Cleaning some pistol cartridges tonight and was curious how others inspect their brass.

Typically, after the batch is clean I will put the batch in a short pail and comb thru the brass and listen for any odd sounds, like a split cartridge.

Then I will comb thru and visually look at the brass for damage or imperfections.

Lastly, I will do a brief inspection while loading. Cant say I look at every shell casing, more of a random check.

Below is a picture of the primers after firing. Can't say for certain that all the shells are mine as I shoot at a public range. I know the Ammo Inc cartridges are mine as I shot those in my EMP 4 and are factory manufactured.

These primers make me think I'm running a little hot. My recipe is out of the Hodgdon load charts:5.7 grains of WSF powder, Hornady HAP 180 grain bullet with a OAL of 1.125".

The Hodgdon chart has a range of 5.4gr - 5.8gr for WSF.

The shot is snappy and accurate but wondering if I should dial it back a bit.

The ones with the silver primers are definitely a lot flatter than the others, probably ought to back off a bit on those powder charges.

You're very close to max with your load. You might want to back off a bit.

Most of those don’t look that bad, could you exclude the cases that you didn’t reload? This pamphlet from Winchester shows up to 6.2 grains with a 180 grn jacketed bullet.

https://armiestrumenti.com/wp-...10/09/winchester.pdf

A chronograph is helpful, just an additional indicator of what kind of pressures are present. I’m not even one who needs to bump against max in just about all instances.

I do like to cross-reference several manuals when loading, I think Hodgdon is often on the lower side, Speer on the high side.

When my brass comes out of the tumbler I shake it in the sifter even after the media is gone so I can hear any brass that has a crack. A cracked pistol case will give off a "Ting" sound and give its self away.

Not as well as I do my rifle brass, but I do find and cull the split/bulging cases. If not during depriming before cleaning then before it goes into the press.

I deprime my brass with a universal decapping die that does not resize. Then the deprimed cases go for a swim in my Lyman ultrasonic cleaner. Then they dry on a cardboard box on a bed of shop paper towels for 2 days. Then I spray the cases with Hornady case lube and resize, then I check all my cases in my EGW case gauge. Rejects and marginal fitting ones get tossed. Any cases that has a chewed up rim and won’t slide nicely in and out of my shell holder get tossed before I do the EGW gauging. The I prime by hand and then put the cases segregated by headstamp in a Tupperware container(s)waiting for loading. When I load I flare all the cases then load on my single stage Lee breachlock press. The breachlock makes die changes near instant. I charge all cases (usually in 100 case lots), visually verify charges in each case, place bullets on each case. Then I seat the bullets and verify OAL on the first few just to make sure my dies haven’t changed or loosened up. Then I crimp with a dedicated crimp die and then check the loaded rounds in the EGW gauge again before boxing and labeling. I think I inspected my cases more than some handloaders but I am not obsessed enough to trim pistol cases. Those people are functioning on an entirely different level.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: divil,

Although I pick up random range brass when I can find it, I mark my cases so I can easily pick mine out when I shoot with the action pistol group, most of whom are also reloaders. So I have a pretty decent idea of what's likely to be once-fired (the pick ups) and many-times fired.

First line is if I hear the odd clinking when it's being swept up. Then I know there's one to look for.

I deprime/size first, then wet tumble. I do a cursory inspection as I load my Mr. Mini case feeder and then again when stuff comes out of the tumbler and I put it in the oven to dry.

My real inspection is when I hand prime (primarily because my Dillon priming system is inoperable and I can't sort out the issue). I handle every case and check primer seat depth.

I also gauge every loaded round after a loading session. I'll occasionally gauge the sized cases before loading, if I'm really bored.

Haven't mentioned yet how I inspect my pistol brass.

Mrs. Flash sorts out the range brass each week after we shoot and divides it into the various calibers which then go into the vibratory cleaner. She takes a cursory look at each piece of brass.

Then when I pick up each one to put it in my press, I take a quick look, put it in the press and reach for the next one.

Never had a squib, never had a kaboom, no problems at all and I've been shooting pure range brass for most of my life.

I always inspect my brass prior to reloading. That does not mean, that I won't miss any defects.

Anybody that can "hear" cracked brass by shaking the batch or while sweeping them up has better hearing then I have!

Are you sure you have shot a gun more then once?????

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
Anybody that can "hear" cracked brass by shaking the batch or while sweeping them up has better hearing then I have!

Are you sure you have shot a gun more then once?????

My feelings exactly.

But getting back on point, I have a 9MM Winchester case that I've reloaded 30 times and I use it to rattle the cage of a friend of a friend who claims it's unsafe to reload 9MM cases more than 3 times. I've also got a .45 ACP case that I've reloaded so many times that you can't read the head stamp any more.

Cases are safe to reload until you find a defect, then it's time to toss them.

What I see is and they are mostly win have flatten primers
to me I rate as a hot load.
Shot a lot of different brass over the decades and win can
be problematic especially priming and you might have encounter
win clean brass with expanded flash holes,not sure they even
produce such a thing anymore.Some foren brass has sleeves down in the
bottom of the case and that causes more pressure .
Look at the inside of the case for this insert.

^^^^. Interesting observation on the Winchester brass.

I did cut the load down to 5.5th of WSF and that made an nicer shooting round that is just as accurate, if not better. Looking at the primers, some still look like they are hot. Need to move the pic off my phone to Shutterfly so I can post it.

Have you run your load through a chronograph? That takes a lot of guess work our of load development. I’ll also compare recoil from my load and a comparable factory load.
I usually don’t load hot. I also like to reuse my brass many times.
I recently went to a new indoor shooting range. I wasn’t allowed to retrieve my brass. The next time I went, I shot my 22lr!

No, I don't have a chronograph. May have to look into one.

Here is the pic of the primers with 5.5gr of WSF.

The primers are not as flat as they were in the OP. That's good.

Once the brass comes out of the tumbler, I run my thumbnail around the rim to feel for a crack. You can take a pen light and shine down into the case to look for splits.

I am 75 and have been diagnosed with some hearing loss. I can hear the "ting" of a split .45 case a mile away. I use an old blanket to catch my brass and when carrying the blanket back to the car, I give it a shake and can always tell if there is a bad case.

I can also pour a number of cases out onto my bench and can always tell if there is a clinker.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
Anybody that can "hear" cracked brass by shaking the batch or while sweeping them up has better hearing then I have!

Are you sure you have shot a gun more then once?????

My feelings exactly.

But getting back on point, I have a 9MM Winchester case that I've reloaded 30 times and I use it to rattle the cage of a friend of a friend who claims it's unsafe to reload 9MM cases more than 3 times. I've also got a .45 ACP case that I've reloaded so many times that you can't read the head stamp any more.

Cases are safe to reload until you find a defect, then it's time to toss them.

If it's 9mm or 5.56, I inspect each case. If it's .45 acp, I grab a handful and shake them around in my hand and listen for cracked cases.
If everything is good, into the RL1050 they go.