Buying once fired 45apc brass

Arby

Has anyone used any bulk purchase once fired 45apc brass ..any thoughts on you experience? Customer reviews are all over the place...kind of like, you lays your money down and takes your chances.

243winxb

45 acp brass never wears out. Buy 500 or more new Starline.

Note that the 45 acp comes in to types. Standard and extra heavy duty.

Info on Starline website. quote:The 45 Auto+P is a strengthened version of the 45 Auto with the same external dimensions. A thicker web and heavier sidewall at base strengthens the case in potentially unsupported areas. This case has approximately 2 grains less internal water capacity than the standard 45 Auto.
https://www.starlinebrass.com/order-online/all-cases.cfm

charliemeyer007

You can wear out 45 ACP brass and 1911 barrels with lead bullets if you shoot enough. Good chance you will loose the brass before wearing out the primer pocket or splitting the neck. Bell the cases as little as possible will help.

I like Starline brass ok. I think my last 1000 45's were from them and at a really good price before the ammo shortage 2 times back.

If you can shoot a pistol well (or want to) then new from the same lot is the ticket. If you can't keep the rounds on a dinner plate at 50 feet, then mixed brands, lots, and such likely will not make any difference.

Back in the day Winchester Super Speed was it, but they never made any 22 Jet. Norma was also good brass, way back then. The last 8mm Mauser brass I bought was Remington. At least 5 cases out of the 200 had the flash hole off center to break a de-capping/bend a rod. The good news is they gave me 208 cases - I guess it's cheaper to send it out rather than quality control.

navc130

When I was shooting indoor pistol competition I always used once fired .45 ACP brass, either my own or picked up at the range. For the first reload I checked the case for length and condition and then used it until something went wrong, i.e., loose primer pocket, split neck.
Function was always good and accuracy OK at 50 ft. A .45 ACP case should be good for at least five reloads.

Arby

Over the years I have bought brass from several manufactures so just about every thing I load is mixed but I do segregate loaded rounds by brass maker. My grandsons pick up brass for me when they go to the range which results in more mixed brass...never had any problems with any of them....The bulk brass reviews were a mixed bag with complaints having to do with wrong caliber mixed in , even some damaged brass while others had no problems.

I have been shooting at an indoor range and the brass recovery leaves much to be desired...30% on a good day. I was looking to go cheap since recovery is very limited at the indoor range. I don't have that problem at my regular outdoor range so I guess I will just use the indoor range in bad weather.

Starline is good brass and by far cheaper than Win or Rem Brass...so I just picked up a couple of boxes today.

Thanks for your input.

B17-P51

Use 45 ACP brass until the primers fall out when you reload it. It actually gets shorter each time you reload it so don't trim it, even when new. I agree that buying one brand new and using it till it's done is good. Buy, say 1,000 Starline and reload 500 or so and supplement your losses with new will give you consistent results. Also buying used once fired you may get some crimped primers that require swaging, now you have another variable that you have to contend with.

243winxb

If you shoot light target loads, velocity may be different with mixed brass that has high neck tension and/or an extra hard crimp.

If you compete in Precision pistol (Bullseye) competition, good new brass can make a difference on target. IMO.

Difference of 45 to over 100 pounds to move the bullets in my test.

geeguy

I have bought and sold thousands of "once fired" brass. Comes down to how much time you wish to spend on viewing each piece first time, dividing the headstamps vs. price. You will have some "bad" ones in the batch, but if you clean, check, and resize you should be fine.

I only use Rem (or Starline) brass for lead due to the thin wall and Win brass for FMJ due to the thicker wall, and with target loads it lasts forever. Never had a problem with other headstamps for plinking ammo. Most shooters I know seem to use mixed headstamps just fine.

Can't say buying new is a bad choice, works well, I'm just to frugal.

perry shooter

I have loaded and shot over 350,000 rounds of 45ACP some of the WCC MATCH brass I picked up from DCM/CMP matches shot at camp Perry matches I reloaded until you could not read the head stamp only trouble I ever had was when FEDERAL made some bad brass So bad lots of it split before even shooting it ,That is when The Marine Teams started loading their own, And Federal Never Got the contract back I have also shot thousands of test groups from Ransom rest If any thing groups stayed the same or in some cases the reloaded brass that was reloaded many time shot better I think because old brass had Tighter bullet to case fit helped to burn powder charge because higher bullet Pull

noylj

I use cases from the 1940s. Once fired cases don't stay that way for long.
The only concern I have is I don't want any small primer pocket cases.
Other than that, I pick up everything I can and order what I can't pick up.

243winxb

Its possible for a 45 acp rim to become to large in diameter.

Target guns with a tight bolt face may not let the case head slide up and under the extractor. Or slow the process to cause jams.

Takes many reloadings, with maximum loads, of the same brass.