CCI and Federal 9mm brass

[buckey]

Always thought both CCI and Federal 9mm brass came out of the same place ? Was wasting time the other day and weighed sized and de primed brass of both and was surprised that the CCI was on average 4 grains lighter. might want to separate for top end loads? Not a very large case for such a difference .

[Metal god]

Yep Federal has thicker wall thickness in my experience .

[Nick_C_S]

I always thought CCI and Speer came out of the same place.

I don't load much 9mm, but it's been my experience that Federal seems to be thicker (anecdotal, casual observation). Federal cases aren't monolithic either. Meaning, they are different among themselves - different headstamp "font," more or less rounded rims, etc.

[Metal god]

I don’t remember speer off the top of my head being thicker or thinner . Fed , Win , CBC , Starline are all thicker then Aguila , PPV , blazer and others . Those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head . And that was many years ago , who knows what they are now if you were to test new production .

That said I don’t remember what the differences are from all of them . I looked at this, maybe 8-10 years ago when I noticed a significant difference in how much force it took to size different cases . After looking into it, I concluded it was the case wall thickness Was the main contributing factor? I did do some measurements back then but don’t remember what they were. I do know it’s not like the thicker walls are all the same size and the thinner walls are all the same size . It was just the thicker walls were definitely thicker, and the thinner walls were definitely thinner. I could feel it when I size the case, when I seat the bullet , and how well my crimp would crimp , It was very clear to me while using a single stage press . I don’t think you can feel it using a progressive press though . There was a significant case wall thickness differences from case to case, depending on headstand.

[buckey]

Blazer brass loads nice in my tight chamber guns, my glock don't care what brass i use

[stagpanther]

Neither one is all that strong in case you're contemplating pushing them very hot (I've blown the case heads off of quite a few of them), you might consider shell shock cases if you're looking at "wild side" loads.

[buckey]

Don't venture very far on the Wild side of loading but do get close and so far the new Federal seem fine but then only load once.

[buckey]

What is the strongest brass 9mm case?

[Unclenick]

Steel cases are strongest, but don't try to reload them. If you do, they develop small cracks near the web that allow tiny gas jet leaks that pit the inside of the chamber, as shown here, where it happened to a 1911 in 45 Auto, and it is lower pressure than 9mm.





For strong reloadable cases, the ones Stagpanther linked to in post #6, above, are probably it.

[Metal god]

I’d say Starline , CBC and NATO brass are all pretty robust .

[FrankenMauser]

CCI, Speer, Federal, and Blazer cases do all come off the same production lines. But their are multiple lines in multiple locations. And they use two different production methods.

"All the same" ... as long as it came from the same machines.

[Unclenick]

Somewhere I have a PowerPoint presentation ATK gave to the military on the Federal 308 brass used in Mk 316 mod 0 sniper ammo, claiming their proprietary knowledge of brass developed for match ammunition improved it's accuracy. Also, lots of folks have reported poor reloading life with Federal primer pockets widening sooner than others, including having primers fall out upon firing the factory loads of some of their magnum ammunition. So while I am sure they hire out their production capacity to each other as needed (something the whole industry does, according to Norma, whether they have a common owner or not), I am not sure the most commonly acquired brass from each headstamp doesn't have a predominant set of tooling it comes off of that distinguishes it. They seem to have different head hardnesses when sectioned.