Hornady brass

[5of7]

When I bought my .480 SRH last fall, I bought 2 boxes of Hornady ammunition to get me started. I noticed that the 400 grain stuff extracted hard, but I figured that it was just a hot load and I emailed Hornady and informed them of me experiences with it and also pointed out that the actual ballistics were about 75 fps faster than advertised.

When I started hand loading for the 480, I noticed that even loads that Hodgdon considers somewhat less than full bore (25-4227-365 RNFP) produced very sticky extraction. This was puzzling as the brass showed smoke about 1/2 way down the sides, and the primers showed no signs of excessive pressure.

I then bought 250 rounds of Starline brass, thinking that perhaps the brass was at fault.

The result is that the exact same load in Starline Brass eject with no problem, only requiring a modest amount of thumb pressure on the ejector rod.

I think that Hornady brass may be too soft, or is less elastic that Starline, so the moral of the story is, if you are having problems with extraction, don't despair, just get some Starline brass and thy it.....you may like it. 8)

 

[chris_]

I bought my 480 Alaskan and had a box of 325 Gr XTPs. I had the hit the extractor on the carpeted table at the range to get it going. Run my own hot 410gr loads with Starline and Speer=No issues at all. I think you nailed it.

 

[63November]

This problem was very typical of the 454 with Hornady brass a few years ago. The solution (then) was to shoot Winchester ammo - which is what the factory used both times the revolver went back when they said there was no problem. The cylinder steel on these guns is more elastic than some other steels and it seems to work better when matched with brass which has better memory characteristics; not so soft in other words.

 

[mike7mm08]

I have also gone to starline brass only with my 480. I did find with the little hornady factory loads I did shoot I had no extraction problems provided I kept the cylinder clean and oil free. Before shooting I would run a patch soaked with denatured alcohol through the cylinder holes followed by a dry patch. Starline is probable the best quality pistol brass you can get. Hornady seems to be the worst.

The problem is cased by the expansion and contraction characteristics of the cylinder steel and the brass. When fired the pressure causes the cylinder hole to expand slightly. If you have good brass it expands very little. Or the brass has enough elasticity to contract before the cylinder does. If the brass has neither of those characteristics when the cylinder contracts it is clamping down onto the expanded brass. It is a fine line to get good brass, too soft or not enough elasticity and we have the problem in question, too hard the brass is brittle and is prone to splitting.

 

[GAR]

Experianced the same situation in other handgun calibers when running the higher end loads.

Switched to starline for all my handgun needs and have not encountered any more problems.

Tom

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

There are many different brass alloys, with differing copper and zinc content. Sometimes other metals are added too.

But cartridge brass has had a composition of 70% copper and 30% zinc for a long time now. That composition offers good cold working properties. It also allows for enough memory that the brass will spring back close to it's original dimension so that it can be extracted from a chamber. I think if tested, one would find that all cartridges use that same 70%/30% alloy.

I suspect that rather than using a different brass alloy, some manufacturers are simply varying the dimensions slightly with their brass.

 

[Pal Val]

I've had a similar experience with Hornady .44 mag brass. Seems like it doesn't "spring back" well with heavy loads and causes hard extraction. I've come to use it only for light loads.

 

[rangerbob]

I've used Speer brass exclusively in my 480 loading with no problems. Bob!