Best brass for 9mm Luger

O

Ontariooutdoorsman

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
Kawartha Lakes
So Over the last year I collected brass from the ranges I shoot at. I tumbled it in crushed walnut and began to separate....as I read you should. I have begun to separate 9mm into different manufactures.
I have noticed that the top 3 brass I have collected is RP - Blazer - a tie between Winchester and FC. Is there a difference between FC and F Co?. There is also plenty of PU S&B and in my miscellaneous pile a fair amount of Sumbro.

My question is....If needed to separate what are the manufactured brass I should keep as my top brass and what should I relegate to use when necessary??
 
Chuck the Sumbro for sure. Bring it to the scrap yard. I also don’t reload nickel plated.

I like the RP and Blazer but it’s all good. Funny enough, I find that S&B primers are tight in S&B brass.
 
I have not had quality issues with any particular brand and reload them all. If I had to pick the best out of your list I would go with S&B. If you were going for consistency, load whatever you have the most of.
Most of your list are from "value" brands. Remington Peters from the freedom bucket line, Federal Cartridge is American Eagle, Blazer is CCI/Speer and Winchester is going to be white box.
 
Toss the Sumbro! Find many of them fail the case gauge check.

Winchester, Speer and Blazer in that order are all very good. Blazers OAL will typically load the shortest. So you might want to separate them out if you are separating into categories. iVI or something like that is also not bad.

Initially use to separate my brass. Found it to much work for to little gain.
 
Trash the sumbro. The rest is fine, doesn't really make a difference which brand it is, as long as the particular piece of brass isn't cracked or bulged. Most 9mm is fine for reloading, there isn't really any difference, it's just that sumbro has a steel sleeve inside the case for some reason, which makes them really hard on your resizing dies.

Make sure you take whatever metal you want to get rid of to a recycling center or your local scrapyard. They won't give you more than a quarter for a ton of it, but metal doesn't belong in your everyday garbage.
 
Thanks....willing to separate for now...have a few more thousand to separate....would prefer to just keep two to three types on hand only if there is a difference. Good to know about Sumbro.....now I know!
 
Last edited:
I used to separate 9mm, complete waste of time. I reload all of it, once loaded i case gauge them all.
If to be used in a match, i also visually inspect for cracks.

Time spent separating could be time spent dry firing.
 
Are you loading for a pistol or a revolver? A pistol will take anything, so your skill level and pistol probably cannot tell sorted brass from mixed brass.

A revolver does not tolerate long brass.

Toss the sombreros. sort everything else. Keep the S&B to last. It is the only brass I find minor issues with for loading. And yes, toss the crimped brass. not worth the effort.
 
Sell the S&B for their scrap value ($2 to $3 / lb). They have a very square shoulder on the pocket mouth and do not take primers well.
I use RP only as I had about 9,000 to share amongst my wife, son, daughter & I ;)
 
I have the luxury of being picky so I only load RP, Win, Blazer, Speer, FC and Starline. I give away or sell the majority of foreign brass I collect.
 
First it was Federal from purchased factory ammo, then several lots of purchased range brass consisting of mostly FC and Win that would get reloaded a few times. Miscellaneous mixed headstamps would get used once. The current batch of a 1000 rounds of range brass is 50% Win 40% Blazer and the rest a mix. Oddly there was exactly 1 (!) piece of Federal brass in this whole bag. So far other than crimped stuff that gets scrapped immediately because life is too short, I haven't found any brand of brass including plated that won't last several firings at near max to maximum loads.
 
The best brass is free brass. :)

Ughhhm Sumbros suck and I'll only use 'em if I get desperate. They're set aside for now. Maybe I'll ream the primer pockets one day if I'm bored outta my skull. The S&B I also set aside for a day when I can ream the primer pockets. If I'm using Winchester or CCI primers, I can usually seat them with the odd one being problematic.
 
my experience with S&B is chuck it, primer pockets aside every piece in 9mm I've come across has been too short to engage my crimp die. I can usually catch it at sizing which saves a primer and having to pull a bullet because they size overly easy as well.
 
I have also found the primer pockets on S&B brass tight. I'll never forget many years ago I got some IVI military brass with the crimped in primer . well it took me hrs with a primer pocket reamer to get the crimp out . that brass lasts a long time. but it was a real pain. Winchester cci Remington are your best bet.
 
Last edited:
No love for PMC? That's actually my favorite 9mm brass, closely followed by FC. I've had good luck with Blazer, Speer, Fiocci as well. As has been mentioned, with S&B it's typically a tighter and/or slightly tougher primer fit due to the square edges around the primer pocket, but I've never had any issues firing it and it actually seems to be really good brass, so I keep it. Their non-tox stuff is un-reloadable as far as I can tell, and if you don't catch it, it will bend or break de-capping pins.
The only 9mm brass I've picked up that had pre-existing cracks was Sumbro, and I chuck that garbage as soon as I see it.
Remington and Winchester have never failed me either tbh, but I find that you won't even feel them going in to the expander die (thinner case walls?), and it almost seems you could push the primers in with your finger sometimes. I reload a lot of this brass for 9mm and 45ACP.
I prefer Corn media over Walnut as it doesn't leave red dust. 3hrs and the brass comes out almost as clean as stainless/wet tumbling, inside and out.
 
K-C said:
Sell the S&B for their scrap value ($2 to $3 / lb). They have a very square shoulder on the pocket mouth and do not take primers well.
I use RP only as I had about 9,000 to share amongst my wife, son, daughter & I ;)
Click to expand...
Found the same with s&b. Tight primer pockets always give me an inconsistent pull on my progressive which slows me down. Sometimes the primer will get deformed on its way in. I don’t sort otherwise. It all loads and shoots fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom