Anyone have issues with S&B brass?

[Fooped]

Hey folks,

I'm right in the middle of a .38 Special reloading run right now, and I've been getting a consistent issue with seating primers in S&B (Sellier and Bellot) brass. The primer takes a lot of effort to seat and a small half ring of brass is left over afterwards that I have to manually remove. It seems as though the primer pockets are crimped like military brass, but that seems odd to me as it's commercial ammo. Sometimes the primer deforms slightly as well (almost stretches ever so slightly outside the primer pocket).

Is this a simple case of this ammo having crimped primer pockets, or is there something else going on? I only get this with the S&B brass. I don't currently have the tool to remove the crimp (if in fact it is there to begin with) as I don't reload rifle or military brass.

Any thoughts?

 

[lord1234]

I have been throwing all of my S+B brass away for that reason.

 

[Bob J]

See EddieCoyle's post in this thread....

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=68482

 

[EddieCoyle]

They're not crimped, they're just very tight. I sort them out.

 

[M1911]

I've had some with tight primer pockets, but after reloading them once or twice had no trouble. YMMV.

 

[DISTINGUISHED PISTOL SHOT]

too tight

Yup, Same here with S&B Brass in .45acp. The brass primer pockets are tight, I just use care and adjust accordingly. The same problem happens with Aquila .45 acp brass. But I still reload both. The only brass that I uniformly throw out are "A-Merc".

 

[EddieCoyle]

It's hit or miss with S&B.

Not all S&B .38 is bad - just the stuff that was used for the WC loads. You can tell because it has a little dotted crimp line about 1/8" from the top of the case. The S&B brass that was originally used for the 158gr .38 is fine, as is the .357 brass.

The .45 ACP is tight but usable, and the .223 brass is top notch (more concentric at the neck than anything I've measured).

 

[K.W.]

Never ever touch S&B-products. (In Germany; Schlecht&Billich. Means bad and cheap). [sad2]

 

[Junglerott]

As far as 38 goes, I have a hard time with Federal brass. The spent primers pop out almost all the way and hang on and end up being reseated in the priming station.

 

[Lucas McCain]

Same here with S&B in .380, very tight and a half circle of brass shaved off, I ended up chamfering the primer pocket with a countersink.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

I dunno. I see some 9mm Luger S&B from time to time, and have never had a problem. In fact, I have always considered it to be a bit ABOVE the rest in terms of quality. Never a primer seating issue here.

 

[Fooped]

As far as 38 goes, I have a hard time with Federal brass. The spent primers pop out almost all the way and hang on and end up being reseated in the priming station.

This sounds like a de-capping die issue. If the de-capping rod is out far enough, there should be no reason why the primer wouldn't pop out all the way. Dial the rod length out a bit, but don't go too far or you'll start deforming the primer pockets.

 

[Lugnut]

Everry time I try to use S&B I regret it... at least in 9mm. Like someone said- once it's been reloaded once or twice- no big deal.

Be aware some 9mm is NOT brass but brass coated steel!!!! Genius huh?

 

[drgrant]

In .45 ACP I treat S+B as "brass that I use when I think some other guy is going to pick it up that's not me".

It's not terrible stuff but the pockets are super tight. If your priming ram in (whatever) is not dead on you will crush the primer or get it in partially.

-Mike

 

[Fooped]

In .45 ACP I treat S+B as "brass that I use when I think some other guy is going to pick it up that's not me".

It's not terrible stuff but the pockets are super tight. If your priming ram in (whatever) is not dead on you will crush the primer or get it in partially.

-Mike

Yup,

Even the first go around will work about 80% of the time, but the real issue is the slowdown that happens when I have to take the primed case out of the press and remove the little half-ring brass shitling that's left over, then put it back into the press by carefully sliding it past the casefeeder feed ramp into station one.

The other 20% of the time, the primer either goes in sideways, or deforms and "oozes" out of the primer pocket like a penny thats been run over by a freight train.

It sucks, but I'm damn sure not checking headstamps on the 2000+ pieces of 9mm brass that I've already sorted. I will be seperating the S&B brass going forward though.

Meh.

 

[swampy]

I have 100 S&B .243 cases that are fine. I have several hundred S&B 9mm and 40S&W mixed in with the thousands of cases I have reloaded without noticing any issues. I've primed a bunch of 9mm military cases using a lee priming tool without removing crimps and never had a primer fail to seat properly.