American Ammunition ("A-Merc") - Beware!

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North Bender

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It's been a couple years since anyone posted about this ammunition so this serves as a refresher.

I was punching out primers and cleaning some 45 Schofield last night getting ready to do some reloading. I was having a real difficult time removing some primers and couldn't figure out the problem. Then I found a split case ... from factory ammunition???

So I started looking over the cartridges and found the problem was all related to some "American Ammunition" I had purchased some years ago. The reason I was having so many problems depriming was that the flash holes are not centered. I have to hand it to the Lee recapping die, that thing is tough.

I read up on A-Merc ammo. There are so many problems posted about it that it should not be on the market.


A-Merc1.jpg

A-Merc2.jpg
 
The off-center flash holes are just the beginning of the problems with A-Merc brass. Wrong diameter and wrong depth primer pockets, incorrectly annealed brass resulting in neck splits upon 1st firing, wrong diameter and thickness rims, lack of rim groove - these are just some of the issues I encountered. I sometimes wondered if A-Merc Co. has deliberately set out to make garbage.

A-Merc headstamped brass goes into the trash right away.
LT
 
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14 March I was at the range shooting a M1911.

Most of my brass is mixed headspace, I will pick up and use any boxer case. But I did not know about AMERC.

I had two AMERC cases drop their primers on the way to the chamber.

I was able to find one primer under the shooting bench. I pushed that back in the case with my thumb, dropped the slide, and shot the thing.

I could not find the other primer, so that case and bullet went in the trash barrel.

AMERC is awful stuff. :cuss:
 
If an A-Merc case gets by the inspectors (Yep...me) and makes it to the sizing die, I can feel the difference. It feels light it is squashing the case instead of sizing it. I find them every time. They feel waaaay different.
 
Not to hijack the thread, I've also noticed off center flash holes in Serbian Prvi Partizan 5.56 brass (headstamp "AD").
 
I have several examples of off-center flash holes, from mainstream manufacturers, but I have never drawn conclusions about inferior manufacuture as I have with A-Merc. I wasn't aware of its poor reputation until fairly recently, but I had alerted on its poor quality independently. Some things speak for themselves... :scrutiny:
 
I was at a gunshow over the weekend and while talking with a vendor, the supject of A-merc brass came up. He then told me about his mishap with reloading some A-Merc brass. He hadn't had any knowledge of the problems with this brass, so some A-Merc brass had gotten reloaded, (I think he said .40 S&W) and while out shooting one day a round failed to fully chamber, with the result of an out of battery discharge. Don't know why the gun fired out of battery, but the gun suffered some serious damage. So word to the wise, don't reload this brass, and IMO, I wouldn't buy this ammo even if it was free. LM
 
Not great brass but I use it for blastin ammoin my 44 mags. Never even a small problem with Lee dies even though they do have sloppily made flash holes. i am on my 12 - 14th loading from mild to retarded heavy (not over max though and now only plinker stuff). Out of about 150 that were given to me I still have about 100. A few cracked (still shot them once more before tossing) and I bodged up some too. Shoot em, I say.

Patty
 
iirc, there was a problem with older A-Merc when it was in the clear plastic packs, they had overcharged/out of spec .45 acp ammo and blew up a number of Glocks.

Their brass is foul, words cannot describe the utter craptasticness of A-MERC. It's the only headstamp that automatically goes right in the junk bin as soon as I see it. I honestly fail to see how this stuff even gets through ONE firing from virgin to ever be considered "reloadable". Their ammo is so overwhelmingly bad that they should close down in shame, but un-knowledgeable shooters still buy it because it is cheap...then we hear about it here!

There is only ONE good thing I can say about A-MERC cases- one thing only- and that is that the yare actually made of brass and are thus worth money at the smelter, unlike the Wolf steel cased crap, or the Blazer aluminum (which is decent ammo, but the cases are worthless even to recycle! The primer is brass, the case is aluminum, and mixed metal won't fly at the recycler)
 
Well -

Hate to say it, but I have seen similar problems with some WWB. Actually, after contacting them they did "make good" and I got a free box... BUT you gotta look over this stuff!
 
Well -

Hate to say it, but I have seen similar problems with some WWB. Actually, after contacting them they did "make good" and I got a free box... BUT you gotta look over this stuff!
Click to expand...

There is a difference though. You "have seen" these problems with WWB, and the eventually made good. You see this 90% of the time when dealing with Amerc, at least I have. At best, its the right dimensions, and it just splits after the first or second firing. My experience is with 357 and 45 acp brass.

As far as winchester, I once got a single round in a 100 WWB value box of 45 the had a crinkled case and the bullet seated wrong. I sent a picture of the round with the lot number and whatnot in an email to winchester. They sent me a free 100 round box of WWB. Not so shabby, IMO.
 
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