Herters brass

Falconflyer

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I picked up a freezer bag of new unfired brass with the headstamp "Herters" this weekend at a gun show. I did a google search to try and find out who makes this brass and came up with different answers, one answer was that it was made by Sellier and Bellot for Cabela's, another answer was that the original boxes were marked "made in sweden" so that would indicate Norma and yet another answer was that the boxes were marked "made in Finland" so that would indicate Lapua. Unfortunately this brass wasn't in the original boxes.
Does anyone have a more definitive answer as to makes this stuff?
 
It depends on the cartridge and when it was made. It's a lowest bidder sort of situation. Winchester, Prvi and S&B are responsible for most of what I have seen but I have only bothered buying small amounts of certain things.
 
It's 264 mag brass and I have no idea how old it is.

I have a bunch of that brass, necked up and fireformed to use in my 7x61. Herters was a supplier in the mail order business back in the day. The new Herters stuff is just a rebranding using the old name. The original company was bought out long ago. I recall reading the old stuff was made by Norma for Herters. - dan
 
Herters was a supplier in the mail order business back in the day. The new Herters stuff is just a rebranding using the old name. The original company was bought out long ago. I recall reading the old stuff was made by Norma for Herters. - dan

Agree with this!! I had a bunch of that 264 Win Mag brass back in the day. It was good brass, but was "softer" than the WW-Super brass, and had
less case capacity than either WW-Super or R-P brass. Work up your loads carefully! Dave.
 
That's good to know Dave, thanks for that.

I just ran the new brass through the full length dies and funny thing is that only about one third of them would fit into the #4 RCBS shell holder, the others were slightly too big and I had to use a #43 RCBS shell holder to get them done. They cycle in and out of the rifle fine but just a bit oversized for the shell holder.
 
It depends on the cartridge and when it was made. It's a lowest bidder sort of situation. Winchester, Prvi and S&B are responsible for most of what I have seen but I have only bothered buying small amounts of certain things.

Nope, Herter's had a deal with NORMA.

To my knowledge, all of the Herter's headstamped brass was made by NORMA.

The only thing you will have to be careful with on those cases is the "flash hole" Some batches had large flash holes and some had small flash holes.

The worst that can happen is a bent decapping pin.

I have five different types of cartridge cases with the Herter's head stamp. I am old enough that Herter's was often the only mail order seller that actually had what was in their catalogue in stock, when you placed an order.

We didn't have lap tops or the internet back then, so the catalogue was the only reference.

My first order of 338 Win Mag cases had ''small'' flash holes. I just used a #drill to open them up to accept a normal ''large'' decapping pin.

To show you the quality of Herter's products, they sold single action revolvers, made by Saur, in Austria. They were much better SA revolvers than the Ruger Black Hawk and stronger as well, which was proven in blow up tests.

They called them "Virginian" or some such romantic name and they were smooth as glass when compared to Ruger, Colts, or the Italian knock offs. They were also cheaper than the Ruger and Colt offerings.

They didn't sell surplus stuff, like the Canadian Sidney I Robinson catalogue.

They had everything a DIY person needed as far as archery, firearms, reloading, stocks, barrels etc goes

I was very disappointed when they started their decline and eventual shut down.

The computer age killed that outlet.
 
I picked up a freezer bag of new unfired brass with the headstamp "Herters" this weekend at a gun show. I did a google search to try and find out who makes this brass and came up with different answers, one answer was that it was made by Sellier and Bellot for Cabela's, another answer was that the original boxes were marked "made in sweden" so that would indicate Norma and yet another answer was that the boxes were marked "made in Finland" so that would indicate Lapua. Unfortunately this brass wasn't in the original boxes.
Does anyone have a more definitive answer as to makes this stuff?

Yes you need the box to be 100% sure since it was made in the Czech Republic by Sellier & Bellot. 12/15 years ago it was made by Norma in Sweden and before that it was Lapua in Finland.
 
Most of the old Herters was made by Metallverken in Sweden, Metallverken merged with Norma in 1965 but still operated the same shop after for quite a while.
It's a little thicker and harder then Norma brass, and has a bit of a red-brass look to it. I've got some in 30-30, 303, 8x57, 7x57, 9.3x63 IIRC probably some others in the stash.
I lose the odd piece to split necks, so annealing probably wouldn't be a bad idea, it's probably 50-60 year old brass.
S&B makes the new stuff for Cabela's, you will know it, it will be tough to seat primers, they have tight shallow pockets.
If it was Norma made, it will have a machined belt vs stamped, so nice and clean/sharp belt, they do that with all belted mags, also if you look down in the case the flash hole will be drilled vs punched.
 
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I was at cabelas in moncton NB about a month ago. They had bulk boxes of 223. The box was fancy looking and I was curious about the headstamp. An employee was there and I asked if he could open the taped box. Which he did. The brass was stamped LC.
I dont know the answer but is this Lake City, (federal) brass ?
 
Most of the old Herters was made by Metallverken in Sweden, Metallverken merged with Norma in 1965 but still operated the same shop after for quite a while.
It's a little thicker and harder then Norma brass, and has a bit of a red-brass look to it. I've got some in 30-30, 303, 8x57, 7x57, 9.3x63 IIRC probably some others in the stash.
I lose the odd piece to split necks, so annealing probably wouldn't be a bad idea, it's probably 50-60 year old brass.
S&B makes the new stuff for Cabela's, you will know it, it will be tough to seat primers, they have tight shallow pockets.
If it was Norma made, it will have a machined belt vs stamped, so nice and clean/sharp belt, they do that with all belted mags, also if you look down in the case the flash hole will be drilled vs punched.


I didn't know that the Herter's name brand had been ressurected. My bad.

My prior post only relates to the original company offerings.
 
Thanks for the input Hitzy and everyone else, I'm now leaning toward this being S&B brass. I don't think the rim has been machine formed when I compare it to other Rem or Win brass. Also, I think a machined rim would have closer tolerances than what I'm seeing with this stuff. It's also heavy, 257 grains compared to 233 grains for my old WW brass so I think I'll be starting with pretty conservative charges and working up carefully.
 
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