-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
-
Be sure to enter the NES/MFS May Giveaway ***Canik METE SFX***
What did you do in the reloading room recently?
- Thread starter DW357
- Start date
Sounds like Herters picked up the last run of brass from American Ammunition Co. (AMERC).
No idea. I thought the 357M and 44M Herters were produced by S&B. But wherever they got the brass from for these runs, it sucks. I still have 300 rounds of factory Herters 44M from some sale before I started reloading. I was looking at the primers on them last night. If one looks closely, one can see that it's not like their primers went in all that nicely, either.
I did load all the 357M I tried to load successfully. The 357M brass is a little short. I found that out the hard way. I usually crimp in a separate operation after seating, but in this case I had set the seating die to crimp. It squatted on one of them enough to drive the brass in a ridge under the bullet. RIP to what was a perfectly good piece of PMC brass: "Sorry, buddy. I should have sorted you better."
Interesting. I never purchased Herters 44 mag ammo before but prob a year ago I found a bunch of it at my local range. It was shiny so I knew it hadn't been on the ground very long. Once I had a chance to reload the cases, I was bummed that the primer pockets were so F'd up. I use Winchester large pistol primers and I deformed quite a few of them trying to prime the brass. All done with Herters 44. Their 9mm brass seems to be okay however.
That matches my experience. First time I tried to prime S&B 9mm, I sorted it out and was a little worried. Now I don't think twice about it. Also, some of the 357M S&B brass that I've scavenged looks like it has perfectly normal primer pockets, too. I separated those out and kept them.
gerrycaruso
NES Member
I didn't know Herters was Amerc. That's the worst .45acp brass I'v e ever attempted to load.
I've posted about this a few times before so forgive me if you've already seen my posts...But watch out for PPU 357 and 44 mag brass. After resizing, I could push the bullets into the case BEFORE expanding them. Needless to say, you'll have some tension and bullet seating issues. Really odd as PPU seems to make great 9mm, 30-06, 7.5x55 swiss, 7.62x54r, and 7.62x25 brass.
It's possible I just got a bad batch/lot of 357 and 44 mag brass....
Interesting. I've loaded a few hundred PPU 44M brass, at least, though none of the 357M as yet. Never had any issues. BUT, it's possible, nay probable, that I've only loaded .431 diameter Zero JSPs into those cases, in which case it's actually a good marriage.
dhuze
NES Member
I mostly use Starline brass for my .44 Magnums. All my .357 is mixed.
I wasn't implying that Herters brass is made by AMERC; it just seems to be of the same poor quality. Just to be clear....
AMERC= Junk.
I have never once been able to successfully reprime an AMERC case and gave up after about the tenth attempt. Any piece I find in any brass I have automatically goes into the junk brass bucket without hesitation.
Its the worst brass I've ever seen bar none.
I remember somebody saying that when they encountered some particular brand of brass at the range, they would step on it to spare hapless reloaders from picking it up later and suffering for it. I think maybe it was Jim talking about AMERC brass.
To be fair (or generous, depending on your point of view), I can mostly cope with the Herter's brass by reaming the hell out of it with a high speed drill. I bought hexagonal adapter that I can screw the case prep tools onto. Don't even think about using one of those slow turning case prep stations unless you have nothing better to do with your life. Been there, done that. It's actually harder to ream this much at a slow speed and keep things square. Once you cut a significant bevel on the primer pocket with the reamer, the Herter's case usually can be primed without difficulty. Usually.
To be fair (or generous, depending on your point of view), I can mostly cope with the Herter's brass by reaming the hell out of it with a high speed drill. I bought hexagonal adapter that I can screw the case prep tools onto. Don't even think about using one of those slow turning case prep stations unless you have nothing better to do with your life. Been there, done that. It's actually harder to ream this much at a slow speed and keep things square. Once you cut a significant bevel on the primer pocket with the reamer, the Herter's case usually can be primed without difficulty. Usually.
mark2215
NES Member
I reloaded 500 10mm 180gr cast lead bullets. Using brand new starline brass sure does suck. The brass stuck to the powder funnel the whole time. I would clean and polish the funnel every 100 primers and it helped a bit but still was a pain. I'm glad that's done. Unfortunately I never see any used 10mm brass for sale so I had to go with new.
Im on 5 reloads with the lee collet neck sizer. No issues and still chambers smoothly. I have not felt a noticeable change in chambering. I would not worry much until chambering a round becomes stiff.
you can try to use something like a Horndy case headspace comparator to see if your brass is indeed growing from the case head to shoulder. If not keep neck sizing.
I'll have to try them tonight. Last time they were pretty hard to chamber but I did get the bolt to close; that's after two reloads. Maybe my chamber is "extra special."
I did get my 8mm Mauser dies in so I've got some of that to resize as well. Lately I've been weighing up whether or not to get a turret or progressive press instead of my single stage, since the USPSA bug has been biting me and making me debate whether reloading 9mm would be worth it.
SJan
NES Member
Blazer brass (the baseline for affordable decent ammo) is 19 cents a round at TargetSports.
My 9mm reloads are under 12 cents a round, and are tuned to perform better than any available factory ammo offering in my pistol.
You would have to factor the cost of the press et al to figure out how many loaded rounds it takes to break even vs. purchasing factory ammo, If that is what you mean by 'worth it'.
But like I said, my ammo is better, and to me that is reason alone to reload 9mm.
Other pistol calibers, 40, 45, the cost effectiveness of reloading vs purchasing factory is more substantial.
Artie
NES Member
Broke my single stage Lee depriming and sizing 223. Have had it for awhile and got it used so it did its job. I have a turret but will have to find another cheap-o single stage. Will look for an "O" press this time around.
SJan
NES Member
I experience the same thing with new Starline 38 supercomp brass. Hornady one shot case lube helps tremendously. I also get some little C shaped brass shavings, I think its because the cases are not chamfered... after the first firing they reload like smoother.
mark2215
NES Member
Yes, fired brass is much easier, no sticking. I'll try some lube next time I load some new brass.
Im not sure if its worth the shipping cost but lee will moast likely replace that if you ship it to them.
What brass are you using?
I had problems with anything but PPU and HXP.
Take a 9mm case , it makes a ok case gauge. Also measure case just in front of the rim. Rotate it in your caliper. See if its out of round.
38ExtraSpecial
NES Member
Picked up a nice old Herter's turret press.
6 station turret. 8" wide and 1.25" thick Weighs 37 pounds.
So I'm figuring out a spot for that. Also have a Dillon 450 on the way to me this weekend.
I think I'm going to have to build a new bench for these.
Loaded some 9MM with 130 grain round nose cast. Coated with the Hi-Tek Black Gold. Love that coating
Mark are those 10MM coated with Gold Hi-Tek?
6 station turret. 8" wide and 1.25" thick Weighs 37 pounds.
So I'm figuring out a spot for that. Also have a Dillon 450 on the way to me this weekend.
I think I'm going to have to build a new bench for these.
Loaded some 9MM with 130 grain round nose cast. Coated with the Hi-Tek Black Gold. Love that coating
Mark are those 10MM coated with Gold Hi-Tek?
It's PPU brass, and I'm doing minimum loads. Last time it took a little work to close the bolt, as I said, but they did all fire in the end. I put one empty case in the chamber after sizing and could not get the bolt to close and I didn't really want to try to force it. Let me inspect the cases a bit.
Are any of your primers backed out a tad after shooting? Have you stuck a headspace gauge in it.
Do tou have any powder fouling running along the case after shooting.
The problem generally lies in brass that is not made to the same specifications as original design.
Rim thickness being 1 of them.
Ok try this. Take a factory loaded round if you have one. Scribe a line on the case just below the shoulder and mid way on the neck and measure these locations and case over all length.
Fire it then get back and post your results.
Last edited:
I haven't seen anything off about the primers. The seller indicated it had been headspace checked and test fired so I did not do it myself.
I haven't noticed any excess fouling. I think I have a box of factory PPU left that I can try it on.
I haven't noticed any excess fouling. I think I have a box of factory PPU left that I can try it on.
some times with excessive headspace the primers will be pushed out a tad.
I was aware of that. I last fired it probably a year ago due to the residency shuffle. Other than resistance when chambering, I don't recall anything out of the ordinary. Next week's a no-go due to police training but hopefully the week after.
Been tumbling 30-06, 308 and 45 ACP all day.
The 30-06 was left at the club in Winchester boxes, someone apparently was sighting in a hunting rifle. Nice pretty brass but whoever it was the shot it crammed the cases so far into the foam holders I had to use pliers to get them out. At least it'll make good food for my M1s. Gonna do some USPSA dry fire drills then resize my small cache of 8mm Mauser.
Loaded another 50 rds of 44mag shot shells using the Speer shot capsules with #6 shot in half and #12 shot in the other half. Using 6.3gr of Win231.
I also filled 50 other capsules with #12 shot to be loaded into 44spl brass.....got to find my dies first.
I also filled 50 other capsules with #12 shot to be loaded into 44spl brass.....got to find my dies first.
