Range Brass - Brands to avoid?

I avoid the Wolf steel stuff. When depriming it once, I broke two decapping pins on two separate cases, which got stuck in a small flash hole and pulled out of the decapping stem tieing up the press. Just to be sure, these cases were Boxer primed not Berdan primed.
 
"Brass" to avoid

Dodgestdshift--If you want to talk "other than BRASS," then the answer is easy: Don't try reloading any of it. Scrap it.

Blazer Al cases weren't made to reload, and IIRC, they are Berdan primed, which adds to the problem.

Steel cases, if Boxer primed, can be reloaded--it has been tried successfully and reported on--but the question is, WHY would you bother--It's that much harder on yr dies and equipment, requires that much more force from you on the press handle, and good BRASS cases aren't THAT expensive.

Any Berdan-primed case, be it steel or brass, will be a hassle to reload, requiring extra equipment and a supply of the Berdan primers (Berdans are a different size than Boxers, and are built differently--definitely NOT interchangeable!)

The ones I find most annoying are the "copper-washed steel" 7.62x39 cases, which look a bit like brass and can be picked up by mistake. They are simply steel cases in disguise.

The best thing to do with any of these, of course, if you collect a quantity of them and keep the different metals separate, is to take them to a recycler or scrap-metal dealer and sell them for cash money. With the cash money you can buy nice clean new brass to load! :)
 
I agree with the recyclers here. When I go, I pick up everything, brass, steel, aluminum, whatever. It's like stopping to pick up a nickel in the street except there are a lot more of them.
 
With AMERC brass I've found primer holes drilled at an offset so that decapping pins were trashed. In addition, the cases are weak at the base and even though you have resized you can bulge the case at the base when bullet seating......causing the dreaded AMERC death jam when your pistol locks up just short of full battery.
 
I pick up all the brass I find and recycle the calibers and headstamps I don't use (Sold the recycler about 200 lbs. last time at $.63/lb.)

I have about 10K pieces of .45 ACP brass, all cleaned and deprimed, that I've found at local ranges. I usually come home with more useable brass than I shot. I never buy any brass for target loads. Light load .45 ACP brass usually lasts for 10 or more uses.

I also have about 200 rounds of Wolf steel case .45 ACP reloads for use at the occasional ranges that make it difficult to recover brass. I only reuse the Wolf cases once but I have a friend who has reused them 5 or more times. My dies are tungsten carbide and a few steel cases don't hurt them at all. The additional force required with lubed steel cases is insignificant.
 
Range brass

About the only time I will pick up brass at the range is if the guy next to me is shooting brand new ammo in my caliber and he doesn't want his brass. Buying new brass is actually quite inexpensive when compared to a damaged rifle.
 
Good Brass: Winchester, Speer, Hornaday, CBC, CCI, Starline, Federal, Aguilla,Nosler.

Bad Brass: A-Merc, Wolf, Remington, PMC, S&B
 
Good Brass: Winchester, Speer, Hornaday, CBC, CCI, Starline, Federal, Aguilla,Nosler.

Bad Brass: A-Merc, Wolf, Remington, PMC, S&B
 
Thread revive

Concerning brass to avoid, here is proof og IMPACT 3 D brass. I somehow got one piece of this brass mixed into some Starline that I loaded up with some +P 45LC hunting loads. I was surprised to see the case split, and didn't notice the head stamp until I got home. I did a search and found this old thread.
 

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I like to hear that some reloaders are picky and leave so much laying, especially the low pressure .38s and 45acps.
More for me.
So far, I've not run across the dreaded Amerc brand at our ranges.
All the rest comes home with me.
 
I pick up ALL centerfire brass and I'll even sweep up any rimfire that is laying on the bench still. When I go through it, the first thing I do is run a big magnet over everything to fish out those copper/brass washed steel cases. Next is to sort into a pistol pile and bottleneck pile. Anything pinched, bulged, split, overly tarnished or otherwise damaged goes into the scrap bucket.

Like everyone here, all A-Merc gets tossed.
I have also recently discovered that Aguila brass is just about as bad so it automatically gets scrapped as well.
 
I avoid Ammoload 9mm brass. Found some in a batch of mixed h/s once fired brass and tossed it. I don't like the internal "liner" or whatever it's called that takes up case volume.
 
I have not seen the dreaded AMERC

I can tell from the brass if its once fire or not.

Heaviest duty in rifle is FC (most, not all but most)

Still playing with it to see if it does better with minimum bump back.

Next down is RP and that's both common and decent.

Winchester in rifle is the lightest of the lot and I don't care for it (but don't find much either).

Winchester Super X is very good, right up there with RP.

Lapua and PPU are close to the same weight, Lapua is really nice but PPU looks to be decent (I am just starting in on that)
 
I recently decapped and prepped 500 .223 rem PMC cases that came in a box of once fired brass I bought a few years back. More than half had offset flash holes and if I had decapped while sizing, I'm sure I would have bent or broken decapping pins. If I hadn't already prepped this cases, I would toss them and for sure I'm not going to buy any more PMC ammo or used brass.

I decap all my brass with a Lee hand press and a universal decapping die and it went though these without a hiccup... I do it this way for 2 reasons, 1 my RCBS press tends to dump spent primers all over the floor and, 2 I can decap cases while watching the TV. In reality, there's a 3rd reason, working my RCBS press makes my back hurt. Nothing wrong with the press but rather I've had way too many back injuries. So lean back in my Lasyboy, watch TV and decap and it doesn't make my back hurt.

Tony
 
I've never used Amerc brass so have no comment. The OP referred to 38 and 45acp so I'll just say, with pistol brass, Im not real picky for plinking ammo, just maybe some specialized loads. My revolver brass is loaded in matched lots, and I record each loading. Some lasts longer than others. I don't do .45acp, but 9mm usually gets lost before it ever splits.
 
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