A buddy of mine gave me some mixed head stamp 9mm brass. I decap before wet tumbling and I remember it took more force to push out the old primer on some of the cases. When I was loading this past weekend, there were some that the primer cup was too small for the primer (CCI small pistol). I know there is small and large primer .45 acp cases, but I didn't know about 9mm. Are these berdan cases? And yes, I'm a fairly new reloader.
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9mm Brass Problem
- Thread starter Baldwin
- Start date
m&p45acp10+1
New member
You will need to ream out the primer pockets. Some have staked, or crimped primers. I use a reamer made by Lyman. There is also a swage that punches it out.
Look at them close to make sure all of the primer was punched out. With some cases only the anvil and bottom of the primer are removed, and the side of the primer wall remains stuck in the pocket. This seems to happen mostly with brass that has been wet - left outside in the rain or something.
It would help to know the headstamp on cases you are having issues with....some like S&B have some kind of sealer in primer pockets ( making them difficult to deprime / reprime..)...so I dump all S&B in scrapper recycle bin, along with any other case that doesn't say 9mm luger on it...there is a fair amount of oddball cases out there ...AMERC is another one I pitch..
locknloader
New member
Could also be crimped if they are nato/mil rounds.
I've had a bad experience with 9mm brass... particularly with mixed headstamp, it's one of the reasons I rarely reload for it, factory ball ammo being fairly inexpensive. Like BigJim, I cull pretty much everything out except for RP, PMC, and WIN (which is what I buy in factory) and everything else goes in the scrap bucket. Then I build a load for that particular brass. I don't fool with crimped primers or any of the other odd variations in 9mm brass...
I shoot a lot of 9mm myself ( a 1911, 5" gun is my carry gun / I shoot 6 or 8 boxes of 9mm a week for tactical practice / I shoot 3 boxes a week in a "buddy tactical COF match )... so about 10 boxes of 9mm a week. I also have 10 grandkids now...and 8 of them are of shooting age ( from 10 - 25 yrs old )...and they go thru a fair amount of 9mm as well... ( and some .40 S&W, .45 acp, .38 spl, .357 mag and .44 mag...) ..
So I reload a lot of 9mm... 30,000 or so last year.../ and my calculations because I buy FMJ bullets in case lots of 4,000 / primers in case lots of 5,000 / powder in 8 lb kegs / and I shoot at an indoor range where I sweep up a lot of brass. Sorting and cleaning brass is just part of the process. But buying in case lots means I can load 9mm...with a premium Montana Gold 115gr FMJ bullet for about $6 for a box of 50 rds...or roughly half of what retail ammo costs.
So to me, using the same ammo budget in 9mm...because I reload, I can customize my loads to whatever I want..." some max power loads, some bunny fart loads...whatever..."...and it means I shoot twice as much - on that same 9mm ammo budget.
As a note...lately, I have had a problem seating primers in Winchester brass - even seating Winchester primers. My hunch is Winchester is sourcing it offshore...and the quality has changed. Its just part of the evolution of things...
So I reload a lot of 9mm... 30,000 or so last year.../ and my calculations because I buy FMJ bullets in case lots of 4,000 / primers in case lots of 5,000 / powder in 8 lb kegs / and I shoot at an indoor range where I sweep up a lot of brass. Sorting and cleaning brass is just part of the process. But buying in case lots means I can load 9mm...with a premium Montana Gold 115gr FMJ bullet for about $6 for a box of 50 rds...or roughly half of what retail ammo costs.
So to me, using the same ammo budget in 9mm...because I reload, I can customize my loads to whatever I want..." some max power loads, some bunny fart loads...whatever..."...and it means I shoot twice as much - on that same 9mm ammo budget.
As a note...lately, I have had a problem seating primers in Winchester brass - even seating Winchester primers. My hunch is Winchester is sourcing it offshore...and the quality has changed. Its just part of the evolution of things...
Not to hijack your thread / but there is some controversy on this forum about the right way to do the case prep ( I know you're new to this stuff )... I have been reloading a long time...started in early 60's ..and things have changed over the years :
but many of us do not use wet cleaning ( introduces water into the cases, and it may be difficult to dry them out effectively ).
Many of us do not deprime before we clean.../ you might trap cleaning media in the flash hole if you deprime first.
( personally I dry tumble, spent primers still in cases --- then I sort out the junk for recycle --- then the cleaned and sorted cases get dumped into case feeder ---- depriming and resizing is all done on station 1 in my progressive press... etc ).
Take care ...good luck in your loading !
but many of us do not use wet cleaning ( introduces water into the cases, and it may be difficult to dry them out effectively ).
Many of us do not deprime before we clean.../ you might trap cleaning media in the flash hole if you deprime first.
( personally I dry tumble, spent primers still in cases --- then I sort out the junk for recycle --- then the cleaned and sorted cases get dumped into case feeder ---- depriming and resizing is all done on station 1 in my progressive press... etc ).
Take care ...good luck in your loading !
Berdan cases you cannot deprime without a special tools. Two flash holes in 'em as well.
'RG' is Royal Ordnance Factory Radway Green, Radway Green, UK. NATO milsurp known as Radway Green. Good milsurp ammo.
Primers might be crimped or lacquered in. You can usually see that. It'll likely have 3 spot crimps that require removing with your chamfering tool. Does sound like the whole primer didn't come out though. Like 74A95 says. If so, make some drawer pulls and pitch the rest of 'em.
"...some cases only the anvil and bottom of the primer are removed..." Had ~2500 of those. Opened a CF range, long ago, to find the OPP Tactical Rescue Unit("SWAT") guys had been there playing with their SMG's and left a big mess. My guys picked 'em up, I confiscated 'em(nice IVI 9mm brass) and found the bottom of the primer popped off but left the rest of it behind. Primers were lacquered in. Only good part was the excrement the cops got into after I reported it to Range Control.
'RG' is Royal Ordnance Factory Radway Green, Radway Green, UK. NATO milsurp known as Radway Green. Good milsurp ammo.
Primers might be crimped or lacquered in. You can usually see that. It'll likely have 3 spot crimps that require removing with your chamfering tool. Does sound like the whole primer didn't come out though. Like 74A95 says. If so, make some drawer pulls and pitch the rest of 'em.
"...some cases only the anvil and bottom of the primer are removed..." Had ~2500 of those. Opened a CF range, long ago, to find the OPP Tactical Rescue Unit("SWAT") guys had been there playing with their SMG's and left a big mess. My guys picked 'em up, I confiscated 'em(nice IVI 9mm brass) and found the bottom of the primer popped off but left the rest of it behind. Primers were lacquered in. Only good part was the excrement the cops got into after I reported it to Range Control.
Jim-Thanks for the advice. I need all the help I can get.Not to hijack your thread / but there is some controversy on this forum about the right way to do the case prep ( I know you're new to this stuff )... I have been reloading a long time...started in early 60's ..and things have changed over the years :
but many of us do not use wet cleaning ( introduces water into the cases, and it may be difficult to dry them out effectively ).
Many of us do not deprime before we clean.../ you might trap cleaning media in the flash hole if you deprime first.
( personally I dry tumble, spent primers still in cases --- then I sort out the junk for recycle --- then the cleaned and sorted cases get dumped into case feeder ---- depriming and resizing is all done on station 1 in my progressive press... etc ).
Take care ...good luck in your loading !
RG is British military ammo as pointed out in an earlier post. The 03 and 61 x are most likely commie block ammo.The headstamp had "RG" and "03" and "61 x".
I sort my brass. The number only stuff gets heavy scrutiny and batched together.
Amerc, Maxxtech, Freedom Munitions, Xtreme, and Ammoland had the stepped cases for a while. Because of these I started sorting my brass about 10 years ago. I added CBC, TulAmmo, Wolf, B-West, SK, TCW, and TPZ as headstamps that get immediately tossed in the recycle bin - they all are very soft brass. I know some people that have loaded these headstamps but the headache it can cause it is just not worth it.
I will load Agila and Perfecta brass once to be used at an indoor range that has a slanted floor that tends to push most brass in front of the firing line. I have had an Agila case separate at the knurling on about the 5th reload. The Perfecta primer pocket gets too loose to hold a primer after the third or fourth reloading.
Every time I go to the range I know what brass I have loaded up. If anything other than that headstamp makes it back to my bench I will give it a close examination before I add it to my inventory.
Also primers can be brought back into the primer pocket when decapping. I believe dillon makes a die with a spring attachment that knocks the primer off the decapping pin so it does not come back into the primer pocket
The Dillon die is not foolproof. The primer can still stick to the decapping pin.
Since you decapped all the brass none were Berdan primed.
Get a little hand reamer , sit down and go through them all removing the crimps on the ones that need it.
I also use a little hand tool called a primer pocket uniformer, I use it on every case.
Now every case will be de crimped and uniform in diameter and depth.
You only need to do this once. Don't trash perfectly good brass just because it has a crimped in primer , that's wasteful !
Gary
Get a little hand reamer , sit down and go through them all removing the crimps on the ones that need it.
I also use a little hand tool called a primer pocket uniformer, I use it on every case.
Now every case will be de crimped and uniform in diameter and depth.
You only need to do this once. Don't trash perfectly good brass just because it has a crimped in primer , that's wasteful !
Gary