Brass "star"

[soghap]

Looking at what brass to buy. .308, 45 & 9mm. New to reloading and didn't know if there was a wrong choice

 

[R357]

Starline brass has as good reputation with most so you always have a safe bet there.

Mil surplus on the other hand 9 & 7.62(308) can save you some cash up front especially in quantity, but be prepared to put some extra time into them removing the primer crimp.

 

[Traveler]

http://glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=846395

Good to go brass:
Starline (*--* Two Stars with line between them)
Winchester (Winchester, WIN, WCC?)
Norma (Norma)
Magtech (CBC)
Hornady (Hornady)
Independance (*I*)
Israeli Military Industries (TZZ)
Federal (Federal, FC that is not 40S&W)
Eldorado (ELD)
Remington (R-P, UMC)

Shootable, but not as good:
Speer (Speer)
Precision Made Cartridge (PMC)
Company? (HY)
Aguila (Aguila)
Fiocchi (Fiocchi)

Junk Brass:
American Ammunition (AMERC)
Armscorp (ACP)
Company? (NNY)
Federal (FC that is 40S&W)
Sellier & Beloit (S&B) - Mixed reviews, some ok, some bad, usually the problem is related to primer pocket size.

 

[byf43]

http://glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=846395

Good to go brass:
Starline (*--* Two Stars with line between them)
Winchester (Winchester, WIN, WCC?)
Norma (Norma)
Magtech (CBC)
Hornady (Hornady)
Independance (*I*)
Israeli Military Industries (TZZ)
Federal (Federal, FC that is not 40S&W)
Eldorado (ELD)
Remington (R-P, UMC)

Shootable, but not as good:
Speer (Speer)
Precision Made Cartridge (PMC)
Company? (HY)
Aguila (Aguila)
Fiocchi (Fiocchi)

Junk Brass:
American Ammunition (AMERC)
Armscorp (ACP)
Company? (NNY)
Federal (FC that is 40S&W)
Sellier & Beloit (S&B) - Mixed reviews, some ok, some bad, usually the problem is related to primer pocket size.

With regard to Federal ammo and Federal brass - don't believe everything that's in red boldface, that's quoted above. ^^^


I've used Federal brass for over 3 decades and Federal is some GOOOOOOOOOOOOD brass, IMNSHO.

You have Federal brass and don't want to load it, give it to me.

 

[trickg]

Can't say much about rifle brass - not my cup of tea and I've never reloaded it. As for handgun brass, if it's brass metal and uses a boxer primer, I'll reload it - I don't really discriminate too much because the largest percentage of my reloading is done for lighter duty target loads.

 

[Pinecone]

I use all the .45 and .40 brass I can find.

I have not had any problems with any of the listed brass, including those listed and "junk."

I recently loaded 1000 rounds of FC .40 S&W brass. NO issues.

Also, I am not sure TZZ is IMI. IMI brass normally says IMI on the headstamp. I thought TZZ was a Czech product.

WCC is typically Winchester Military or White Box brass.

If it has a year, like WCC 12 or FCC 12, it is typically military brass. If once fired, it has a crimped primer. You need something like a Lee Universal Decapper to reliably decap them without breaking decapping pins. Then you need to remove the crimp. For small quantities, Lymand and RCBS make hand reamers. For larger quantities, you want a Dillon 600 Super Swager.

 

[DocAitch]

I purchase Starline brass if I need some for a caliber which is not common-.327Fed, .32 H&R,.32 S&W Long, 32 S&W, and 44 special most recently.
The other calibers are range pick ups or OF from various sources.
Of those listed by Traveler, the only ones hat I have had an issue with are AMERC- for some reason these do not gauge after being reloaded and I trash them.
I don't believe that I have encountered any Armscorp.
Everything else, I reload, with no specific problems encountered.
DocAitch

"NNY" is cyrillic for PPU- Privi Partizan, and TZZ is Israeli

 

[Pinecone]

Yes, I have found that TZZ is from Israeli Military Industries. As is IMI stamped brass.

GREAT resource - http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=headstampcodes

 

[guthook]

Just something to look out for...

I've had issues with once fired 9mm FC military brass. The primer cups were brittle and during de-priming, the face of the primer would pop off, leaving the primer walls stuck inside of the pocket.

This did not occur with the other brands of 9mm military brass I processed, which was mostly Winchester (WCC), only the Federal (FC) brass did this.

9mm used to be plentiful, but the recent surge in panic buyers, new reloaders and hoarding has dried up the brass supply, including range pickup. Using military 9mm brass used to be a bit taboo, due to the availability of commercial cases. Nowadays, you take what you can get your hands on.

 

[IndispensableDestiny]

When I buy pistol brass, I buy Starline. I've loaded .357 Mag, .38 Special, .44 Mag, and .327 Fed Mag brass from Starline. Otherwise it's from factory ammo that I have shot in the past. I have a big mix, all that I have reloaded seem to have done fine, except for Remington .38 Special +P in nickel. Many of those cases cracked upon first firing.

For .308 Winchester, I've been reloading once shot Nosler brass. The Nosler brass is very nice. I do have 100 pieces of Lapua brass, but I need to fire form it first for neck sizing only.

I have been cutting down Federal .223 brass for .300 blackout.

Hornady .223 Remington brass is very nice. The Super Performance and Custom Varmint ammo shoots great out of my SPR. My reloads even better!

 

[Biggfoot44]

Starline is the standard to which others are compared. They produce a lot of the brass for small and medium ammo mfgs with their headstamps also.

I have jugs of range pickups of .38spl for standard loadings. For .38-44 loads I only use once fired , that I personally did the once firing of.

TZZ was/ is the origional headstamp of IMI . Later on the transitioned to the IMI headstamps for specifically civilian sales. In the '80s and '90s civilian packaging could contain eithern but usually the whole box the same.