USELESS BRASS INFO

[kart racer]

I was kinda bored so measured about 800 round of brass so far today-.45 acp,mixed headstamps..pmc about 300rds were the only ones that didn't have a single one measure short.22 of 88 remington were short,12 of wcc match were short,3 of 18 "I" were short,1 of 52 federal,4 of 18 cbc,4 of 16 wcc,1 of 12 imi,2 of 11 tzz,2 of 9 s&b,1 of 6 ap,2 of 126 cc/speer and so far 58 of 161 winchester.so far pmc and cci seem t be the most consistant.do any of ya'll reload the one shorter than .888?

 

[NVMM]

kart racer, kinda bored? Christ pal you musta been going out of your mind!
http://www.bored.com/
Some of my 45 brass is at least 40 years old. Some I can barely read the head stamp. I used to measure but it seems they never lengthen. 1911 never misses a beat. Load that stuff up and get out and shoot.

 

[ulflyer]

Probably

Seems I measured a bunch way back when I had a non-1911 with FTF's. Was searching for causes. I think some were down to .840 or somesuch...but my memory may be failing me. Didn't affect the 1911's...at least they fired each time.

You shoulda come over to my place and we could have had a "measure your brass day". Or maybe shot the Guardian 380 some. I want to see if it stings your hand. Or.........

Bring a set of 45 dies and we'll set you up on my Dillon to load some of that brass. Will give you some good experience while you're meditating on what equip you want to buy. Or, for the price of that latest Nork, you coulda have had a Dillon.............

 

[The Bushmaster]

You got to be kiddin'...I have thousands of .45 ACP. Next time you get bored come see me...I have never seen .45 ACP brass exceed .895. Most often it gets shorter every time I reload it. Or it just seems that way. I have never trimmed a .45 ACP either. A lot of my .45 ACPs are below your .888. More like .885...Load-em...Shoot-em...

 

[kart racer]

I couldn't find any at .895 either.How do adjust for the differnece in case lengths or do ya not worry about too much?Seems like it would be a majot pita w/measurements from 883-894.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Don't worry about the length of .45 ACP or 9mm X 19 (luger). You will wear them out before you will ever trim them. If it's even possible to wear them out. Like one of the guys above said...He has .45 ACP that you can't even read the head stamp anymore. I tend to throw them out when they reach that state although I still can't find anything wrong with them. Like I said...Load-em. Shoot-em...

 

[Jim Watson]

Nearly all pistol brass is shorter than the nominal. And it gets shorter when fired, unlike a bottleneck rifle case. I have never trimmed a straight autopistol case, depend on the taper crimp to smooth over the differences. It works pretty well. I have thrown away a very few overlength Hornady .45 ACP and that is about it.

I did trim a big bag of mixed .357 Magnum brass to the same length one time so they would ROLL crimp consistently.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Jim's right...I shoot predominately .357 magnum, other then rifle cases, they are the only ones that I have to trim...

 

[Smokey Joe]

.45 brass length

Guys--Like some of you have noted, my .45ACP brass tends to vary in length. I too was advised "shut up, load it, shoot it" in my 1911. While I'm an experienced handloader, this was my first straight-wall rimless pistol case to reload.

I understand that with .45ACP--and with all straight-wall rimless cases--the case headspaces on the case mouth; that's why they are to be taper-crimped rather than roll-crimped.

So I shut up, loaded the brass, shot the brass in my 1911. All the brass worked just fine; no discernable difference in accuracy whether or not I segregated my brass by length or by headstamp, or just ran it through the gun in the order I grabbed it. It all just works fine.

My only question is this: Wotinell IS the case headspacing on? How can the shorter brass function just as well in the gun as the longer brass?? Or is it just the ghost of John Moses Browning, blessing each and every round that a 1911 feeds into its chamber???

Yeah, I know the answer, too: Shut up, load it, shoot it. But I can't help wondering.

 

[BigSlick]

Not to be splitting hairs here (or thousandths), but I have noticed a difference when running rounds over the chrono.

With mixed headstamps, of various lengths, the spreads open up. With same headstamp, known once fired brass (as in all from the same case) spreads get into the 3-5 fps for SD, ES in the 8-10 fps range.

Mixed cases (range pickups or leave it brass) the spreads run as high as 12-15 for SD and ES has been as high as 30-40 fps.

Not really a huge issue, but as far as useless brass info goes, it can hang with the best of them

BigSlick

 

[Johnny Guest]

Load-to-load variation

kart racer, I'll echo the statements of the others. When I first got my Oehler chronograph, I was speed checking everything in sight. I finally settled down and did some (fairly) serious research. One of the first projects was to explore the difference made by different cases.

I found that the variations were very much on the order of those given by Bigslick in Post #10, above. I had purchased about 3,000 once and twice fired .45 ACP brass from the estate of an old bullseye shooter. About half of these were old cases headstamped REM-UMC. These had noticibly thinner case walls than some others, especially WCC military cases and Speer commercial cases. The REM-UMC cases didn't even want to hold jacketed bullets firmly, but were fine for lead round nose. As a result, I sorted brass and held out the thicker-walled stuff for my "premium loads," for hunting and matches.

Like many who really enjoy shooting pistols, I engage in a variety of activities. I fire at least 50 handloads for every centerfire factory round - -possibly a hundred. I guage every round by dropping it into an extra barrel, and cull out all which do not click when they go into the chamber. Unless I'm putting up ammo for weapons accuracy testing or for a match in which some precision is needed, I don't bother sorting by headstamp. There's no reason to spend the additional time on ammo used to practice speed drills at close range, or which will be fired in an open-bolt submachine gun.

OTOH, if some cross-canyon rock slaying is pending, I carefully sort out my amo by headstamp and apparent age of brass, and it makes the two and three hundred yard hits far more likely. There's a certain satisfaction in whacking a two-foot square rock at distance with a good .45 autoloader. Long range handgun shooting is not the exclusive province of magnum revolvers and scoped single shots.

The above comments apply only to my handgun loading. I become fairly compulsive about uniformity, case length, and case weight when putting up rifle loads. But that's another topic.

Good shooting to all
Johnny