38 special brass- what brand do you like by best? Any to avoid?

[ArchAngelCD]

Speaking of Starline Brass, I rarely buy new brass but sometimes I have to. I just bought some 38 S&W brass and 32 Auto brass. I bought them from Starline. When I have to buy new it's always Starline is possible.

Like said above, Excellent Brass!

 

[gwpercle]

If I'm going to buy brand new brass ... Starline .

For 50 years I have reloaded once fired range pick up or once fired from the indoor range . 38 spcl. / 357 mag. Usually mixed headstamp ... I never had 50 new matching 357 Mag. cases !
I decided to treat myself to 100 new Starline 357 magnum ...
the brass was great and having 100 new magnum cases to work with inspired me to order 300 brand new Starline in 38 Special ... and the brass is Sweet !
Having all this new uniform matching Starline brass is like
re-dicovering how much fun reloading is .
Gary

 

[38SPL HV]

I use primarily Starline. I do have on hand factory ammo empties from Remington, Winchester. Suggest you stay away from nickel plated versions - in my experience they have a tendency to split much sooner than all brass versions. Also, trim to length…really helps with your roll crimps.

 

[Kp321]

I load 38 Special for bullseye matches, M-52, and have observed much better accuracy with the same brand brass, no matter what brand. I have more R-P than anything else so that’s my standard. I do have a couple of hundred pieces of R-P factory wadcutter brass with the three cannelures that I use on match day. Might make a little difference or not?

 

[Miracle Man]

Starline brass!. Excellent new brass with great consistency . The preferred brass by many of us long time reloaders. Brian Pearce of handloader magazine is a big proponent. I just purchased another 1000 from starline. You often get the best accuracy from using 1 brand of brass but it is not always a huge difference.

Yep

I've reloaded for several years now with Starline brass in 44 mag and 45 LC no complaints.

And like so many others have said if you're just plinking, casual shooting, I wouldn't fuss much about sorting it if you have a bunch of misc.

 

[mikld]

I started reloading 38 Special in 1969 and have used nearly every headstamp available in the US. I have not trimmed any nor "polished" more than just a few "BBQ" brass. I reloaded safely for 12 years before I started tumbling brass and I had no ruined dies or scratched chambers. I just wiped each case with a solvent dampened rag as I inspected it.

The 38 Special is a lower pressure very forgiving cartridge and with correctly adjusted dies all the gauges and measurements are unnecessary. I have 4, 38/357 revolvers that I reload for and have never had a problem with any round chambering. I started seating bullets to the crimp groove/cannelure without any problems (I figgered the bullet designer knew where to locate the groove for safest, best performance and that has worked quite well for all my revolver handloads, 32 Long through 45 Colt). I don't believe I've ever purchased any new 38 Special brass, just purchased factory ammo for brass and many, many once fired and range pick ups. I got 80% of my brass at the local PD range (they didn't mind if I picked up a couple dozen at a time).

Reloading should be fun. If you enjoy polishing, trimming, reforming primer pockets, measuring wall thickness and flash holes, by all means do it. I love reloading but also am a practical feller so I K.I.S.S. Don't overthink an excellent starting cartridge.

Go slow. Double check everything. Most important, have fun...

 

[Valmet]

I have no brand preference for brass to reload 38s, assuming it’s not for bullseye competition. I don’t sort brass by brand.

Sorting according to number of times the brass has been reloaded is more useful to me.

+1 for me as well. I don’t sort by brand but the vast majority of my brass is either Federal (including AE and CCI), Remington, PMC or Winchester. I have some PPU as well that’s never given me any issues. I do have a lot of Starline .44 Spl brass that is fantastic.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

The only new 38 Special brass I've bought was when I bought one box each of plain brass and nickel plated, WW I believe. That was 12 years ago. Everything else has been range brass or bought used at shows etc. The nickel plated box is down to about 45 pieces.
Around the same time I did the same with 357 magnum ammo. Reloaded them pretty hot for deer hunting with my N frames. 14+ grains of 2400. Just about all of the nickel cases eventually split at the mouth are gone but still have most of the regular brass cases. Those hot loads were hard on nickel.
I sort the brass from nickel, but not by maker.
John

 

[glenwolde]

I prefer Winchester brass without case cannelures. Second choice, Winchester wadcutter brass with the case cannelures. Third choice, any other American brass, Speer, Federal, whatever.

Second to last choice, foreign .38 brass. Last choice, Remington .38 brass. The foreign stuff usually has thicker walls at the base. The Remington is thin and has difficulty with bullet tension on shorter bullets. But Remington is good for 148gr HBWC.

Brass with cannelures does not last as long, though in the case of wadcutter brass it may be more accurate.

Some reloaders don't like nickel cases and swear they don't last as long. That's not my experience but I don't really care for nickel. I save them for defensive ammo reloads.

Preferred primer in order: Winchester, Remington, CCI but they are all pretty close.

I've loaded over 100,000 rounds of .38 Special ammo over a few ..... decades.

 

[GT_80]

Well, In all the shells I de-primed, resized and cleaned, the only ones that had splits or anything were nickel cases. I think I’ll be tossing those.

I did get 100 rounds reloaded last night, only messed one up- the bullet seating due was set very deep, and I pushed an XTP all the way down on the powder I believe. Was so deep in the case it would not come out even with a bullet puller, so I think that round will probably not be safe to shoot, probably put it in the dud bucket at my range.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I have a lot of W-W, Federal, and Remington, so that's what I use. I do sort by head stamp for no particular reason except I'm picky like that. I've never trimmed . 38 cases. I do segregate the double cannelured wadcutter cases from others and use them for wadcutters exclusively. My wadcutter brass is vintage Western and R-P. I have the old original boxes to these - the yellow Western boxes and the green/white Remingtons. If I were buying new 38 brass it would be *-.