45 ACP Brass Question

So I have decided to sort through my brass collection with the thought of downsizing some of it eventually.  Is there a best brand to keep vs any other?  Is there a brand to avoid?  From what I can tell I have quite a bit of Starline, TZZ, and Federal with a lesser amount of Winchester in their various head stamps.  Beyond that there would be a bunch of mixed brands but not enough of any one of them to keep as my standard.  Just curious if you were buying, which you would buy and if you were selling, which would you sell.


Thanks.

John

Well,…. If I were to buy brass… I might buy small primer brass… I can get small primers but large are spotty.   

That said, I’m not that sold on TZZ.  It’s ok, but nothing special and  but it’s all getting old now.
I like Federal, Winchester, Starline, Remington, PMC.  Others I don’t have a lot of, so they go in the mixed bag and are used for training.

TZZ is hard as hell, Federal is thick wall 11 mil and best for jacket or hard cast, Winchester and Remington are 8-9 mil, thin, good for soft lead. I know starline is top quality. AMerc is junk at 14 mil walls

TZZ is really short brass- I make sure to put in the bucket of brass I trade to get some once fired stuff. Everyone wins that way.

(Apologies- I trade with a service shooter I know. I realize this may not apply to all shooters and their circumstance.)

S&B - yuck. Primers are hard to seat. At least the ones I’ve used which was Remington LPP at the time

Remington - I can’t get enough crimp on jacketed bullets. Thumb pressure will move the bullet. So reserved for lead or hitek coated.

aaronb wrote:S&B - yuck. Primers are hard to seat RodJ.  I agree. Same for me with Winchester primers.  

Yuck!  Good to know. Yuck!

And good to know about Winchester being thin. Hadn’t noticed that before and will be more careful. 

Somewhere there is some old Scot’s Irish spendthrift - probably related to me on my mothers side - that collects S&B and reams the primer pockets.  Yuck!  If that’s you, please let me invite you to the next meeting of my local StA chapter. (Spendthrift Anonymous)

I picked up a fellow shooter's S&B 45 case today and both he and the guy next to them say they reload S&B. So that's three of us that ream (assuming they must also, since they use the brass). I ream the pocket of any new to me brass, including fresh starline 38spl (45 is fine). The brass will live on for ten or tens more firings so it's a only do once thing. Since everything I have is reamed, I get to think a whole lot less about priming. More consistent seating stroke/pressure, no crunching or proud primers

I must admit that I don't throw away much brass. I've gathered so much 9 brass I can be picky. I can't quite be that picky with 45 brass.  I do feel a little like Sisyphus. If I have brass it seems like it's a moral imperative that I reload it. Time to do a new inventory to see how many headstamps I can find. This will take awhile.

Since I'm lazy, I'd cull out crimped primer pocket brass. My least favorite brass is Remington. It seems to split quicker than other brands. Winchester has always been my favorite for Dillon presses. New Starline has often been recommended for the "Marine" load. Federal brass has been very popular in the past by bullseye pistol shooters.

I  found Norma 45's primer pocket to be a tight fit, although the brass is good.

L. Boscoe wrote:I  found Norma 45's primer pocket to be a tight fit, although the brass is good.

This is because CIP pocket dimensions for large pistol sizes are smaller than SAAMI (about .001).  Which makes a snug fit for US primers.