Ohioans For Concealed Carry Discussion Forums

I pick up my brass when ever possible as at some point I'm going to start reloading. I just picked up (thanks to Kyles!)some 9mm range ammo.

Any thoughts on their brass and reloading it?

S&B is the oldest ammunition company in the world that's still in business. Their brass is good, however they have a reputation for very tight primer pockets. I have a bucket of about 3k 38spl that are a pain to deprime. However, if you get that stuff processed (I.e. resized, roll sized, deprimed and the primer pocket reamed out) its just as good as anything else.

Gaspode wrote:S&B is the oldest ammunition company in the world that's still in business. Their brass is good, however they have a reputation for very tight primer pockets. I have a bucket of about 3k 38spl that are a pain to deprime. However, if you get that stuff processed (I.e. resized, roll sized, deprimed and the primer pocket reamed out) its just as good as anything else.

Thanks! I think I'll keep it but segregated from the rest of my brass knowing I will have to give it some more attention and prep.

I've found that S&B's tight pockets are FAR worse in some of their chamberings and much less noticeable in others. I've also got a bunch of that .38 Special S&B Gaspode wrote about, and it's the worst I've ever dealt with from any headstamp when it comes to small or under-spec primer pockets.

In 9mm and .380, I simply haven't noticed much if any difference.

Also worth noting, at least with the .38 Special brass is that re-priming is only half the battle. I've found that simply getting the old primer out of the S&B .38 Special brass can be a nightmare all on it's own. I have about a 1-in-5 failure rate to properly de-prime. The decap rod manages to poke fully through the primer cup and tear the lid right off it, and I end up with a ring of what used to be a primer around the inner circumference of the pocket.

Totally agree however that if you can successfully deprime and reprime, you end up with perfectly good brass. In .38 Special, I use them exclusively for ammo built for my Coonan. Because the pistol chucks brass in any of 360 degrees, I do tend to lose a few here and there, so I choose to lose a little bit of S&B brass.

Bottom line-- while I crush & recycle any "A-Merc" headstamp brass, I certainly do keep & use S&B brass, but note that it often takes extra care when dealing with it.

I have S&B Brass in my mixed brass batch. De-priming is not a problem at all. You can feel the tight primer pocket when re loading with un coated primers like Winchester. Coated primers like CCI, Remington and Federal work just fine. No problem at all

I've loaded some in 9mm. I can feel that the pockets are a little tight, but they load just fine. Watch ot for WCC or anything with a NATO cross, those will have crimped pockets. I set all that stuff aside in case I'm ever desperate for 9mm brass.

Just treat it like crimped primers. Deprime and ream the primer pocket. You only have to do it once, same for the NATO brass.

Be aware- at least in 9mm- that S&B made a line of "range" ammo that had brass-plated STEEL cases. They are utterly identical to brass cases in every respect- headstamp, red primer pocket sealer, etc- but some are brass, some are plated steel. Only a magnet will tell which is which. I chuck the steel ones in scrap, I have magnets mounted in my big tumbler to catch what I miss.

evan price wrote:Be aware- at least in 9mm- that S&B made a line of "range" ammo that had brass-plated STEEL cases. They are utterly identical to brass cases in every respect- headstamp, red primer pocket sealer, etc- but some are brass, some are plated steel. Only a magnet will tell which is which. I chuck the steel ones in scrap, I have magnets mounted in my big tumbler to catch what I miss.

First thing I did was check em with a magnet (negative)....the primers look crimped but might just be seeing the sealer. Do they make swage for pistol primer pockets?

I've reloaded a few S&B 308 without issue. They seem to take it well and I can't say that I noticed any difference in primer pockets than the Winchester or Remington brass that I reloaded.

pleasantguywhopacks wrote:First thing I did was check em with a magnet (negative)....the primers look crimped but might just be seeing the sealer. Do they make swage for pistol primer pockets?

Small pistol & small rifle primers are the same dimension, so a small rifle (223) swager does 9mm pistol just fine.