I’m trying to find a good source for true once fired commercial headstamp pistol brass in the popular calibers. Good quality. Anyone know of a good source?
Posts: 17944 | Location: SE Michigan | Registered: February 10, 2007
Why once fired? Starline sells new brass. I have purchased 1,000 piece boxes of several revolver calibers. I do not think I will ever wear them out. If I do I will just buy another 1,000. I pick up enough .45 ACP and 9mm at the range.
Just went to our range late this evening. Shot about 200 and came home with about 1000. Almost everything on the ground was 9mm too. I got tired of picking it up.
Posts: 17944 | Location: SE Michigan | Registered: February 10, 2007
I load 9 and 40. It’s not that I don’t have any. I have a fair amount but I have not tracked it. Some may have been shot twice while others maybe 4 or 5 times. If it looks ok, I don’t lose it at the range or crush it reloading, I shoot it again.
I was thinking of restocking and maybe trying to track it better.
Posts: 17944 | Location: SE Michigan | Registered: February 10, 2007
I have been reloading since about 1974. I would not be surprised if I had .45 ACP brass that I have been using that long. If you are an ace competitive pistol shooter, it might make sense to keep your brass sorted and pay attention to how many times it has been fired. I think most of the people that I know don't worry much about it with pistol brass. Maybe sort by brand or headstand. Rifle shooting, I am more particular. If you buy fired brass, you have no guarantee it is once fired. I think if you are worried about it, you should buy new and keep it sorted. But I think most shooters probably can't shoot well enough to tell what I believe will be a very small difference in accuracy.
What is interesting is at our local ranges that I frequent up until about 4-5 months ago I could find hundreds of rounds of spent brass of various pistol and rifle calibers on the ground when I would go to shoot....Not now - one would think the ranges are being almost swept with a broom (I may exaggerated a little with that comment) but you get my point.....
No more stepping all over spent brass when one goes shooting around here like it used to be.This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigarmsp226,
Posts: 3425 | Location: MS | Registered: December 16, 2004
My wife had to retake CCW class because her's lapsed last year when she was sick. She picked up brass when others were shooting and came home with a ton. We never shoot at ranges so I don't know if thats the norm or not.
David W. Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud. -Sophocles
I uses 40 for USPSA, and I lose brass on those days or pick up other peoples brass...but honestly I’ve got some brass that I’ve reloaded 10 times that still hold a primer and it works.
When I first started reloading I did an experiment and never got any split cases in 40/45 but in 357 I encountered split cases after five reloading due to the increased pressures.
My FIL shoots 38SuperComp and he really stresses his brass. He only uses it twice before it gets scrapped. He’s using rifle powder and is trying to meet a power factor.
But since my loads emulate factory loads I don’t have any problems. So I just shoot it and reload it until it splits or the primer pockets are loose.
I should also note that my FIL is an engineer and he over thinks everything. He shakes his head when I tell him how I handle brass....
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I shot 38 Super Comp for years in USPSA open class and probably reloaded some as many as 15X. In my experience the primer pockets loosed before the case splits.
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Posts: 103 | Location: TUCSON AZ | Registered: February 18, 2009
Originally posted by David W: My wife had to retake CCW class because her's lapsed last year when she was sick. She picked up brass when others were shooting and came home with a ton. We never shoot at ranges so I don't know if thats the norm or not.
We shoot at an indoor range at least once a week and the one we shoot at lets you take all the brass you want, whether it's yours or someone else's as long as the shooter has walked off and left it.
You ask for a good source for once fired brass...and I'll offer this...trust only new, unfired brass you have bought or that you have gleaned from factory fresh round you, yourself, have fired. All else is trusting to someone else's word...Not for me...YMMv Rod
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I don't know if this is useful. But I normally order starline brass. It all showed out of stock unavailable etc. But I just ordered anyway and most if it showed up in less than 2 weeks. Not the 9mm but the .40 and the .45 and the 10mm.
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Originally posted by Rodfac: You ask for a good source for once fired brass...and I'll offer this...trust only new, unfired brass you have bought or that you have gleaned from factory fresh round you, yourself, have fired. All else is trusting to someone else's word...Not for me...YMMv Rod
I'll disagree with that. I've used range pickup that I picked up and also range pickup that others have picked up all my life and never had a single problem with it.
The total amount is definitely in the tens of thousands of cases trouble free.
Just visually inspect it before reloading and you'll be fine.
^^^ agreed. What's the point of reloading if you're paying for brass? I'll buy new occasionally, especially of it's for some kind of high-power rifle caliber that I'm going to be pushing the limits on...but then again you're not likely to find a lot of that kind of stuff lying on the ground, anyway.
Pistol brass and .223 I have loaded thousands and thousands of rounds with range pickup brass. It gets inspected and defective stuff gets culled, but it loads and shoots just fine.
Posts: 9454 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006