Remington brass

B

boondocker385

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Batch depriming a few thousand 38 specials. 90% winchester and federal but a few RP in the mix. Can tell without looking when it is RP...very easy through the press.
 
Yes, same here, and CBC and some Winchester are very hard brass and you can feel the difference when seating the bullet also.
Sometimes I believe they put too much zinc in the so called 70/30 mix.

The only trouble I see is an inconsistent build up of pressure when firing. No problem for a plinker like me.
 
What makes you think it will make any difference? It aint gonna but what it will do is the stiffer brass will have a shorter case life.
 
Remington .38 Special brass has thinner case walls than most other .38 brass so be careful and make SURE that your dies size the RP brass enough to have good neck tension on the bullet. My dies do not size enough and the expander doesn't even expand the RP brass. My seated bullets can be pushed deeper into the case with thumb pressure or by pushing the loaded bullets against the bench. This can cause squib loads, big velocity differences, and with light loads even a bullet stuck in the barrel. To solve this issue with my dies and .38 brass I use my 9MM Luger sizer which is for .355 bullets rather than .357" and after sizing with the .38 Special sizer I then size down just past where the bullets would stop with the 9MM sizer then I expand and bullet tension is good. You may not have this problem with your RP brass and dies but just check that you have good bullet tension.
 
I actually search remington brass out when buying handgun brass

I like the remington brass because it looks good with brass colored primers. Something to do with the headstamp. Since I have to use some brass colored primers up I might as well use them on my remington brass!
 
For the sake of consistency, I weed them out. I've used them in the past without problem; but these days, I prefer to just set them aside. I have plenty of Winchester and Starline brass to where I don't need to use any other type - so I don't.
 
Make any difference? Mebbe not, but it's good to hear from a conscientious reloader that pays enough attention to what he's doing to tell a difference...:D
 
The complaints are common. I used to cull all my Remington .45 Auto brass because after a couple of load cycles it work-hardened to the point my Lyman carbide die didn't size it enough to hang onto a bullet. Then I got my Dillon Square Deal that is dedicated to .45 Auto. It's sizing die seems to be "small base" or narrower than standard, and it handles them fine.


Emerson Biggies,

The difference isn't Winchester using too much zinc, but Remington using 80:20 "low brass" instead of 70:30. But, frankly, Remington runs theirs through enough processes after the last annealing (not counting bottleneck rifle neck and shoulder final annealing) that it's actually fairly hard. The main difference in feel is just due to it being thinner, with Remington electing to put more of the mass into the case head and less into the walls than most other makes. There's a rundown here.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I have other Remington 38 special brass that is on its 8th reload without a case failure which has been a weird surprise. Since I am handling them, I now separate them. I haven't had any tension problesm, but I load them below max.
 
Have some Rem. 45 Colt brass that won't size down to hold a bullet with 45 Colt sizer. Run through with ACP sizer and they work fine.
 
Remington .38 brass I save for use with cast bullets as I size them to .358. If to be use with .357 Jacketed bullets will size them with my .380 acp die.
 
BTW... I was just on Starline's web site, & noted that they list their brass as 70% Copper & 30% Zink ( same as R-P cases )... that's not to say that the minor alloy components don't make a difference in the hardness, or, that the cases weigh the same, implying that the case head & walls are the same thickness... only that they use the same basic alloy percentages...

generally Starline is considered to be some of the best brass out there :)

that said, I have many calibers that I use R-P cases in both rifle & handgun... all with no real issues... though in the last couple years, Starline has taken over most of the handgun calibers
 
For all of you that are having problems with Rem brass not having enough neck tension, what about using something like a Lee Factory Crimp Die. Wouldn't that tighten up the neck enough to overcome that problem?
 
Pardon my arrogance; Lee FCD dies are for lazy reloaders that won't learn to correctly adjust dies. Jes MHO! A Lee FCD has no better crimp than any other die. What is the FCD's forte, is a post seating resizing ring that sizes the cartridge OD. Yes I have used one, and it now resides in a landfill somewhere in Southern Oregon. Putting more crimp on a case that doesn't have enough case tension may work, but I think I'd find the problem (thin/loose case walls in this instance) and correct it from there...

BTW I'm not a Lee hater, just think the FCD is a band-aid for mis-adjusted dies or oversize components (?)...
 
Batch depriming a few thousand 38 specials. 90% winchester and federal but a few RP in the mix. Can tell without looking when it is RP...very easy through the press.
Click to expand...

I would expect that, one habit I never got into was mindlessly sizing cases with mixed head stamps. I am in the habit of keeping cases together by sorting head stamps.

I do not expect cases to be identical in sizing resistance. My favorite case to size is once fired, I do have new unfired cases that have never been fired. I expect cases that have been fired to increase in resistance to sizing through work hardening.

F. Guffey
 
The only cases I don't sort by headstamp & load as mixed, are my CAS ammo... seems like I never get all my cases back, & often end up with one or two from someone else... so rather than stress over it, I just load mixed on both 38 Special & 45 Colt SAS loads... everything else gets sorted...

BTW... since I started wet tumbling, & my cases are bright shiny gold... I seem to get more back... must be easier to see in the dirt when they shine ???
 
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