.45 acp reloading

Novice,  I inherited a 20MM ammo can of .45 acp brass ALL from the same NM shoot, MANY years ago. My father has passed, so asking him is not an option,  ALL of the brass has been DEPRIMED, I have no idea of who did that? is it reasonable to assume that it was resized at the time it was deprimed even though some of the cases have a deformed case mouth? TYIA

Size one or more and measure sized vs unknown

The safest thing would be to resisze them. Especially if some of the case mouths are not round. Usually resizing and depriming is done at the same time, but it is possible to deprime without resizing.

You can try feeding a few of the pieces of brass into the chamber of your gun. If they go in easily they are probably resized. If you have an "Ammo Checker" or something like that it does the same thing.

You can also measure the diameter of several cases near the mouth. they should be 0.473" or less. Measure the diameter several places around the circumference. If they are resized they should be pretty consistently round. Fired cases can be a little oval.

If your reloading on a progressive press the first station resizes the case. If so, nothing to worry over.

If case mouths are deformed I would guess that the cases have NOT been resized. Several die makers offer a universal decapping die. The advantage is to decap and then clean the brass in stainless steel pins. This process allows the primer pocket to be cleaned.
 One sure way is to take a .451" bullet and try to fit it in the case mouth. If it slides in or can be forced in by hand the cases are not resized. There needs to be a .001-.003" interference fit to hold the bullet in place.

Wes Lorenz wrote:If your reloading on a progressive press the first station resizes the case. If so, nothing to worry over.

No, single stage. BUT my father left me with a 2 pound coffee can full of brass(700+) marked "ready to load" and with the help of ALL of you I have punched out 700+ rounds of good looking ammo, that plunks right into a case checker, kerplunk! hope it shoots as well as it looks. kind of nice too finish ammo my dad started 45? years ago.

Cheap amazon ultra sonic cleaner and the RCBS "soap" and it is very nicely clean in a 30 minute cycle, wondering how many cycles I can get out of the water?

Please tell us that you tested the load before you did all 700.

That said, congrats on the inheritance. I got several coffee cans and pipe tobacco cans full of brass and bullets from my father. Oddly I can’t bring myself to load it. Maybe one day.

On the ultrasonic liquid, I’d reuse if you’re just using soap as long as there are bubbles and a soapy feeling. Well maybe toss before it gets completely black.

Nice to have a 20mm can full of brass.  It very likely wasn’t sized so just size it before you load it.  If there are ANY “WCC” or “TZZ” headstamped brass like in the two pictures below, the primer pockets need to be swaged.  Easy enough to do but tedious.

just grabbed a hand full of just cleaned   this is what I got

RodJ wrote:Please tell us that you tested the load before you did all 700.

That said, congrats on the inheritance. I got several coffee cans and pipe tobacco cans full of brass and bullets from my father. Oddly I can’t bring myself to load it. Maybe one day.

On the ultrasonic liquid, I’d reuse if you’re just using soap as long as there are bubbles and a soapy feeling. Well maybe toss before it gets completely black.

tested, naw, I just put BE in a big bowl and scooped the case in there and used the back of a small metal ruler to scrape the powder off even with the case and then the bullet seating seemed to push the powder down nicely. you get a little stuck between the bullet and the case, but I'm sure that will be alright, right?  You should finish loading that stuff your father started. then you can go shooting with him one more time.

Yup these too! 

Cmysix wrote:just grabbed a hand full of just cleaned   this is what I got

Wobbley wrote:Yup these too! 

Cmysix wrote:just grabbed a hand full of just cleaned   this is what I got

Well, if you ain't a party pooper! I guess I can't complain a little extra work for a 20mm ammo can full of brass, I already own the tool and a go no go gauge. Now all I need is all those lead bullets you don't want.

If it is GI ( US Mlitary) it will have a crimp on the primer that needs to be removed  . The exception is  GI match brass .

Star loader wrote:If it is GI ( US Mlitary) it will have a crimp on the primer that needs to be removed  . The exception is  GI match brass .

the first 500 or so, was NM brass that my father sized and belled, I primed them and powder and seated the bullets to 1.126 OAL I had a few that did not feed well, but I believe, it was a magazine issue, more then anything else, wanted to make sure they cycled my S&W series E, So armed with older HERCULES load data, as I am loading from a 15 pound keg of HERCULES BULLSEYE and 50 year old or more Winchester primers, I did 4.7 grains of the bullseye, I believe I will bring that down to 4.5 grains for the next batch. 6 legs of a Steel Challenge match and not one FTF. not any smoke that I see and pretty clean. I'm not very adept at measuring the crimp but on the first few I saw the copper plating flake slightly around the crimp so I backed off till that went away, drops right into a shell checker.  AND YES I am going to poly coated bullets on the suggestion of several members. I am using 230 grain RN.

I added a little more belling to the case mouth when loading coated bullets because that's what one of the manufacturers recommended in a note. I think it was good advice.

And one more NOVICE question, I know most of it is personal preference, I like to decap first, Then into an ultrasonic cleaner for a bath. Would I resize first OR swage the primer pocket? or does not matter?

BE Mike wrote:I added a little more belling to the case mouth when loading coated bullets because that's what one of the manufacturers recommended in a note. I think it was good advice.

TY! I will remember that when I go too coated, I am looking at the beveled base coated bullets

Cmysix wrote:And one more NOVICE question, I know most of it is personal preference, I like to decap first, Then into an ultrasonic cleaner for a bath. Would I resize first OR swage the primer pocket? or does not matter?

I process my brass on a auto driven Dillon 1050…so I have adopted a three pass system for loading ammo.
So my total sequence is:
     Wet tumble clean
     Mechanical processing (decap, swage, size, bell) on the 1050
     Another clean to remove any lube or finger prints
     Priming on the 1050
     Loading the 1050 ( powder, powder check, bullet drop, bullet seat, crimp.) 
     Gauging and packaging (usually large bulk boxes of 200 or so).

So, I clean before and after sizing.  Sizing can be simultaneous with decapping. For obvious reasons you do need to decap before swaging and generally it only needs to be done once, but with the amount of loose brass at the range I still swage every time.

That’s a lot of BE powder for a 230 grain bullet. Jacketed I assume?

For lead options, I’ve run 200 gr LSWC (Hitek coated) over 3.6 - 4.0 grains BE. Ran out of the BE and recently switched to Summers’ 175 LSWC bevel base (also hitek coated) over 4.0 gr WST. 12# recoil spring and 19# main spring. Right on the edge of functioning - 95%. Let’s me know if my grip is not solid lol

I’m really liking the looks of the Summers bullets and the price is good. Plus fast shipping and a nice guy.

Heavier the bullet, for same cartridge relative to a lighter bullet, and for same smokeless powder, the lighter the powder charge.

RodJ wrote:That’s a lot of BE powder for a 230 grain bullet. Jacketed I assume?

For lead options, I’ve run 200 gr LSWC (Hitek coated) over 3.6 - 4.0 grains BE.  Ran out of the BE and recently switched to Summers’ 175 LSWC bevel base (also hitek coated) over 4.0 gr WST. 12# recoil spring and 19# main spring. Right on the edge of functioning - 95%. Let’s me know if my grip is not solid lol

I’m really liking the looks of the Summers bullets and the price is good. Plus fast shipping and a nice guy.

HERCULES load data calls for 4.0 grns for 230 lead and 5.0 grains FMJ, in trying to drop 5 I arrived at 4.7 and just left the LEE powder dropper alone, next batch going to try to get it down to 4.5

SingleActionAndrew wrote:Heavier the bullet, for same cartridge relative to a lighter bullet, and for same smokeless powder, the lighter the powder charge.

YES! first time I saw that in any load data I was amazed! it's a wonder what pressure does.