Best Brass to buy for reloading

[dbla]

If I am going to buy a couple boxes to take to the range today and shoot, but I want to save the brass for reloading, is there a better brand to purchase? I don't reload as of now, but I want to get into it within the next couple months, I'm just curious if I should be buying a certain brand over another (Federal vs the White Box Remington for example) to get the better brass. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Aaron

[MacGyver]

Just make sure you're buying brass cased ammunition as opposed to Aluminum (some Blazer) or steel (wolf and Tula), and you'll be fine.

[glockster157]

Watch out for Berdan primed cases also. There is a lot of imported military brass cased pistol and rifle ammo, but if it is out of Europe it is most likely Berdan primed and not reloadable. Just shot up a bunch of 9mm yesterday that was like that.

[glockster157]

One other thought, never ever under any circumstances buy American Ammo, head stamp A-Merc. I have never seen such poor brass, even from the worst imports. As to American makers, R-P is probably the most popular but I have never had a problem with Win, Fed, PMC, Speer, Frontier(Hornady), Norma, Star(usually thicker) or Mag-Tech. I think WW makes a lot of the brass for the others anyways.

[Caster]

You didn't mention a caliber.

For 308 I prefer Hornady match, Lake City or RP for .223/5,56 For 9x19 I like winchester

I load just about everything though.

[dbla]

You didn't mention a caliber.

For 308 I prefer Hornady match, Lake City or RP for .223/5,56 For 9x19 I like winchester

I load just about everything though.

9mm primarily, but I'm about to buy a 380 ACP for EDC, and I'll also reload my Dad's .357 Mag/.38 Spec

[Caster]

Then just stick with Winchester and Rp and you won't have any issues.

[Jonnin]

sellier and belliot make a good, inexpensive 380 that has good brass. For 9mm, many will do, PMC is good, WWB is good, S&B again (I like most of their brass ammo offerings). To be honest, once you discard the steel, aluminum, berdan, and other junk, the only thing left that causes me trouble is crimped military 9mm brass (of which wcc stamped is the most common of what I pick up). 380 is not a military round so for the most part any brass cases I have found have worked well and the ones that have not were more of individual cases with issues rather than a brand. No clue on the 38 or 357 but I would think the same holds true, any brass is probably fine once you chunk the other metals in the trash. I have only bought brass one time, and that was remington 30-06 which I converted to 765. It has done well, those cases are on their 4th firing now and still look as good as day 1. The remington brass I pick up is always pretty strong as well, its well made. Blazer may be the thinnest, least good of what I find, it just feels thin and cheap though it has reloaded fine I do not trust it to survive dozens of firings.

[dbla]

Great, thanks guys.

[Jonnin]

oh, and the S&B 380 is probably labeled 9mm browning, not 380*

[Dave Shooter]

Then just stick with Winchester and Rp and you won't have any issues.

+1

FWIW, I've not had good luck with S&B pistol brass. Ones I've seen had very little radius at the mouth of the primer pocket, making crunched primers a very real possibility unless you swage the pocket. They may have changed design of brass recently.

If you get to the point where you want to buy just brass Starline makes excellent stuff and since they sell direct to the customer prices are very good compared with others.

[gregintenn]

Starline and Mag-Tech have both been very good quality brass, in my experience, at competitive prices.

Sorry, I reread your post. Winchester and Federal have both served me well, and Remington is usually pretty good.

[Caster]

^ Federal tend to have stronger cases in large bore handguns. I like Federal brass best in my 45 LC when I push it to top end.

[Jonnin]

a couple of "brands" use starline, actually, but I don't think you want to buy that.... hornady for example, or they used to.

[SonnyCrockett]

I have never used new brass.......always range floor brass..........never had a prob

[Dolomite_supafly]

What caliber(s)?

I have reloaded 223, 9mm, 45 ACP, 38 Special and 7.62x25 Tokarev.

The only time I have used new brass was for my 223. I did a lot of research and the best "cheap" brass to buy is Winchester. I have shot thousands of reloads using fired R-P brass without issue as well. The weakest is Federal. It tends to be weak in the primer pockets and will loosen after only a few loadings.

As far as 223 range pickups go I would be careful. I also ask the shooter if he reloads and if I can pick up the brass. If he does reload but says I can have the brass I walk away because he has used it to a point he no longer wants it. If they don't reload I will grab it up with their persission of course. If the brass is just there for the taking I would but scrutinized what I have picked up. I have also loaded steel cased 223. It works better than 223 until it rusts then it is useless to me. The steel cases stuff doesn;t grow and once trimmed I had 8 loadings on it without the need for another trim. But as I said rust is your enemy and the steel they use is prone to rust very quickly.

One more thing with 223 brass. Check online for case capacity or at a minimum work up loads for different brands of brass. What works well in a R-P brass might cause issues in LC brass because of the reduced capacity of the LC brass. The LC brass is thicker, making it stronger but the reduced capacity can create pressure issues that weren't there with other types of brass.

With pistol calibers it isn't as important to be selective. The brass from most pistol calibers will get lost or damaged on the range before they wear out. As other have said don't worry about picking up aluminum cases. Steel cases are fine if they are boxer primed and NOT rusty.

Nickel cases are the only cases that can cause serious issues as they age. The nickel will crack and flake, when this happens it will scratch your dies as you size them. And when the dies get scratched every case after that will have a nice gouge running down the side.

Some of the hardest brass cased stuff I have ever had was Sellier&Bellot. It would barely get back to useable size as well as the primer pockets being extremely tight. I guess they would be good for those pushing the limits but for me it wasn't worth all the extra effort.

Dolomite

[DWARREN123]

For 40 S&W I like R-P and for 10mm I like Starline.

[dlm37015]

i try to use lake city when i can i like the thicker brass