.38 brass canelures

6GUNSONLY

6GUNSONLY

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I was sorting some .38 brass today that I'd just taken out of the polisher. All Remington headstamp of one kind or another- Remington, R-P, Rem-UMC, a very few Peter's. Now I've always thought and accepted that the double cannelured brass was originally wadcutter loads, and have sorted and used them as such.. in this batch of brass, there are cases with no cannelure, a single cannelure nearer the case mouth, a single cannelure farther down the case, and the double cannelured cases. (see my pic)
What does anyone know about the single cannelure cases? Any significance or just periodic manufacturing differences?
As stated, I've always segregated and used the double cannelure cases for wadcutters only. Are there any structural differences in these as compared to the others? Or am I just being overly picky about my loading process? (an admitted fault, anyway).

 
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The cases with a single cannelure near the case mouth usually were used for 158 gr. RNL loads.
 
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A little research on the internet will reveal a lot of different opinions why some .38 cases have or don't have cannelures. Some say they they are decorative, some say they are for identification, some say they are to prevent bullet movement under recoil. I have seen no opinions which appear to be authoritative.
 
I worked for an ammunition manufacturer for a few years before retiring.
Cannelures were for identification but their specific meaning was not consistent.
More a matter of convenience based on the current manufacturing load.

I’m sure policies vary with different manufacturers.
 
AFA the OP's last ?

IMHO, yes.;)

Cheers!

P.S. AFA the can on a bullet is concerned, IMHO, THAT can matter...
 
Federal and Hornaday also used a single cannelure for wadcutter brass. IIRC, only Winchester and Remington and their family brands used the double cannelure.
 
I have several boxes of some old CIL (Canadian) factory .38 full wadcutter loads. No cannelures on their cases. As I said previously, all comments I have seen on the topic are opinions, not facts. Not all opinions can be correct but they can all be wrong.
 
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In the cases that I have shot and use, I have found that;

the #2 case is usually used with a light 110 JHP bullet,
the #3 case can be used with a 158 gr bullet,
and the 4th case is very close to a R-P case used for it's 148 HBwc lead bullet.

Good loading.
 
In my experience, the cannelures will show leakage/cracks many-times before the case mouth does.
This using the old Bullseye 2.7gr powder with 148gr LHBWC. Not a heavy load at all.
 
Great information.

RCBS Manual mentions in the past; For best results reloading shotshells/snake loads with the CCI plastic capsule use brass that was used for wadcutter ammunition.
 
I haven't verified this, but I have read articles and seen pictures where after resizing the brass, you can push a pin gauge into the Wadcutter brass farther than non-wadcutter brass. There were guys working on the 1-2" groups at 50-yards thing using 148HBWC who resized and then used a specially made expander die such that a 148 would press in to the lower canelure with firm finger pressure and then was crimped to stay in.
Apparently the brass not made for wadcutters has a taper gaining thickness which would crimp the skirt of a HBWC and degrade accuracy. +P brass is also usually thicker than other brass.
On my list of things to do is verify this by dropping a pin gauge into freshly sized cases. I'll report back once I have results.
 
Over the years I've had some brass perforate like a burst line in a checkbook and leave part of the brass in the chamber. Not good.
 
6GUNSONLY said:
Any significance or just periodic manufacturing differences?
Click to expand...

Those are cosmetic only, not structural. Once the original load is gone they have no meaning. Just sort by manufacturer, the cannelures have no meaning to a reloader.
 
Looks like verification research needs to be done on this one so we have some first-hand information. Sadly I only have pin gauges by .001", so we'll have to work with what we have.
Sizing a handful for R-P brass with a Lee carbide die, all R-P brass I checked (smooth, 1c, and 2-c) all allowed a press-fit of a .354"- pin gauge for a depth of at least the Canelure. If the brass had a Canelure in the top 1/3" it did NOT interfere with the pin gauge going deeper. Double-canelure brass by contrast did provide a hard-stop at the upper canelure to a .354" pin gauge.
Regarding other brass, here's what I found when expanding fired brass and then full-length resizing. I did NOT control for factory, once-fired, or often-fired, so some variance is to be expected, still, the differences were quite apparent in most cases.
PMC 2c, hard stop at the upper canelure.
REM-UMC 1c, hard stop at the canelure
W-W 1c, I feel the canelure, but the pin gauge will keep going with some force.
W-W 2c, hard stop at the canelure.
FC63, pin gauge won't go in because the brass is thicker
W-W Super, has a canelure near the top, but the pin gauge passed it easily
Winchester 0c, pin goes in more than enough for a HBWC
Winchester +P, brass is too thick to admit the gauge.
WRA 1c, canelure near the top is easy to push past
WRA 2c, top canelure is easy to push past, second one is a hard-stop
PMC 2c, tight fit, stops at first canelure.
PMC +P, pin barely enters, but gets harder as it goes in and stops at less than .5"
Federal 1c, you feel the canelure, but the gauge will keep going with a little force.
Western 2c, , easy to push past the first one, second is a hard stop
*-* easy to push the pin in deeply.

My conclusions:
Military and +P brass is at least often thicker
Canelures are NOT just cosmetic, but they also might not matter to you.
Where it would matter is HBWC bullets and applications where you are trying to get better than a few inches at 25yds or farther. You'd want to get your sizing die or case expander set up so the HBWC would pretty much drop in and then the canelure would catch it and hold it for crimping.
 
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