Question of Aquila Brass

[grisbald]

edit: It's 9mm brass.

Friend of mine brought over some brass he swept up at a range. Noticed some Aquila brass in there and it has like a dotted line around the case about 1/4" below case mouth. Is this like a case crimp for their bullet? I felt around with a paper clip, can't feel anything on the inside. Except for exterior appearance, can it be reloaded like normal brass?

[WESHOOT2]

It is called a cannelure, and is imprinted at that location, right below the seated bullet's base, to assist in reducing bullet setback.

Load those cases without concern for the case cannelure.

[huntinaz]

Yeah, pay no attention to the cannelure. The Aguila brass I've tried it 357 and 45 auto has been great.

[grisbald]

Thx for the info.

[GJSchulze]

My 147 gr 9mm bullets are long enough to put a bulge in Aguila cases with my Hornady LnL AP press. I don't know why. 115 gr bullets in a friend's Dillon doesn't bulge them. It's enough of a bulge that 95% of them won't fit a headspace gauge.

[Nick_C_S]

WESHOOT2 has it right.

I have some of this Aquila brass - quite a bit, actually. I load it per normal.

[GJSchulze]

I have some of this Aquila brass - quite a bit, actually. I load it per normal.

I'm not surprised. Findings like mine pertain to the bullets and equipment I use. But this is why I sort pistol brass by headstamp. If I didn't, I would probably still realize that Aguila (and CBC) were problematic. By sorting, I discovered it immediately.

I originally didn't intend to keep on sorting, I just did it because I was new to reloading and wanted to reduce the number of variables. Now that my brass is sorted, I keep to one HS and shoot that until it's done and then I move on to the next. That way when I shoot with other people, I can quickly look through my recovered brass and weed out the HS's I wasn't shooting for later sorting. This is all easier than the first time I sorted a few thousand.

[Nick_C_S]

9mm is worth sorting. I'm relatively new to loading 9's, so I'm still in denial about it. (Meaning, I DON'T sort by headstamp - yet.)

Most experienced loaders already know this, but for the rookies: It's good to sort by headstamp because of the differences in cartridge internal volume. Now (I believe) it's not that critical for most calibers; but in the case of 9mm, it probably is. The cartridge is so small, that minor differences in volume and mean big differences in pressure - with the same load recipe.

My hottest 9mm load is 6.1g AA5 w/ 124gJHP; and the headstamp doesn't seem to matter. And the chronograph doesn't show any unusual velocity fluctuations. Of course, I didn't check the headstamps - they could have all been the same

At any rate, I don't sort. And my two 9mm guns gobble up and spit out everything I feed them without any problems. So I have found no need to dig into that logistical nightmare of sorting.

[GJSchulze]

my two 9mm guns gobble up and spit out everything I feed them

I haven't gotten to the point where I'm testing for load accuracy. I want to and have what I need to do it, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

My two Springfields (XD and XDm) eat anything I feed them, but my press seems to chew more on some than others. I can either power through a bunch of Speer cases or keep bending over to pick up bullets that fall off of other cases or stuck primers or rounds that are just a hair fat.