40 S&W Brass

I just finished resizing a medium flat rate box of 40 S&W brass. There were a few Win and Federal "NT" headstamps in the bunch. When I resized them there was enough difference in the resistance on the press handle that I knew when I grabbed one of these. I also thought the depriming pin was punching through the primer and leaving the shell in the primer pocket. Closer inspection showed that the primers in these were actually smaller than the standard size small pistol primer.

Another reason to sort by headstamp, I guess. Has anyone else noticed this?

Winchester brass is one that also gives me problems. I have had brass that seems to have a thicker rim and wont go into the shell holder, at least not without "help". I also think some of the Winchester has crimped primer pockets and sometimes when decapping only the top of the primer is removed.

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Winchester brass is harder to resize than most, crimped primer pockets will look smaller and need to be swagged. I find that the Winchester brass is less friendly for cast bullets as they will swagge the bullet more than Fed brass.

Nope, I have never noticed a difference between brass makes in .40S&W.

Just a WAG; perhaps the "NT" rounds were meant for police and military use and had crimped in primers. But I don't load 40 S&W and every other Winchester semi-auto brass works quite well for me (3, 9mm pistols. 3, 45 ACP guns and one each 380 ACP and 32 ACP). Another guess; perhaps the NT primers require a smaller flash hole, and depriming pin is a tight fit in the flash hole?

This is one of those problems that I would have to have the components in my hand and deprime some before I can do anything besides guess...:???:

Old topic on this about 5 years ago. NT stands for non Toxic. And perhaps crimped primers. Site search turns up several threads. Here is one of them.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...amp-W-NT-brass

The "NT" marked cases are most definitely crimped. At least every one of them that I have encountered was crimped. Some of them even have green primer sealant on them, but not all.

It bugs me because they seem to be the ONLY 40s&w cases that are crimped. There may be other crimped 40s out in the wild but I have only found the "NT" ones.

Even if NT stands for Non Toxic it would appear NTs are all crimped at least from what I've seen. Maybe NT is a NATO requirement because it would seem only military rounds have that stamped. You can find it in other calibers as well 9mm for sure and I think I saw it in 40S&W and 45acp as well. In common calibers I recycle NTs as I dont want to mess with crimped primers.

I just loaded some 40 S&W today. In the past I've noticed that in Federal "NT" and in Winchester the "NT" and "WMA in Winchester the primer pockets are crimped. I set them aside and swage later on my Lee classic cast single stage. I've had the same in 9mm Lugers.

Ok, I got through resizing all of this stuff and had some time to mess with the "NT" cases. The primers were crimped. It was a more perfect looking crimp than you usually see and it fooled me into thinking that the pin punched through the face of the primer and left the shell behind. But after reaming the mouth of the primer pocket a small primer would fit. The flash hole looks pretty normal. These must have been loaded hot as they had more resistance when resizing them than any of the others. I tested this theory by picking a few out and resizing them without depriming them. Anyway, there were only a few dozen out of a medium flat rate box. So, not a big deal. And yes, I knew the "NT" means non toxic.

Thanks for all of the replys!

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Originally Posted by lightman

I just finished resizing a medium flat rate box of 40 S&W brass. There were a few Win and Federal "NT" headstamps in the bunch. When I resized them there was enough difference in the resistance on the press handle that I knew when I grabbed one of these. I also thought the depriming pin was punching through the primer and leaving the shell in the primer pocket. Closer inspection showed that the primers in these were actually smaller than the standard size small pistol primer.

Another reason to sort by headstamp, I guess. Has anyone else noticed this?

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The NT primers are crimped , they only look smaller . Once deprimed and the crimp removed they can then be reloaded .
Gary

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Originally Posted by marek313

Even if NT stands for Non Toxic it would appear NTs are all crimped at least from what I've seen. Maybe NT is a NATO requirement because it would seem only military rounds have that stamped. You can find it in other calibers as well 9mm for sure and I think I saw it in 40S&W and 45acp as well. In common calibers I recycle NTs as I dont want to mess with crimped primers.

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The NT definitely stands for non toxic. Some indoor ranges require nontoxic primers for air quality.

I just toss them in the trash. 40 brass is cheap enough that its not worth the bother to even remove a crimp.

Learn something new all the time. Have loaded 40s for years ,and don't remember ever seeing nt on brass.