Processing Brass

[Rock]

Have had some interesting things going on with some new brass recently.

We were up in Colorado last week at my daughters and I was instructing my son in law on reloading handgun cartridges, he has been working with me the last several years on rifle reloading and is now ready to start the handgun reloading. He had bought some dies for his .357 caliber revolvers and was ready to start the reloading process on this caliber.

We went to Sportsman’s Warehouse and he bought two bags of Winchester brass and several boxes of Hornady bullets in several weights. When we returned home we started processing the brass, this is where things got interesting. I have read a number of posts regarding the subject of processing brass on our forum and it seems there is quite a difference of opinion regarding the need to go through all the steps. I have always been a believer in doing any and all steps to prep the brass to assure reliability and perhaps some enhanced accuracy.

This is one time when my anal retention really paid off, right away when uniforming the primer pockets we observed the pockets were way out of spec as there was considerable metal coming off some of the cases. Once we finished this step we began to deburr the primer holes, once again there was some really nasty burrs on the holes that were so extreme that it was difficult to hold the shell in some cases.

We finally sized the cases and decided to trim to length as well. This is where the next problem came up, I was priming the cases with a Lee hand primer tool and starting running into cases that would not fit in the shell holder, out of the two hundred cases I ran into at least 8-10 cases that would absolutely not go into the shell holder, this is the first time I have ever run into this issue with new cases.

I have been reading some things recently regarding quality control issues regarding factory ammunition and components as well; I cannot speak regarding factory ammo as I rarely buy any however I sure can comment on some of the components. Due to this episode I am really going to process brass with a close eye on irregularities at every step.

When we returned home this week I started loading some .357 as I am low on this caliber, the brass I had on hand was some Winchester that I bought earlier this year in Idaho, as I am going through the brass I am experiencing the same irregularities as I observed with my son in laws components. One tool that really pays off is the RCBS case prep center this tool makes short work of completing all the steps in brass prep. I have loaded quite a bit of .44 Special this year and have been using Starline brass for the most part and have not seen anywhere close to the issues observed with the Winchester brass.

 

[contender]

It's interesting that you found some seriously out of spec brass in a bag of new stuff. However,, I'd bet a call to Winchester,, and the bag & bad brass would get replaced with a whole 'nother bag of good stuff!
And yes,, Starline is excellent brass. Most top competitors use it as it is known for being reliable.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Had some similarly out-of-spec brass from Starline a few years back. Rims were both oversize and off-center with respect to the case walls. Starline replaced them.

 

[Pal Val]

Seems like you ran into a bad batch of brass. I had a similar experience with a bag of Remignton brass and they replaced it for free. Mine were .30-06 with about a dozen shells with big dimples in the shoulders.

Prepping new brass is a chore, but once it's done, you know everything's OK. Confidence has its value.

 

[Olsherm]

Prepping new brass? Had several bags of new brass. Never had to prep any of it. Loaded and shot it. All shot as well as any other I have used. All I do is size,prime,load and shoot??

 

[DeletedMember275]

It seems like most of these stories I hear involve Winchester brass. Rumor is that they're outsourcing their brass production offshore somewhere, and they're getting what they're paying for.

I last bought new brass a couple of years ago when I built a .22-250 varmint rifle - Winchester brass, and I found several cases with W-A-Y oblong flash holes. I won't buy any more Winchester brass, as a result. Now that Lapua finally began making .22-250 brass, I'll probably stick to that brand, for that cartridge, anyway.

 

[Bucks Owin]

Huh....I buy nothing but WW brass, like the quality, and I'm pretty "anal" about prep too. I always size, check flash hole uniformity, and square up case mouths, then chamfer both...(No, I'm not into a progressive press cranking out 500 rds per hr! :lol: ) I like WW primers too...
Guess I haven't run into any of the "outsourced" stuff...
(All WW brass donations gratefully accepted! :wink: )

 

[WESHOOT2]

I was recently loading new nickeled 9x19 cases. Their holes were 'over here, over there'. I loaded them anyway. They were Winchester. I'd bought them around 1998....

 

[GP100man]

Rock

As your exp was mine also !!!

I think as a rule of thumb all manufacturers have a bad run of brass , stemmin back to the consistentcy of the parent materials ?????

On my SD/HD ammo I even measure the rim thickness to make sure it`s not too thin / thick then still run it thru the action !!!
& drop each round thru each chamber in the cyl !!!!

 

[Flash]

I shy away from Winchester brass for that very reason. I purchased 5 bags of 308 brass about ten years ago and within them 500 pieces, about 20 were 243 sized and were stamped 308. I wrote Winchester with the lot number and they replied with a request for me to mail them back. I chalked it up as a lesson learned and threw them in the scrap barrel.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Knocking wood, I haven't had any problems w/ Winchester or Remington factory rifle brass (admittedly, all mine's "pre-2008" so it was made before the component shortage.) I prefer Federal when it's available, but I 'spose that's just personal preference.

On pistol brass, I'm over toward the "persnickety" end of the prep scale, treating new pistol brass to the same sizing, trimming and chamfering operations as my rifle brass.

I started doing that after having some problems w/ a certain "lesser" brand of new brass due to inconsistent lengths. I don't buy that brand any more. Surprisingly, when I replaced it w/ Starline, I found theirs benefits from some extra TLC in the prep department as much as any other!

Some of that extra care shows up on paper or over the chrono, some of it's just a confidence builder, and some simply shows a certain inner pride in the finished product. So I guess each loader must find his/her "comfort zone" as to how much prep they like to do...

Rick C

 

[Rock]

As a follow up to this post I had found a hundred .357 Winchester cases that probably are from the middle eighties and were once fired according to my notes in the bag, I decided to use them as opposed to opening another new bag of cases.

My observations using these cases is that for sure they are quite a bit more consistent regarding dimensions, it may just be with the tremendous demand in the last several years for components and ammunition has caused manufactures to lose some quality control.

 

[WESHOOT2]

When I can I buy IMI.

 

[Ruber]

Had some similarly out-of-spec brass from Starline a few years back. Rims were both oversize and off-center with respect to the case walls. Starline replaced them.

Had a similar experience, one bad batch of Starline maybe 3 years ago now. It was my first box of Starline brass and I wondered why people raved about it. I got over it and use it or RP for all my .45s now.

My newest Winchester is still over 4 years old (still in original bags unopened, guess I need to catch up on my loading). I have seen some of the newer "Winchester" brass my brother-in-law picked up, and it wasn't pretty. But again, that was just one batch I saw.