S&B brass any good?
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ronnie gore
Member
S&b
My experience they have very tight primer pockets.
My experience they have very tight primer pockets.
would running them through a Lee swager form the pocket to the "standard" dimensions? I have the Lee kit, and an APP press I will be setting up for swaging military brass anyway. 5.56 7.62 and 9mm
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While I've never purposely bought any S&B, I have picked some up from the ground and have been given some S&B brass at the Range by non-reloader's. I've reloaded it (mixed in with other brands as I no longer separate manufacturers with 45acp) and have so far not had any issues.
elkhunter77
Member
S&B brass has caused me problems in the past, especially with primer pockets as Ronnie has said. I now throw all of them in the scrap bucket, just not made to the tolerances we expect, similar to the old A-Merc brass of years back.
venomballistics
Member
yeah ... A-Merc was a hard pass kind of deal for more reasons than tight pockets.
Nowadays, with the AR 15 becoming the winchester model 94 of today, anyone on this part of the forum should have some flavor of primer pocket swage.
I finally hopped on the 5.56 bus and soon found need for such a tool. Mine is the RCBS standard die style.
I can report that it's use has made the priming of all brass a uniform operation, with no stand out brand issues, including S&B.
Miracle Man
US Veteran
I recently ran into some S&B 9mm brass and I can tell you the primers were much harder to knock out than "regular" brass (Rem, Win, Starline, etc) I was considering tossing them.
But now I think I'll just toss them into the rainy day bucket and swage them when I'm bored and put them back into the good bucket.
I must have 3 or 4 thousand 223 brass and much of it is LC with the staked primers. I do the same with them. I'll get around to removing the crimp one day, maybe.
But now I think I'll just toss them into the rainy day bucket and swage them when I'm bored and put them back into the good bucket.
I must have 3 or 4 thousand 223 brass and much of it is LC with the staked primers. I do the same with them. I'll get around to removing the crimp one day, maybe.
Rlg#17
US Veteran
I consider S&B, GFL, etc good enough for the scrap bucket and that’s about it. Same with most nato spec cases. There is always one that will get missed and play hob with the works. Most everything is loaded on one of the 3 Dillons these days, and it’s not worth the effort to use this brass.
I sort by manufacturer also. Slight variances between the various manufacturers in dimensions will result in rejects. YMMV, but this works best for us.
All it takes to slow down a press is something like one a these **** cases and the powder charge is slightly different, or you have a high primer that won’t go off in a semiautomatic pistol, or revolver that won’t rotate because of a high primer.
Regards from the Commonwealth,
Rick Gibbs
I sort by manufacturer also. Slight variances between the various manufacturers in dimensions will result in rejects. YMMV, but this works best for us.
All it takes to slow down a press is something like one a these **** cases and the powder charge is slightly different, or you have a high primer that won’t go off in a semiautomatic pistol, or revolver that won’t rotate because of a high primer.
Regards from the Commonwealth,
Rick Gibbs
Rlg#17
US Veteran
Pay the dough for some starline or buy Sig 10mm. Save yourself the headaches.
Regards,
Rick Gibbs
DWalt
Member
No headaches. S&B brass does tend toward having tight primer pockets. A quick twist of a primer pocket reamer takes care of that forever. I can say the same about CBC brass. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with either brand.
I have a primer pocket swage set but seldom use it. A reamer is simpler and quicker.
I have a primer pocket swage set but seldom use it. A reamer is simpler and quicker.
I have 3000 S&B 10MM brass that I have been reloading, I've never had a problem with it. I run my reloads in a half dozen different 10MM pistols without issue.
KO
KO
I have used a fair bit of it. Like many I find the primer pockets to be a bit tight.
STORMINORMAN
Member
It would seem (naturally, IMHO) that the majority of problems with various types of brass are most often experienced by those using progressive presses, especially when it comes to depriming, sizing & priming... Usually it also involves handgun calibers.
And that makes perfect sense to me.
Cheers!
P.S. Undeniably true that some primer pockets are tighter, and some primers more difficult to both remove & install.
And that makes perfect sense to me.
Cheers!
P.S. Undeniably true that some primer pockets are tighter, and some primers more difficult to both remove & install.
S&B is good brass
I have reloaded several thousand 45 acp & 9mm.
BUT
The primer pockets are slightly smaller than other manufacturers.
The primers are stiff to deprime
You MUST ream the primer pockets before reloading, I used an electric reamer.
I no longer reload - I loaded up enough ammo to last me the rest of my life.
However, if I were to start reloading again I would NOT reload S&B just to much trouble for me.
I have reloaded several thousand 45 acp & 9mm.
BUT
The primer pockets are slightly smaller than other manufacturers.
The primers are stiff to deprime
You MUST ream the primer pockets before reloading, I used an electric reamer.
I no longer reload - I loaded up enough ammo to last me the rest of my life.
However, if I were to start reloading again I would NOT reload S&B just to much trouble for me.
Erich
Member
I've used S&B brass now and again for a couple decades now - my experience is that it's fine and I'm perfectly happy with it. I've noticed that the primer pockets are a little tight, but it's never been an issue and I've never had to ream them.
One thing that might explain the slight disparity in my experience is that the majority of the S&B brass that I'm loading is on the older side: all manufacturers' brass will change over the years somewhat (ask me about my foray into brittle Federal brass - grr) so I'm not sure how much our collective advice is worth when it comes to considering a particular run of brass you might have in hand. But I have no problem considering S&B brass to be generally useful for my purposes.
One thing that might explain the slight disparity in my experience is that the majority of the S&B brass that I'm loading is on the older side: all manufacturers' brass will change over the years somewhat (ask me about my foray into brittle Federal brass - grr) so I'm not sure how much our collective advice is worth when it comes to considering a particular run of brass you might have in hand. But I have no problem considering S&B brass to be generally useful for my purposes.
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S&B rifle brass.....
My daughter bought a Ruger American in 6.5 Creedmore, when sighting it in a couple weeks back she used S&B ammo (was cheap) as well as some Hornady.
The S&B was 140 grain ball ammo, the Hornady was 125 grain SP.
After collecting all the brass, out of a box of 20 all but one round had been "split" open, the crack running nearly all the way from the case base to the neck.
Shooting the Hornady produced NO issues.
For whatever reason the S&B stuff was either weak or undersized (?) allowing it to expand and split.
Never saw anything like it, but it's certainly the last time I'll buy their rifle ammo.
JUNK!!
My daughter bought a Ruger American in 6.5 Creedmore, when sighting it in a couple weeks back she used S&B ammo (was cheap) as well as some Hornady.
The S&B was 140 grain ball ammo, the Hornady was 125 grain SP.
After collecting all the brass, out of a box of 20 all but one round had been "split" open, the crack running nearly all the way from the case base to the neck.
Shooting the Hornady produced NO issues.
For whatever reason the S&B stuff was either weak or undersized (?) allowing it to expand and split.
Never saw anything like it, but it's certainly the last time I'll buy their rifle ammo.
JUNK!!
DWalt
Member
I'd think that is serious enough failure to notify S&B (or their sales agent) about. Have personally never seen or heard of a full length longitudinal case split on a bottleneck rifle case, usually just the neck, possibly a little bit into the shoulder, normally after reloading. Have seen some straight wall handgun brass cases split nearly full length. S&B has been in business for a very long time, and they would probably like to know about such a problem.
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