40 S&W case weigh comparison

[BJung]

For the life of me, I can't find the thread where someone had great groups and used Federal brass. I started weighing my collection of 9mm and .40 cal range brass, randomly pulling 50 cases and weighing them. This is what I recorded.

Federal .40 cal. 67gr (10%) and 69gr (90%)
Remington. 40cal. 63gr (10%), 64gr (70%), 66gr (20%)
Winchester. 40cal. 67gr (30%), 69gr (70%)
Speer .40cal. 61gr- (5%), 63-64gr(45%), 66-67gr(45%), and 69gr+(5%).

Weight was measured with a HF electronic scale and I tared the scale every 5 measurements, double checked the extreme spreads, and slide the brass around the pan. Not all brass will have this same spread but to me this shows which brass is more consistent in weight. And, if this is an indicator of case volume, the Federal pistol brass here is the most consistent.

I haven't finished weighing Winchester, Remington, and Federal 9mm brass but will post the weights later along with PMC and S&B.

[Marco Califo]

I do not believe your described activity is productive.
1. Sort by headstamp. Weigh within that headstamp. Load those as a batch. Perhaps exclude outliers.
2. Keep headstamps separate.
It means less than zero to say this R-P case weighs the exaxt same as this Winchester case. The metallurgy is different, and it means nothing.

[BJung]

Hi Marco. My measurement is meant only to show that the which manufacturer's cases are more consistent. Just like rifle cases, it might make a difference. I haven't gotten that far as to develop a nice load for a particular bullet, powder, primer, case combination and then mix the cases to see if there is a difference, yet. Someone on one of these threads told me he preferred Federal cases. Maybe the consistency in weight is the reason. I've heard that it doesn't but as someone who likes to tinker with rifle cases, I like to think that it would make some difference.

[Marco Califo]

You still need to sort them and keep them separated.
Straight-walled Handgun cases are fairly generic: you are talking about a generic variable (consistency within headstamp), that no one has yet found to be useful. It is more useful to sort, separate, and load like headstamps PERIOD.
Truth be told, many reloaders successfully reload MIXED headstamp handgun brass and that works just fine at target loads. It does not make any practical difference, at handgun range and qualification tests.
I have containers full of handgun brass. I am not going to weigh any of them.
Rifle brass is a very different story.

[zeke]

The metallurgy of the differing makes of brass is indeed different, and very good idea to separate the makes if possible. At least separate the rem brass, which in my experience loses it's limited elasticity after one firing. If loading the rem brass, especially with jacketed bullets, you might consider making a dummy round and loading it from full lock back in the mag using the slide release to check for set back.

If interested in extensive measuring, might consider measuring the oal length of the differing makes. Some might be short enough not to get crimped if crimping die is set for the longer cases.

Am preferring the fed cases, win second. Will not use the rem cases for reloads, as one of the pistols used is BHP with very strong recoil spring.

[BJung]

Zeke - What does BHP mean?

I once manufacturer stamp separated and then weight separated once fired 40 S&W range brass just picked up in a day and fired the combination with my BHP at clay pigeons at 100 yards. All shorts were a hit or very close to the edge as soon as I lined my sights up correctly. I never mixed my brass though to see if it made a difference.

I think Rem brass is probably third tier between it, Federal and Winchester too. I plan to use them for my cast bullet practice loads.

[zeke]

BHP=Browning High Power. The BHP in 40 s&w owned has a very strong recoil spring. As Marco Califo pointed out, alot of people just mix the brass up for soft target loads. I do this for 45 acp, but not for calibers where most the loads are close to full power.

And am likely not able to see clay birds at 100 yds over open pistol sights anymore.

[BJung]

I love my BHP .40S&W. The spring IS stiff. Sometimes it takes some French words to get that darn thing back in. Yeah, my eyes aren't as good as before. I once was watching my daughter practice soccer without my glasses an later realized I was looking at the wrong girl.

[Marco Califo]

clay birds at 100 yds over open pistol sights

I do not think you are going to smoke 25 of 25 targets with any 40 SW.
Even if you do sort your brass.

[BJung]

I was just having fun and trying to construct the most accurate load..

[FrankenMauser]

I use .40 S&W brass to swage .44 caliber projectiles.
Average weight across all brands is about 67.8 gr.
Winchester is typically 67-68 gr.
The others are close enough that I don't even bother sorting any more, beyond brand and maybe head stamp style within a brand. They do differ, but not enough to matter if you stick with the same thing.

[WESHOOT2]

Handgun: I always sort by headstamp, even 45 ACP (which, IME, is the least sensitive to manufacturer variance).
Always.

[sevt_chevelle]

Unless you are a bullseye shooter, you have a bullseye gun, well sounds like a mountainous waste of time IMO.

[WESHOOT2]

I've witnessed different factory ammo of the same bullet weight/type differ 4" POI at 25 yds from the same gun.

Accuracy always matters, unless it doesn't matter; matters to me......sort by headstamp.

[Unclenick]

The last time I weighed any pistol brass (.45 Auto) for comparison purposes, I found Starline had half the variation of Winchester and several other brands I had on hand at the time (about 20 years ago). I've been loading and shooting Starline .45 Auto almost exclusively for matches ever since. YMMV, but it seems to be a good, durable, consistent product.

[Marco Califo]

Starline makes excellent brass. They make 2 45 ACP products. Regular 45 ACP, and 45 ACP +P, with thicker brass, and less capacity, intended for use in less than fully supported chambers.

[44 AMP]

If you're shooting a tilt barrel lockup gun, where neither the front nor the rear sight are attached to the barrel, what's the point in trying to make ammo more accurate than the gun is?

Particularly if the gun has fairly coarse sights and the usual less than match grade trigger??

I've got one Colt Govt model set up for match shooting back in the late 60s. Micro rear sight and a sweet light crisp trigger. In my hands (admittedly not the best possible), from a rest shooting 200gr LSWC loaded with no special preparation, that gun will put 5 shots in one hole at 25 yds. One 2-2.5" hole all shots touching. That being the case, I see no point to doing anything special with my ammo prep. I do separate by headstamp, but mixed headstamp loaded in the magazine produces the same result.

I have other semi auto pistols that are more accurate but they use different mechanisms than the Browning tilt barrel system.

Generally speaking, things in ammo prep that can matter for accuracy with a bolt action rifle usually don't matter as much, or at all with a service class handgun.