Thursday, February 1, 2018

This is what I get for being a range hound

I tend to pick up brass at the range, especially if it is a caliber I shoot....I mean, hey, if folks wanna leave it behind, why should I let it get tossed?

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So I go to load some .45 ACP for a new shooter that I am taking to the range on Friday.

I tumbled some range pickup brass, load 2 tubes with primers, pull out a box of plated 230 grain, check the powder levels, lube the 550 and commence to loading.

about 10 cases in, I get one where the primer just will not go back in. ...Odd, but hey, this is brass of no certain pedigree, so I pull the case out and toss it into the trash.

About 10 cases later, I get another. Then another.
Damn, this is affecting my rhythm.

When I got the 4th one, I looked at the primer pockets to see if they were staked, or had burrs, or what was causing them to not load primers.  They were all the same headstamp.

I began checking the base of each cartridge I picked up out of the bin before loading it into the press (I usually just get into the rhythm....pick up a case, load the case with my right hand, put a bullet in the primed and loaded case on the other side of the press with y left hand, pull lever, rinse, repeat.....

Having to look at each piece of brass slows me down, but I soldier on. I mean, I can usually load about 250 .45 in an hour, this is slowing me down to about half that.

It wasn't until I was done that I noticed what was different about the uncooperative brass....


Not obvious, izzit?

How about if I show you a case that WILL take primers?


Yeah, Who ever heard of a .45 ACP case that takes SMALL Pistol primers?

Now I got about 3000 cases to sort through.


5 comments:

Sdv1949 said...

Be aware that some Federal .45acp brass also takes the small primers.

HTH, sv

B said...

I did not know that. I will watch out for that when I buy it from now on.

Fred Mallison said...

I ran into some years ago that was manufactured in Egypt with small very hard primers. Later found out it was loaded for submachine guns.

Old NFO said...

That IS odd...

tsquared said...

I have been swapping over to small primer. I have enough for almost a 2 month supply of my normal range use, but it is growing. I sort out the LP and give them to a range buddy who does the same but sorts out the SP to give to me. It does a few things:
1) it updates the 40 year brass supply that had 90% of it with the headstamps wore off
2) it allows me to drop large pistol primer from my inventory
3) no more changing the 550 over to large primer