Bad MAXXTech 380 Brass

[DonMountain]

I bought a 1000 rounds of range brass to reload lead projectiles for my 380 handgun. Loading up several hundred of them after testing loads, I have a recurring problem with brass of the MAXXTech brand fitting into the chamber of my pistol due to thick walls. I have never heard of this make of brass and wondered if anybody else is having this problem? Of course after finding these I sorted through the entire 1000 and threw away maybe 25 of this brand. All of the other brass seem to load fine and shoot well in my pistol.

[marlin39a]

Does it have a "shelf" inside the case? I haven't seen any of the .380, but am very familiar with 9mm cases by Maxxtech. I junk every case I find.

[Soundguy]

Are you not full length resizing them?

have you considered getting a FCD with carbide sizer ( or bulge buster ) in .380 in case they have bulged bases similar to 'glocked brass'?

Is it possible these .380 have been run thru something like a MAC 12 or other straight blowback gun and thus have had unsupported case head ends?

Do any of the brass , if you look down into them, have what appear to be inserts or shoulders/collars/steps inside the case ( reducing case capacity, and thus possibly raising pressures from a standard charge in respect to standard capacity cases?

[DonMountain]

Does it have a "shelf" inside the case? I haven't seen any of the .380, but am very familiar with 9mm cases by Maxxtech. I junk every case I find.

No, they do not have a "shelf" inside the cases. But it appears like the primer holes in the bottom of the cases are very small so that most of them caused me trouble decapping them when the primer hole was just a few thousandths off-center. And the primer removal pin was very tight through the hole. I noticed that when I received this "range Brass" the primer cups on these rounds of MAXXTech brass were extruded into the firing pin hole of the gun used to fire them. So, who is this company as I have never heard of them? Are they USA made?

[Soundguy]

maxxtech is tula. Think bosnia.. though they do have plants other places. italy for instance.

[DonMountain]

Are you not full length resizing them?

have you considered getting a FCD with carbide sizer ( or bulge buster ) in .380 in case they have bulged bases similar to 'glocked brass'?

Is it possible these .380 have been run thru something like a MAC 12 or other straight blowback gun and thus have had unsupported case head ends?

Do any of the brass , if you look down into them, have what appear to be inserts or shoulders/collars/steps inside the case ( reducing case capacity, and thus possibly raising pressures from a standard charge in respect to standard capacity cases?

I did full length size all of my 380 brass in a new Hornady die set with "Titanium Nitride" sizing die. After seating the bullets, and having several of them not seat in the pistol when attempting to shoot them, I brought them back to the reloading palace and applied a micrometer to them. As far down as the bullet was seated, they measured about 0.004" larger them the case just below the bullet where the case was still at its sized dimension even after the bullet was seated. The bullet diameter made a pronounced swelling of the case just down to the base of the bullet. None of the other makes of brass did this after loading a couple hundred of them in various makes of brass. But now I can easily pick out the MAXXTech brass just by looking them.

[bosterr]

My friend who shoots 9mm and I picked up a bunch of Maxxtech nines that absolutely won't de-prime. The spent primer won't punch completely out of the brass making me take the shell holder out with the case stuck in it and with a punch beat the primer back into the case so it will slide out of the shell holder. I probably threw away a hundred of these out of 800 we gathered up.

[Soundguy]

so the base size is fine, it is the loaded portion around the projectile that is wide?

What are you sizing your .380 to .356 ? or larger ( as dropped? )

What are you using as a crimp die? Do you have a lee FCD for .380 that you can run them thru? Many lee FCD have a carbide sizer ring in them for issues like this where a projectile causes buckling or bulging in a case. The sizer irons it back out.

Generally it is too much crimp that causes this, however it may also bee that this brass is thick, and your projectiles plus the case are causing the interference fit. the iron-out may still help, etc.

[Soundguy]

My friend who shoots 9mm and I picked up a bunch of Maxxtech nines that absolutely won't de-prime. The spent primer won't punch completely out of the brass making me take the shell holder out with the case stuck in it and with a punch beat the primer back into the case so it will slide out of the shell holder. I probably threw away a hundred of these out of 800 we gathered up.

I've heard of this problem with the tight primer flash holes. I've heard of people using a thin profile deprime pin, but that seems like too much trouble to me. When I do my case prep, one of the stations on my lyman case prep center has a primer hole true-er... which is essentially just a piloted drill bit.

I picked up that cutter head after a batch of hornady brass cost me a few decap pins and a bent decap stem. Seems hornady wanted to put their flash holes in a slightly non standard spot on some of their cases.

After that, I just let everything take a ride on that case center, even new brass. no problems after that.

[tankgunner59]

I've run into the 9 mm cases that have the "shelf" and they are very hard to run through the full length sizer so I just scrap them. Haven't run into the 380 Maxxtech cases yet, but from this I'll probably just scrap them too.
I had the same kind of problem with some CBC 9 mm cases a while back. I loaded some target rounds for my brother and noticed a bulge with the CBC cases so I weed them out of my stash. I've used CBC in every other pistol round I load with no problems. I size my pills to the standard size for each caliber. (9mm and 380 are sized to .356, etc)
If you get a lot of them you might contact the supplier and try an exchange.

[DonMountain]

so the base size is fine, it is the loaded portion around the projectile that is wide?

What are you sizing your .380 to .356 ? or larger ( as dropped? )

What are you using as a crimp die? Do you have a lee FCD for .380 that you can run them thru? Many lee FCD have a carbide sizer ring in them for issues like this where a projectile causes buckling or bulging in a case. The sizer irons it back out.

Generally it is too much crimp that causes this, however it may also bee that this brass is thick, and your projectiles plus the case are causing the interference fit. the iron-out may still help, etc.

My LEE 356-102-1R mold casts at 0.357", which are too large for the chamber of my pistol. I size them down with a 0.354" RCBS sizing die in a LAM-II for sizing and lubrication using 2400+ lube. The projectiles, after sizing measure 0.355" in diameter I assume from springback after sizing. This is the same dimension as jacketed bullets that I have fired in the same pistol. When loaded in various brass of different makes, the diameter of the brass over the seated lead bullet is 0.372" to 0.373" and all shoot fine. However, on the MAXXTech brass the dimension over the seated bullet measures 0.376" and only chamber about half way. All of the MAXXTech cases do this. None of the other makes have this problem and shoot fine. I am using the standard Hornady taper crimp die to seat and taper crimp the cases. I think that if I set the taper crimp die down farther I will just crush the lead bullet itself and not get any accuracy. I do not have any buckling or bulging of the MAXXTech cases. Where the bullet base is and out to the mouth of the case it measures 0.376". Immediately below the base of the bullet the case measures 0.369".

[merlin101]

I've had problems with maxxtec brass also. I have a few boxes of .45 and don't even bother picking up the brass, its just not worth the hassle. It is cheap to shoot $20 for a box of 50 but maybe the store just wants to get rid of them?

[ThomR]

If I run across Maxxtech brass I pitch them.

[Soundguy]

I'd test with a hair more taper crimp, see what you get. .355 cast imho is already too small to have extreme accuracy concerns anyway.

[Driver man]

The Maxxtech 9mm brass with the shelf has been the most accurate brass I have ever used for reloading. Because of its construction every process has to be done by hand but when loaded with 3,3 grains of universal(the case is much reduced in capacity compared to a std case and this load was very carefully worked up ) and a 127 grain pc boolit seated to the rim will shoot the center out of a target at 25m with my glock 34 and cz75. Its a real pain to load but its well worth it when shooting competitions. We shoot a service match which has several series at 50 m (55 yards) and accuracy is pretty amazing. Don't throw the brass away ,develop some target loads .

[farmerjim]

I had the same problem with the mixed range 380 brass that I bought. The MAXTech and several other headstamps had too thick brass to load a cast sized to .357 and chamber. They will chamber when loaded with a .355 jacketed or plated. I bought 1,000 of the plated and loaded them in this brass. I shoot it in places where I will likely loose them. The ones that will take a .357 cast are shot where I can recover the brass.

[kevin c]

I load a lot of 9mm with mixed head stamped brass picked up from my home range. With that much difference in case capacity, I'm going to have to sort out the Maxxtech cases. The other internally shelved cases like Ammoland and Freedom Munitions I find are OK.

Like others have posted above, I've found some 9mm headstamps that just plain don't like a cast boolit sized to .357 or above, so now I really have to inspect all of it to cull out the brands that are going to shave my HiTek'd boolits on seating or simply refuse to chamber freely. Then there's the brands that now have crimped pockets *sigh*.

[gpidaho]

If you beat the dumpster diving scrappers to it you can pick up all the 9mm brass you like at our county range. I probably have close to three gallons of it. When it's free for the picking you can afford to be selective and even the throw away ones have some value at the recyclers. I sort out the headstamps I've found to be a problem and run the rest through a Lee Bulge Buster with the 9 Mak factory crimp die. It's easy to feel the one's that have been "Glocked" and into the recycle bucket they go too. Gp

[DonMountain]

The Maxxtech 9mm brass with the shelf has been the most accurate brass I have ever used for reloading. Because of its construction every process has to be done by hand . . . . . Don't throw the brass away ,develop some target loads .

Since I would have to size my cast bullets down to maybe 0.350" or 0.351" in order to fit these MAXXTech brass and still get them to load in my pistol chamber, do you think I will be able to hit targets at 50 Meters like your super accurate custom target pistols in 380 do?

[gpidaho]

DonMountain: I believe you would get some pretty severe leading sending .350-.351 down range from a 9X19 Gp

[DonMountain]

I'd test with a hair more taper crimp, see what you get. .355 cast imho is already too small to have extreme accuracy concerns anyway.

So, if I apply more taper crimp, and a 0.355" cast is already too small, where will the taper crimp make up the reduction in size? Will it decrease the case thickness? Or will it reduce the lead projectile thickness even smaller than the already too small 0.355" diameter?

[DonMountain]

DonMountain: I believe you would get some pretty severe leading sending .350-.351 down range from a 9X19 Gp

I have not tried loading these 0.355" cast projectiles in a 9mm Luger. I bought this mold (LEE 356-102-1R) specifically for loading 380 cartridges. I load my 9x19 pistols with cast projectiles of 115 grains, which seems more appropriate. And those I size at 0.357". But I agree with you gpidaho, it seems easier to just throw away the MAXXTech brass that is causing me all the trouble. As the pistol shoots pretty well with the 0.355" sized lead rounds without any leading, loading them in all the other makes of brass I have.

[Soundguy]

So, if I apply more taper crimp, and a 0.355" cast is already too small, where will the taper crimp make up the reduction in size? Will it decrease the case thickness? Or will it reduce the lead projectile thickness even smaller than the already too small 0.355" diameter?

Being a taper crimp, going a little more will restrict the diameter a hair more at the mouth of the cartridge.

I Sa a hair, as maybee you can find a happy medium that chambers, but isn't past .3549, etc..

[DonMountain]

Being a taper crimp, going a little more will restrict the diameter a hair more at the mouth of the cartridge.

I Sa a hair, as maybee you can find a happy medium that chambers, but isn't past .3549, etc..

Its not just at the mouth of the case that I have the problem of too large of a diameter. It is all the way down to the bottom of the seated bullet. From the case mouth to the bottom of the projectile measures the same case diameter of 0.376", which only allows chambering the loaded round about half way into the chamber. Immediately below the seated bullet the case measures 0.369". After loading one of these MAXXTech rounds and pulling them back out, the scraping on the side of the chamber is very visible from the case mouth all the way down to just below the bottom of the seated bullet.

[Soundguy]

Do you have an inside neck reamer?

[DonMountain]

Do you have an inside neck reamer?

I do for more long-range rifle rounds like 30-06, 308, 243 and etc. Not for a 9mm round. I am starting to think that it would be more beneficial to me to just throw all of these "range pickup brass" away and purchase 1000 of the 380 brass from a more reputable company in order to make all of them the same. The Starline factory is only 50 miles from my home and I could just stop by there sometime when I am over that way and pick up a box of 1000 brand new brass cases.

[Soundguy]

If they aren't magnetic, make a scrap bin, then sell them, get a little something..

[mjwcaster]

To keep it interesting maxxtech 380 used to come from 2 different countries.
First heard of it during the last great ammo shortage.
It either got decent reviews or was total garbage. As people started comparing notes they discovered it came in two different packages from two different countries. One normal 50rd box and one 100rd plastic CD style case.
I think it was the CD case packaged that were garbage, don’t remember which countries they came from either.

I don’t recall if I have any maxxtech in my 380 stash. I haven’t started culling it yet, so if it is in there I haven’t had any problems with it.
I inspect all my cases now and cull any headstamp that has given me issues.

I do cull the shelved maxxtech in 9mm, actually all shelved brass.

All the differences sure keep things interesting.


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[lightman]

There are several brands of brass that automatically go to the scrap bucket. This is one of them. Part of me hates to trash once fired brass but I have enough of the common stuff in calibers that I shoot to last my lifetime. Sorry to hear that there was so much of this stuff in the batch that you bought.