Brass Case Brand Recommendations

[jetblueshooter]

I just completed processing 4000 9mm brass cases, with 1000 left to go. I reviewed each and every one of them. So, obviously the quantities are different for each. I made a list of every brand in the 4000 quantity, I will update it again when I hit 5000. I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on a brand that stands out, being "bad" and another that stands out being "good". Even if you have had good or bad results with a few of these brands listed below, curious as to which those are. Take a look, there are 55 brands.

There is one brand in here, I titled it "ARABIC", but it could be English, I can't make it out, it looks like a script of some kind. If you see an asterisk * that's actually a star shape.

The bulk of the brands were these:

BLAZER
GFL
CBC
WMA
USA
PMC
AGUILA
RP
S&B
SPEER
PMC
WIN
F C


And here is the full list:

*-*
AGUILA
AMMO INC
AMMOLOAD
ARABIC?
BLAZER
CBC
CCI
D
F C
FM
Frontier
GBW
GECO
GFA
GFL
HORNADY
HOTSHOT
HPR
HRP
HRTRS
IMI
IMI
IVI
JAG
Jesse James
LAX
MAXX
MXI
MXT
NORMA
PERFECTA
PMC
PMC
PPU
RP
RWS
S&B
SIG
SPEER
STV
STV
SUMBRO
T&M
TSA
Tulammo
USA
WCC
WIN
WMA
W-W
X-RING
X-TREME
ZGI
ZVS

[Marco Califo]

From your first list, Blazer, USA, Aguila are brands I scrap.
Equally useless are any that you have 1 to 49 pieces of.
I spend me time and energy on the ones I have several hundred of.

[LE-28]

Did you look down inside of the cases?
The IMT, FN, and Ammo Load cases can have an internal ledge down inside the case that can reduce the available volume in the case and put you over your desired pressure.
They also have the nasty ability of breaking off at the ledge inside the chamber when fired and leaving the front part of the case stuck in the chamber.
They are not fun to get back out either.
I never had any trouble with Blaser brass and I have seen tests where blazer brass actually stood up to the Glock bulge better than most of the other brands of brass on the market.
Someone on THR put the test results that was done by an independant org, that proved that they had a stronger head than all the others that were tested.
That may also mean they have less internal volume also.

I have found that GFL brass which is the cheap Fiocchi brass suffers from primer pockets being out of center so bad that they can break punch pins. Otherwise it's good brass.

I hope you have lots of LAX brass because it is some of the nicest brass I have had the opportunity to reload.

WMA brass is usually military brass. You will have to chamfer the primer pockets because the primers are crimped into the case after being inserted.
If you don't you will have a hard time repriming them.

Perfecta is another brand with out of center flash holes, but other wise is ok.

PPU brass are really hard brass and you will notice them when you resize them. There's nothing wrong with them but I keep them separate because I load on an auto progressive.

Some of those on your list I have not heard of and most of them are good.

Hope this helps in some way but watch for the ones with the internal ledge. That is your biggest problem.

[Marco Califo]

*-* are Starline. Very good. I buy them new in many calibers.

[BJung]

I'm about the same way as MarcoCalifo except that I load different bullets for different cases. For example, for my 9mm, the Wins are my 122TC loads and the Rems are my brother's 122TC loads. If they were .38 brass, my Win brass is for wadcutters, my Rem brass is for 150gr swc cast bullets, Fed brass is for 140gr hollow point cast bullets. Speer for Gold Dots.

[Hammerhead]

Don't trash your Blazer 9mm brass, it works well for me. It's a bit thin, but it seems consistent.

[44 AMP]

Sort them by headstamp and bag in 50 count in ziplock sandwich bags. See how many full boxes (50) you have, of what, and keep the "orphan" (less than a box) brass for plinking, trade, or scrap value.

Process brass and load in batches of only a single headstamp at a time. Expect reasonable consistency within the same headstamp brass, (good or bad) but be aware a different headstamp can have different characteristics.

Hardness, wall thickness, even internal case volume can vary quite a bit between different brands, and changing headstamps might require adjusting the dies and/or the load (powder charge), like always change ANY component, work up a new safe load.

[griz]

Starline, WCC, and IMI are my favorites from your list. They seem to last the longest. I haven't tried all the brands you list, but I haven't found too many that were really bad. I like cases without a cannelure* better and would second the advice that there's not much you can do with a brand you only have a handful of them. I save them up and when I shot cowboy matches I would use them when the brass couldn't be recovered.

* Sometimes different factory loads from the same company will use different cases. I've seen RP cases with no cannelure, one cannelure, and some with two cannelures. So it's not just brand.

[Average Joe]

CBC, S&B and Herters all have very tight primer pockets, you might want to exclude them from your reloading list, I always know when one slips through by the force needed to prime them.

[pete2]

I prefer RP, Win or FC. I haven't had any problems with Blazer tho. I load them all. I woul cull the brass with the step in it.

[Unclenick]

Foreign primer pockets are often made to metric conversion numbers that wind up being about four tenths of a thousandth smaller than US-made primer pockets. IMI is another tight one, and I just run them all through my Dillon swager before I even try to load them.

[markr6754]

Check your “Arabic” brass. It may be Browning brass. My Browning cases look like antlers around the case head.

[brasscollector]

Browning 9mm

[Jim Watson]

I shot those "ledge" cases for a while and wondered what everybody was complaining about. Then I cut one off at the step leaving a ring in the chamber and have since discarded them.

Otherwise, if it is Boxer primed brass, it goes in the pot to be loaded with bulk coated or plated bullets. With 100% gauge check, it is good enough for IDPA and USPSA which is the bulk of my pistol shooting these days.

If I want to load some defense practice JHPs, I sort out some name brand, usually Federal.

[lll Otto lll]

4000 cases is less than half the amount of a 5 gallon bucket. Interesting that you’d have 60 different headstamps in such a small sampling of brass.

By the way, Browning brass is rebranded Winchester..

[jetblueshooter]

Thanks guys - all great info here. I'm going to combine some of the answers....

I think it's a good idea mentioned to separate the brass into 50 and try them out understand the differences and the characteristics of them. Interesting, some good comments on Blazer, I did have a good number of those.

Shout out to @brasscollector who was able to determine the funky brass cases with scribble on them. So, those were Browning! I would have never guessed.

I think some good info here on the chamfered cases and the WMA crimped primer pockets. Wow, I suppose I will just toss those. But, I don't think I have seen any that have a chamfered ledge in them yet.

So, you guys are pretty smart. I wonder if TheFiringLine would let me give a $20 gift card to the closest person to guess? I would just boil it down to the big ones, not all the small quantities.

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by Jim Watson

I shot those "ledge" cases for a while and wondered what everybody was complaining about. Then I cut one off at the step leaving a ring in the chamber and have since discarded them.

Otherwise, if it is Boxer primed brass, it goes in the pot to be loaded with bulk coated or plated bullets. With 100% gauge check, it is good enough for IDPA and USPSA which is the bulk of my pistol shooting these days.

If I want to load some defense practice JHPs, I sort out some name brand, usually Federal.

The complaint with a stepped case is if loading a relatively full case with normal brass and then you stuff that amount in a greatly reduced capacity case you’re going to have a big problem. Now if you segregate them and work up a separate load just for them it’s not a problem. But for a relatively new hand loader such as the OP is this is pretty important information, much easier to just chuck them and avoid the hassle and danger.

[FrankenMauser]

From your first list, Blazer, USA, Aguila are brands I scrap.

You know that the Blazer brass comes off the same machines that are punching out CCI, Speer, Federal, and FC, right?
You're tossing brass that, other than the head stamp, is identical to 'other' brands that you're keeping.

The only potential difference is if you have "dot" brass (●). "Dot" brass is extruded, rather than drawn. But "dot" brass comes in all flavors, too.

To quote myself from 5 years ago:

Federal uses these, and more, to indicate different manufacture methods and production plants:
FC
FC●
●FC
●FC●
FC●●
Federal●
●Federal
●Federal●
Federal

The dots indicate extruded cases, rather than drawn. The number and location of the dots indicate the production facility.

Other than military brass, they're the only domestic company that I know of, that uses markings in that way.

Occasionally, you'll find the "dot" (●) markings on Speer, Blazer, or CCI brass, as well. ...They're all part of the ATK family, along with Federal.

ATK is not the same as it was 5 years ago, but ammunition production doesn't seem to have changed.

Look at it this way: When you toss a handful of Blazer (no dot) cases, you might as well just be throwing away a handful of (no dot) Speer or Federal.

"Dot" ● brass does get some complaints about being "soft", "sticky", or harder to size. I won't hold that against you. I still use it. But some people find it annoying.

[Shadow9mm]

Honestly, as long as its not an aluminum, steel cased, or beridan primed I use it. in my opinion all brass casings should be good for few reloads. Brass does not last forever, and brass life can depend on the gun you are shooting it out of as well.

Oh, some 9mm brass will have crimped primers, i got probably 150 of them in my last batch of once fired brass I bought. There are tools to press or cut the crimp out. It is some work, but once its fixed, its fixed forever, to me its worth fixing.

To clarify, rifle brass is an entirely different animal in my opinion, but for 9mm brass for range use, I use any brass casings I can get my hands on.

[LE-28]

FrankenMauser,
I wish I could like your post like we can on THR.
Good Post.

[Nick_C_S]

Neat timing on this thread because I have just begrudgingly started down the road of headstamp sorting my 9mm. That's the bad news. The good news is that 9mm is purely a utilitarian cartridge for me and has no recreational value (i.e., I don't take 9's out to the range to have a nice time; but only to get practice with them for carry/defense. Maybe twice a year) so there's no hurry. And . . . I have tons of factory ammo. (I've been handloading since '84, but never loaded the 9 until 2013 - and have still done only a smattering of work ups.)

Just to add some additional info: The "WMA" are from Winchester White Box "Nato" ammo. At least, that is the case (no pun) with mine. I bought four or five boxes (50) in 2013 (124gn FMJ) and they're headstamped "WMA 13." The WCC's and WIN's are from regular Winchester White Box - at least that is my experience. About 2013-ish, I also bought a bunch of boxes of "regular" (not Nato) Winchester White Box 124's & 115's; and they're stamped "WIN." Not "WCC," which is what I'm used to seeing in years past.

There have been times when I worked up a hot loading of 9mm and sorted a bunch of the same stamp on the fly for the work up. But any basic range ammo got mixed brass. It's time to get more formal with it and start sorting. I'll still used mixed for the range fodder; but anything more "serious" will definitely get like headstamps. As if I needed more stuff to do with my "spare time" *sigh* .

[Mike / Tx]

When I had several K of mixed cases I sat down and separated all by head stamp. Once done I set about cleaning and doing a more in depth internal inspection. Not having read about the separation issue with the stepped cases i simply loaded them to target load specs.

It only took one case separation to determine that those were not going through my dies again. Once the neck separated the next case drove it home in the chamber making getting it out a major pain.

Other than that however, I load just about anything for simple target fodder. With the higher octane loads I use new or once fired Starline, Win, or Rem cases.

Hope that helps.

[jetblueshooter]

Okay guys, this is all great information. I'm about ready to take the major quantities of brands that I have and count them. Let's see what we are dealing with on the breakdown. Here are the major brands in the pile in no particular order;

Speer
AGUILA
RP
F C
G.F.I
PMC
Win
Blazer
USA
CBC
WMA
S&B

And out of these it looks like WMA is the one with crimped primer pockets.

So that's a dozen brands, I can reload them each separately and do some research at the range etc. Now I'm going to weigh them and see what I have the most of in order.

INTERESTING NOTE --> I have weighed 100 of each to get a per/case gram weight. There is very little, if any difference. So, maybe Blazer was getting a bad rap. There is no significant difference but just a few grams here or there. I'm thinking that there must be a protocol or standard requirement for these on the thickness, weight etc.