38 Special - This Ol' Brass

[Recruit]

I inherited some 38 Special brass with several old names. Even with a magnifying glass, I had to guess on a few:

WRA
3-D
Peters
WCC (?)
R-P
Rem-UMC
W-W
(unmarked)
Western
Federal
*------*

Two questions: 1) Anything of value here? 2) Do I dare reload them?

What say you?

[TAROMAN]

I have all of them, plus a lot more. All get loaded and fired, repeat indefinitely.

*___* Is StarLine. Good brass

If you are ever unfortunate to encounter any, a-merc is in the throw away immediately category.

[Frank237]

I've got REM-UMC WC brass that I shot as a ten year old in my Cop Uncles, two inch Chiefs Special.

The "rest of the storyy" stuff.... We were at a City dump, shooting at his kids old, glass baby bottles. That KID is now the Chief of that Department.

I still relaod a lot of old .38 brass for light wadcutters...no issues.

[Recruit]

Thanks guys. Also see one Markell and a RA56/56RA?

[squipps]

here is is a link for headstamps on ammo ...goo info

[squipps]

Headstamp Codes - International Ammunition Association
I guess I should have posted the link!

[Recruit]

Originally Posted by squipps

Headstamp Codes - International Ammunition Association
I guess I should have posted the link!

Excellent! Man, there must be 1000 headstamps listed there!

[rwsmith]

The Peters brass is probably very old. Remington soaked up Peters in like the 1930s and their brass is marked R-P

[Recruit]

Originally Posted by rwsmith

The Peters brass is probably very old. Remington soaked up Peters in like the 1930s and their brass is marked R-P

Good grief. Is this stuff considered collectible/valuable beyond just another piece of brass?

[rwsmith]

Originally Posted by Recruit

Good grief. Is this stuff considered collectible/valuable beyond just another piece of brass?

I don't THINK it would be valuable except to maybe a specialized collector or somebody that had particular use for it. Like an authentic shadow box display or something??? It would be nice if people beat down your door trying to buy it, though. Maybe other people here have a different opinion.

[papajohn428]

I've never heard of anyone (besides me) who collects that kind of oddball stuff. I've been reloading 38 Specials for several decades, and when I find an oddball headstamp I save it. I have around 200 of them now, set aside, dragged out once a year and ogled over, then put back away. I ought to just load them and quit screwing around with them!

But I still get a thrill when I find one I've never seen before!

[blujax01]

Originally Posted by Recruit

Good grief. Is this stuff considered collectible/valuable beyond just another piece of brass?

Looks like you just started a collection!

Someone has to be the first.

[troutman]

Sounds like the kind that saves old beer cans. I knew a kid who once started that and he was up to a couple hundred in maybe two years. many variations in cans steel, aluminum, pull tab. labels, etc. I never saw the point. I have enough junk laying around that may or may not be useful. get these ideas on what I could build with it and it doesn't happen. But just send me the old brass you aren't sure of

[mikld]

Originally Posted by TAROMAN

I have all of them, plus a lot more. All get loaded and fired, repeat indefinitely.

*___* Is StarLine. Good brass

If you are ever unfortunate to encounter any a-merc is in the throw away immediately category.

Me too. None of the OP's listed brass is rare. Some cases with unique headstamps I'll toss in the toolbox as "collectables", but mostly I'll just reload them all...

[Recruit]

I'll set one aside of each for nostalgia and reload the rest. Perhaps even mount them to a board to hang in the reloading area.

Looks like I have one more reason to sift/collect brass at the range

[Frank46]

There are some folks who post truly amazing collages of their firearms along with period items like currency, gold watches,smoking aaccseries, and usually an ammo box as well. Then there are the guys who use the Browning 50 caliber cartridge in place of a S&W prop rod. Frank

[tallpaul]

Originally Posted by papajohn428

I've never heard of anyone (besides me) who collects that kind of oddball stuff. I've been reloading 38 Specials for several decades, and when I find an oddball headstamp I save it. I have around 200 of them now, set aside, dragged out once a year and ogled over, then put back away. I ought to just load them and quit screwing around with them!

But I still get a thrill when I find one I've never seen before!

Take a nice piece of wood (or several) and drill the right sized holes in the evenly spaced to push those cases in so the bases show. Mount in your reloading room or where ever... If you enjoy them display them!

[gregintenn]

Originally Posted by TAROMAN

I have all of them, plus a lot more. All get loaded and fired, repeat indefinitely.

*___* Is StarLine. Good brass

If you are ever unfortunate to encounter any a-merc is in the throw away immediately category.

This. I have all of these, plus several more. They all reload great. I have some marked Super-Vel, Browning, Markell, Fiochhi, Dominion, and many more.

[mtgianni]

In the 70's 5k was the minimum required to have a headstamp run. You could have your own name put on the back if that floated your boat. I would sort the mixed stuff by cannelured or non camnnelured [crimp line] and shoot it accordingly. If it had a crimp line it gets a wadcutter.

[Smithhound]

Check the Peters headstamp brass just to insure it's not the old 'balloon head' style, you'll know it when you look down into it, the primer area is on a raised 'platform' with the remainder of the head area sunken much deeper. Balloon head brass isn't the safest stuff, not strong enough like modern solid head brass. Just compare it with known modern brass.
I still have around 500 primed 3-D brass that I bought from Midway years ago (.38 spec) it's good brass. WCC is usually old military brass. If you load these different types of brass you'll be able to see (feel really) the difference in case wall thickness. You may find on the WCC stuff that your bullets will bulge on one side or another.
I collect old cartridges, ammo boxes etc, esoteric stuff, but I'm a packrat and never throw much away. My Son is going to go nuts when I die and he has to go thru all this stuff. HA!!
The Markell is old brass, I believe I've read in Ken Waters 'Pet Loads' a mention or two about Markell brass and bullets, from the '60's at least.
I've even got a peice of 75mm artillery brass in the original cardboard container from WWII. Can't find dies for that...yet.
RD

[SMSgt]

Nearly all the "CBC" brass I pick up is cracked or cracks on the next firing. I don't bother with it anymore, directly into the scrap can.

[David LaPell]

I was given a lot of 3-D brass and quite a lot of it seemed very thin and most of it after one loading (I was only using 3.9 grains of Win 231 which was a nice practice load) and about 1/2 of them, and I had several hundred, cracked and split. So I tossed what wasn't loaded and shot the rest I had and found more with cracks after I fired them. I was given something like 2,000 3-D cases and they were all new nickel but 1/2 of them had issues, not a fan of those. I was surprised when I was given some old Independence brass how well that has held up, most of are on their third and fourth loading with no issues.

[ACP230]

WCC is Winchester Cartridge Company, I think.
I have a bunch of WCC brass in .45 ACP and the Jr. Pistol Team my son was on used it, almost exclusively, for several years.

I have some RP and Rem UMC .38 that is going strong after being
loaded many times.

A gun magazine did a test, years ago, reloading a .38 case over and over. I think they quit at 140 loadings. The case was OK but they were
bored with the whole thing, and tired, by then.

[papajohn428]

With moderate loadings 38 brass tends to last several dozen firings. I keep several thousand around and they are constantly getting run through the loading/shooting/cleaning/reloading cycle. I generally do 500-600 pieces at a time, and it's rare to have to pitch more than one or two because of splits. Some of this brass is from the 50's!

[johngalt]

R-P is Remington UMC. I have LOTS from buying their 130 gr FMJ years ago. It is very thin. It hasn't given me any trouble and hasn't cracked, but I'm a little suspicious that it is light on neck tension.

Federal is my favorite, I use that for my .38 target wadcutter loads. I have some CBC .357 brass, I think it is Magtech. I hasn't given me any trouble yet. Starline .357 brass is excellent.

[KEN L]

Actually Remington UMC was Union Mettalic Cartridge, which became Remington Peters (R-P) after they absorbed Peters.

To the OP, now you need to start looking for some of the exotic stuff like Super Vel, Norma and Western marked cases. Happy hunting and enjoy!!