Remington brass ok ?

M

Micro man

New member
Been looking to increase my supply of brass for reloading and am having a tough time finding 45ACP brass. Checked a number of my usual on line sources and they are all out. I normally try and buy Hornady or Starline but no luck.
A couple places do have some Remington brass available, and I’m suspicious because that’s the only brand available.

Do you all have any information about the quality of Remington brass? Any input would be appreciated.
 
I think people fret to much over which brass to use. Actually it's probably harder to find bad brass than good! Get some Remington brass and try it, just might surprise you! Loading ammunition is not rocket science!
 
I've been using Remington brass since the 70s. I'm still using some of the brass I used in the 70s! I have, and use stuff marked Rem-UMC. Works fine, for me, still.

I have read some complaints about REM stuff being "too thin". Could be, but I figure like everything else made by man, sometimes a batch that is less than the best gets out.

I have no idea if new Rem brass is as good as it always used to be, but I would expect it to be so. Try some and see if what you got is ok, or not.

If i needed brass and Remington brass was the only thing on the shelf, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.
 
Way back in the day, I found that some R-P head stamp in 45 ACP was indeed a bit thin. I tried cranking down on the taper crimp, but that did not help.

What did finally resolve the issue was an undersize resizing die that I bought from Lee Precision. Using that die and using an absolute minimum of flare to accept the bullet solved the problem.

I'm just getting back into my firearms/handloading hobby, so I can't comment on recent offerings from R-P.
 
For pistol, I do not think it matters.
For rifle, I have heard that Rem And Federal us a softer brass. That said, I do have Rem 308 I have bought new and reloaded several times in bolt guns. Semi-autos beat up brass, so I use LC 7.62 for that.
Now when I buy new brass I look at Starline first.
 
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The brass changes for the big brands depending on who has been contracted to make it. I have Remington .308 that I used to load for my M1A that I used an automatic center punch to mark after each reloading. A good number of them have six such marks and don't show any signs of pressure ring thinning that I can feel with a probe.

When board member Bobcat45 still had access to metallurgical equipment a couple of years ago, he measured some new cases I sent him with a Vickers micro-hardness tester (HV-500). The result was:

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About 2003 or so I bought 500 Winchester .308 cases. Measurements had the weights from 153 to 159 grains and the neck wall runout mostly ran between 0.002" and 0.004" with a few that were better (about 20%) and one extreme example that had 0.008" wall runout. When I was asked to put some dummy rounds together last week, I remembered I had a bag of 100 Winchester 30-06 brass I bought about three years ago for some capacity comparisons, but never measured the weight or runout on, so I thought, "they're bound to have some pretty bad ones in the bag, I'll just find one of those to use". Darned if two-thirds of them weren't 0.001" runout or better with the remaining third no worse than 0.002". Darned consistent and precisley made brass.
 
I’ve always liked Remington brass, and I’ve used it for all calibers I reload for. I still have a few unopened bags I bought well over 10 years ago, so I haven’t had to try any currently mfg’d stuff. These days I reload 45/70, 6mm rem., ‘06, .41 mag, 30/30 and .223 rem., and Remington brass has been all good for all of them. I just hate to see how Remington and Marlin have been handled through these past years. The guns I own with those stamps have been, and still are, fine things, along with the brass. As others have found, Federal brass has primer pocket issues, so I don’t buy any new Fed stuff anymore.
 
I fire .40 and have no problem using Remington brass myself. Only thing I have to watch for are brass burs off the primer hole inside the case which I take down with a Lyman hand debur tool when I see it. I get the same thing with Winchester brass which is my favorite. In Remington, I find such a bur 5 or 6 out of 100 shells on average.

This is my being OCD as I'll use the case again in the future and a bur at the flash hole may lead to a slightly uneven powder burn leaving more fouling inside the case. The bur also may result in the stainless media not cleaning the inside of the shell to a mirror finish which I don't find acceptable as I want to be able to inspect the inside of the case fully for defects.
 
As noted, I don't think it matters a hoot for pistol. Maybe super target or something.

I had a Model 25 S&W (45 Auto Rim) years back and had RP brass for it. That was really thin. Other calibers were solid (like 41 and 44 mag and 44 S&W). I also had no issues with the 45 Auto Rim.

I have seen the same thing in rifle. Mostly the old established calibers (270, 30-06, 308) are good. Newer ones seem thin.
 
All Rem 45 acp brass i have seen/used is hard, thin, short and loses a significant amount of elasticity after one firing. Not much of a problem with larger dia lead bullets and light target loads.

Can be a real problem using once fired brass with near max jacketed loads. Not all jacketed bullets measure what they are labeled as, and alot of shorter bullets have minimal bearing surface. Bullet set back can be a real problem.

That does not mean all Rem brass has same quality's, and like the once fired 9mm brass for it's case wall thickness. Also will use Rem 308 brass, but don't search it out. Will use the 45 acp brass with light mild 230 lrn bullets sized .452. If smaller dia will use under size die and appropriate bell die.

Everyone's results may vary, but op was specific to 45 acp brass.
 
As noted, thinner wall.
I use R*P brass for all my 45acp cast bullet loads just because of the fact that it is thinner. With the oversize bullets loaded it is the only case that will pass a plunk test in my Tanfoglio Witness 45. All others will not chamber.
 
I got interrupted before I could finish my last post. I used to avoid Remington in 45 Auto in the '80s because the thin brass would work harden so quickly that the Lyman carbide die I was using at the time could only get them narrow enough to hold a bullet two or three times. After that, they didn't get narrow enough to hang onto the bullet any longer and bullets would either fall into the "resized" case or be held so lightly they could be moved in OR out with my fingers. However, when I got my Dillon press and dies, it ceased to be a problem. The Dillon sizing die was tighter.

I didn't have a problem with the thinness of the mouth from a headspacing standpoint because I load cast bullets the vast majority of the time in this round, and I headspace those by bullet contact with the throat. The SAMMI minimum diameter for the case mouth is 0.467" to headspace on that correctly, and the Remington cases I got back then were 0.01" thick at the mouth, so they should work if the bullets are at least 0.451" in diameter and the taper doesn't squeeze the case mouth in more than a couple of thousandths all around.
 
I like Remington 45 brass for cast bullets, cast is .452, Rem brass is a little thinner than Win or Fed.
 
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