monmouth mixed 44 magnum brass, what are the headstamps ?

G

georgiacatweazle

New member
So got some mixed brass from monmouth. had to put some aside to fix, brass stuck in brass, bad case mouths etc.

once I sorted all the headstamps, got basically the following and did some research on them, but wondering what you all thought of them and any fill-in-the gaps on what ones i can't find out about ...


CBC 15 Mag-Tec decent
HPR 1 probably ok
Hornady 4 ok
PMC 4 ok
Herters 7 ok
Starline 11 good
PPU 4 unknown
S & B 6 Sellier & Bellot ok
BFI 8 unknown
WW Super 33 hot loads seem ok
R & P 48 remington peters So-so ? .
F.C 109 Federal ok

obviously i'll be loading mostly the federal, R&P and WW as it's the bulk. i also have 200 other NEW starline.
I may use the little batches for work up loads, like CBC and SB.
 
Hi. It really doesn't make any difference with a .44 Mag, but head stamp codes for most manufacturers are here.
http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=headstampcodes
'CBC' is Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos, Brazil.
'SB' is used by several manufacturers. What you have is most likely either Israeli Military Industries, Tel Aviv, Israel or Sellier and Bellot, Schoenbeck/Elbe, Germany.
'PPU' is Prvi Partizan, Yugoslavia.
BFI isn't listed. However, Bushmaster Firearms International might have made some .44 stuff. They made the .450 Bushmaster cartridge used in high priced AR clones. Just a WHAG though.
 
Personally, I'd scrap the Remington brass and load the Federal, Winchester and Starline. The other stuff I'd keep for fillers in mixed headstamp boxes, setting up trimmers etc. How much did you pay for the lot? I buy bags of 100 Starline .44mag new brass for 24 bucks and you could probably do better.
 
I've had terrible luck with Remington brass. I only get a few loads before they split so I never bother with them now. Basspro seems to always be expensive on stuff. Cabelas has Starline brass at cheaper prices. 44 mag at Cabelas and other places is $24 per bag of 100. Right now it's actually on sale for $21.99 per 100 at Cabelas. I like Starline brass a lot and feel it's the best of what I load. I have a bunch of it that I've been reloading for years and it just keeps on going.
 
Careful with the hornady brass. Ive had trouble with them, they are really hard to resize for some reason and will tear the bases if not dripping with lube. Not sure what Im doing wrong but my guess is soft brass. Just a heads up.
 
I also have a problem with Hornady brass in 44 Mag . Last winter I seen an add for 200 pieces of Hornady once fired 44 Mag and it was only 30 miles from my home . I called the seller bought the brass being winter I had it shipped to me . It came fast very nice looking brass sized and clean .

Now the problem Sizing was easy (for me) the priming very difficult on all Hornady brass . I load with a Dillion 550B and it would not seat a primer .
I had to use a Single Stage (Forster) to prime and after more than 8 reloading still very hard to prime .

No more Hornady brass not even free will I take home .
 
is the Remington brass weak walled?
Click to expand...
In my experience, any and all Rem handgun brass has been just nasty weak stuff. I load on three different presses: Rock Chucker, Lee Classic Turret, and Lee Pro 1000, and I load a lot of mixed brass for general plinking in .38 and .40 - not too much mixed brass in my .44 collection. In 100% of the cases on the SS or turret presses I can instantly tell if I have grabbed an R-P brass by how soft the ram feels during resize and expand operations - this crap has almost no neck tension compared to WW, Herters, Federal or other decent brass. The sensation is not as strong on the progressive press, primarily because it is operating on more than one case at the same time.

I have finally decided to start sorting out all the R-P stuff and not load it anymore unless I am in a situation where I expect to loose the brass. I see a smattering of other cases with the same weak feel, but nothing consistently junk like the Remington stuff.
 
When the primer pockets are tight or primers seat with different amounts of force.
Purchase a Redding primer pocket uniformer and gently ream out the pockets.

I do this with all my brass new and used. It only needs to be done one time.
 
I started reloading for my .44 Magnums in '87 and have used every headstamp brass readily available here on the west coast. I sort brass by headstamp, out of habit but about half the time I use mixed, and in all actuality, I find no difference in accuracy or function. In my experience and some of the articles I've read on the subject, mixed brass reloads are just as accurate in a handgun as sorted brass. I've gotten consistent 1 3/4" @ 50' groups with mixed brass reloads through my Magnum revolvers.

FWIW I have 20 Remington .44 Magnum cases, nickel plated, that I use exclusively for my upper Contender loads, now approaching 15 reloadings...
 
Seems like the RP brass, I may just reload that all first and re-use until it's no good, get it out of the way, see how the press likes it.

i'm going to probably then toss all the odd ball headstamps in to a canon-fodder bin and put the federal, winchester etc together in a more usable rotation along with my starline.

so i think the general rule of thumb with mixed-brass maybe-once-fired brass is that you'll get about 75% usable brass, 25% that's ugh reload 2-3 times before it's trash, maybe not even one reload it appears. unless the used brass is dirt cheap, spend the cash on new starline.

i did notice a few cases that the primer had issues with so as someone suggested, a reamer tool maybe on my purchase list for future use.
 
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