat primers in was Seller & Belloit. They may have been crimped primer pockets or something but I know someone here has has problems with them.

The main thing is that you reload it. There is a guy that gets all of the range brass at our local range. Do you know what he does with it? Sells it for scrap! If it were me I would clean it, bag it and sell it to hand loaders! Drives me crazy!

I've had the primer back out on A-Merc brass with my 45acp and as a precaution, started throwing out the 9mm stuff. I started running into trouble reloading CBC brass for 9mm, but love CBC brass in 38spl and 45acp. I'm getting a bulge in the case with CBC 9mm with Dillon's sizing die, so I'll see if I get better results with the RCBS sizer die. When in doubt...throw it out!....anything with a loose primer pocket...scrap........A lot of times, once you get past the first reload with military brass....you have a friend for years...Its that first reloading with military stuff thats a pain.

quote:

Originally posted by arcticcat:
Some rounds I have picked up have a red mark around the primer.

Is this glue?

It's a sealant to improve water resistance.

Buck

I load and shoot range brass all the time ... after its carefully checked. The crappy brass goes in the recycle can for sale at the scrap place. I sell the good stuff I don't load for to other handloaders.

I have picked up and reloaded thousands and thousands of range brass with little to no problem what you must do after tumbling in my opinion is the set down and sort it all out. Berdan primed brass is sold, military brass has the primer pocket swaged, all commercial brass is sorted by mfg. don't care if it was fired in a Glock, have never had a problem using the Dillon Carbide Dies in my 550. The only oops I had was .45 ACP brass using the small pistol primers (NT)I set all of that aside (2000 rnds plus) and simply set up my Dillon for small primers instead of large the next time I reloaded .45ACP By all means use the range brass after you sort it!

Smith Crazy,

I have also read on other forums to avoid reloading he Seller & Belloit. I've read that the case is very hard and brittle, and the primer sealant doesn't help either. I don't reload 9mm at this time, so I'm one of those guys that leave my once fired brass for others at the range.

Good luck,

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by smith crazy:
(Sang tot he tune "Gloom, despair and agony on me.)


"IF IT WEREN'T FOR RANGE BRASS I'D HAVE NO BRASS AT ALL"

Like the Sarge said, those funny primed ones will do you in. They are called Berdan Primed. Easy to spot when looking inside the case, more than one flash whole.

I haven't run into much A-merc brass but have heard that it is trouble.

One of the other cases that I have heard was a pain to seat primers in was Seller & Belloit. They may have been crimped primer pockets or something but I know someone here has has problems with them.

The main thing is that you reload it. There is a guy that gets all of the range brass at our local range. Do you know what he does with it? Sells it for scrap! If it were me I would clean it, bag it and sell it to hand loaders! Drives me crazy!