I've spoken in the past about not using Blazer pistol brass for reloads and people tended to doubt me on my claims of case failures and inferior quality brass and also pointed out SPEER was made by the same manufacturer.
When I do end up with Blazer brass it goes one of two places - the scrap bucket or the swage bucket to make JHPs out of - but an event in the workshop today again brought blazer quality to light.
One of my steps in swaging brass into JHPs is to anneal the brass to soften it ahead of the nose forming operation.
In almost 1000 annealing operations ( after tumble cleaning - so no this wasn't some flammable contamination issue I anneal the brass i.e. heat the brass to a cherry read using a propane torch ) I've never had a weak shell pretty much disintegrate in the flame of a propane torch. Had one today - Give you a guess what headstamp it was - blazer....
So - otherwise, over the course of half a decade of reloading I've come across 7 cracked shell casings fresh off the range. One was a often reloaded federal that finally gave up the ghost - no mystery there - I know it to be one of mine. One was an aguila - fresh range brass. and the other 5 were blazer once fired brass..... - 3 were .40, 2 were 9mm -
see the pic attached - from left to right -
weak blazer 9mm case that literally disintegrated in an annealing operation - for those who might ask if the torch was at some weird cutting setting etc - no -33 other cases annealed using the same torch & setting in that sitting- no problem.
3 failed once fired cracked blazer .40
2 failed once fired cracked blazer 9mm
I can't be 1000% sure on the .40 being once fired but am reasonably sure - As to the 9mm - I don't own a 9mm..... absolutely sure on those. These are fresh range pickup at a local range I frequent.
And this is why I won't reload blazer brass.
When I do end up with Blazer brass it goes one of two places - the scrap bucket or the swage bucket to make JHPs out of - but an event in the workshop today again brought blazer quality to light.
One of my steps in swaging brass into JHPs is to anneal the brass to soften it ahead of the nose forming operation.
In almost 1000 annealing operations ( after tumble cleaning - so no this wasn't some flammable contamination issue I anneal the brass i.e. heat the brass to a cherry read using a propane torch ) I've never had a weak shell pretty much disintegrate in the flame of a propane torch. Had one today - Give you a guess what headstamp it was - blazer....
So - otherwise, over the course of half a decade of reloading I've come across 7 cracked shell casings fresh off the range. One was a often reloaded federal that finally gave up the ghost - no mystery there - I know it to be one of mine. One was an aguila - fresh range brass. and the other 5 were blazer once fired brass..... - 3 were .40, 2 were 9mm -
see the pic attached - from left to right -
weak blazer 9mm case that literally disintegrated in an annealing operation - for those who might ask if the torch was at some weird cutting setting etc - no -33 other cases annealed using the same torch & setting in that sitting- no problem.
3 failed once fired cracked blazer .40
2 failed once fired cracked blazer 9mm
I can't be 1000% sure on the .40 being once fired but am reasonably sure - As to the 9mm - I don't own a 9mm..... absolutely sure on those. These are fresh range pickup at a local range I frequent.
And this is why I won't reload blazer brass.
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