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Old October 1, 2006, 01:59 PM   #1
cpaspr
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Regarding A-merc ammo.

The reference to A-Merc ammo came up in this thread http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...64#post2110264

I've seen some comments regarding best/worst brass that indicate some people sort their brass by manufacturer, and toss all the A-Merc stuff as crap out of hand. Why is that? Is it wildly inconsistent? Overly tight primer pockets? What?

Didn't want to hijack the thread, so started a new one.
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Old October 1, 2006, 02:09 PM   #2
Thesenator
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To find the most satisfactory answers to every question you will ever have about Amerc brass, try reloading some.

You will quickly see why it ends up as scrap.
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Old October 1, 2006, 02:55 PM   #3
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Sorry to send you to The High Road, but here ya go.....

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=214543
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Old October 1, 2006, 09:41 PM   #4
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You know, I read about the A-Merc stuff, and picked up a bunch of once fired ones in 9mm at the range just try reloading to see what the fuss was all about...

The 9mm cases ALL had a crushed side from the extractor - it seems like a weak cartridge base to begin with. When I load them, it would seem to be harder on the sizer than other brands, but I loaded all of them just fine with no primer insertion problems. My Glock 19 doesn't seem to do any damage to the case base, so I gather it might have been due to the Hi-Point 9mm carbine that my range rents.

I also have a bunch of A-Merc factory new .44special. After shooting 2 boxes, I count 5 cases that had split necks and had to toss them. I haven't reloaded them yet, but if once fired cases have already have a 5% failure rate, I can't imagine reloading these too many times.

I'd say, if you got them, shoot em, but don't bother reloading them as it's not worth the trouble. I didn't know what military crimp was either until i crushed a couple of primers trying to force them into a crimped case.
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Old October 1, 2006, 10:12 PM   #5
Johnny Guest
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AMERC is utter trash

It's difficult to find an almost universal consenus amongst handloaders. It's possible to accomplish a given chore in so many different ways, there'll usually be a wide difference of opinion about a given topic. One nearly unanimous vote though, is that A-Merc, either loaded ammo OR empty brass, is NOT GOOD STUFF.

Click on a few of the following threads. Note the wide range of dates and geographical locales represented. You can draw your own conclusions.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...ghlight=A-merc

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...ghlight=A-Merc

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...ghlight=A-Merc

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...ghlight=A-Merc

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...ghlight=A-Merc

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...ghlight=A-Merc

Or, run your own search.

Best,
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Old October 1, 2006, 11:10 PM   #6
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I picked up, what appeared to be a loaded 9mm round at an ipsc shoot. It was still loaded, an a-merc case without a primer, or a flash hole!

Apparently what happened is the firing pin fired the primer, with nowhere for the force to go, it backed the primer out of the pocket! Yeah, good stuff! I like my glock too much to shoot apcray like that!
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Old October 2, 2006, 09:09 AM   #7
cpaspr
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Thanks Johnny Guest, and everyone else.

Only the first link worked, the other 5 appear to be too old, since they were also linked from the first one. But I get the drift. Any A-mercs I come across will go bye-bye.
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Old October 2, 2006, 12:35 PM   #8
mfree
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To recap, I believe A-merc is using substandard brass and therefore using more of it, i.e. much thicker case walls.

We've seen two damaged pistols at the range due to this stuff, and a slew of other malf's, plus at least one range fire due to spat lumps of burning powder, and that was enough for us to ban it. I personally tried some 158gr 9mm that was handed in for disposal and found a 33% failure rate, mostly squibs, and thankfully due to the thick cases the bullets were undersized and managed to make it out of the barrel every time. I do believe one of the damaged guns, a rather nice custom 1911, blew due to firing after a partial squib.

You can take .45 A-merc and roll it, and watch the case rim relief cut wander up and down the case a full 1/16".
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Old October 2, 2006, 01:42 PM   #9
Rico567
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I get the occasional A-merc case (fortunately, only a few!) and I ensure no one else will have a bad experience by crushing the case mouth with a pliers. As far as that stuff is concerned, being crushed for scrap is its finest hour.
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Old October 3, 2006, 08:12 AM   #10
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I sort my brass by headstamp, but I didn't when I first started reloading. Invariably, when a case wouldn't accept a primer or would get crushed seating a bullet I'd pull it out and find it to be A-MERC. Now I sort my brass and crush all the A-MERC casemouths and toss them into the scrap bin.

"Their finest hour" - that's great!
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