how many companies make brass

[corvette8n]

While going through my stash of .45 Colt brass, I noticed several headstamps:
Bullseye
Top Brass
Starline
Corbon
plus the major ammo co.
are there only a couple of brass makers and the rest just put their name on it.
is one brand better than another?
see what happens when I have a day off:)

[MtGun44]

I know that Winchester, Remington, Federal and Starline are actual US
manufacturers. I imagine there are others, but I don't know of
them for sure. I think Hornady makes their own, but not sure.
Starline makes brass only and is top quality, as are the others
mentioned above, although people have their preferences.

There are foreign suppliers like Prvi Partisan in Serbia, and they make some
of Graf's specialty brass (good stuff in my experience) and there is PMC
in Korea, plus Sellier & Bellot (Czech?) making ammo.

I never heard of Top Brass or Bullseye. Corbon makes top grade
ammo, but I'd guess they buy their brass.

Bill

[dubber123]

I know that Winchester, Remington, Federal and Starline are actual US
manufacturers. I imagine there are others, but I don't know of
them for sure. I think Hornady makes their own, but not sure.
Starline makes brass only and is top quality, as are the others
mentioned above, although people have their preferences.

There are foreign suppliers like Prvi Partisan in Serbia, and they make some
of Graf's specialty brass (good stuff in my experience) and there is PMC
in Korea, plus Sellier & Bellot (Czech?) making ammo.

I never heard of Top Brass or Bullseye. Corbon makes top grade
ammo, but I'd guess they buy their brass.

Bill

I believe the early Top Brass had some quality control problems, offset flash holes, varying neck thickness, etc. Supposedly alot of these issues have now been resolved. Never used any, so I can't say for sure.

[felix]

Lot of folks draw (pull from a glob) cartridge cases. Cases start with what are called slugs. The slugs for the most part are made to order by a brass mill. There are several brass mills throughout the world. Perhaps Olin is the most used in the USA. Olin, for example, does not make cartridge cases per se, but they foward the slugs to the Winchester division and others by contract. ... felix

[felix]

I bought 500 LongColt cases from them a couple of years ago. The price was 60 bucks delivered. These cases are excellent in all respects, with the most accurate flash holes I have ever seen in pistol cases. However, I have picked up 44mag TopHat cases that are fairly down in the pecking order. Prolly, this is the reason I found them to pick up. The best ever 308 cases I picked up are the BlackHills brand. I think Nosler is making some el-supremo stuff now. Corky can tell us about his 22-250 batch he purchased directly from them. Best means uniform thickness throughout, including fully manipulated primer pockets. ... felix

[59stude]

Norma makes a lot of differnt brass also, both with their name and a lot of other name on them, both rifle and handgun.



59stude

[KCSO]

I still have a batch of Herter's brass, the best there is according to George. At one time I think Starline, was offering brass headstamped to your specs. I know that there was at least one run of Nonte brass.

[scrapcan]

Grayback Wildcat brass forms correct headstamp brass for some odd calibers, not sure how they are headstamped though. I have not ordered any so cannot tell you what they say.

[MakeMineA10mm]

When I was commercially loading, we looked into getting brass w/ our headstamp. Star-Line would put our headstamp on for a die fee of $500 and a minimum order of each caliber. I can't remember the exact numbers of the minimum order, but it was around 100,000 pieces. Considering the die fee, and the fact that they'd give breaks for larger orders, we were going to do a 500,000 piece order, but it didn't pan out...