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Thread: Who actually makes brass?

  1. #1
    Boolit Master

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    Who actually makes brass?

    I sort a lot of brass and often find myself wondering who really makes it.
    I'm pretty sure Federal makes their own and the brass for their Wolf line.
    Fiocchi makes theirs and Perfecta too.
    I'm guessing Remington makes their own and Winchester too, BTW Winchester brass seems to be the softest, if the ejector dents on their once fired auto loader brass are any indication.
    But I kinda doubt Speer has their own brass forming plant. Same for Browning. Seems like ammo isn't a large enough percentage of Browning's sales to make a brass plant worthwhile.
    I wonder if Hornady just buys the short brass the other manufacturers won't use, Hornady brass seems shorter in most calibers I've seen.
    Just a guess on my part but I think a lot of the imported brands are single sourced too.
    If anyone knows definitively who makes brass for whom why not share your knowledge here?

  2. #2
    Boolit Master

    Rcmaveric's Avatar
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    I have always been curious if there were certain brass that were the same just different rebrand.

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  3. #3
    Boolit Man
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    Well, Federal, Speer and CCI have the same parent company, Vista Outdoors. I'd guess their brass is made on the same equipment. Remington and Winchester used to make their own, but if you read the fine print on their boxes, so much of their ammo is subcontracted out of the US, I have some doubts about how much brass they actually produce. I'd guess Browning falls in this category also: mostly foreign subcontractors. Starline makes their own and probably supply a good number of boutique makers based on headstamp lettering similarities. Hornady I believe also makes their own and has their own spec, hence the short cases. Then there are a number of international players: Fiocchi, S&B, Norma, Lapua, PPU in Europe, Armscor in Phillipines, PMC in Korea come to mind. Then you have a number of state enterprises: Tula/Wolf/Barnaul all out of state plants in Russia, probably others I'm forgetting.

  4. #4
    Boolit Man
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    As an example of subcontacting, WWB was (at least 2-3 years ago) entirely produced by S&B in the Czech Republic, and both Wolf Gold and Tula BrassMaxx were subcontracted to PPU and their Bosnian sister plant (whose acronym I forget at the moment).

  5. #5
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    Jamison brass.Robert

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    I have to assume that Lake City brass is made at the Arsenal.

    Starline makes brass, and I've read that they do contract runs for the big names.

    It doesn't take such a huge investment. For a while we had a small business called Jamison making high quality brass for many obsolete calibers. Sadly they got into legal trouble, closed, then re-opened as Captech, but now they're closed again, some say because of internal conflict among the owners.
    Cognitive Dissident

  7. #7
    Boolit Master

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    Anyone know who makes "USA" brand brass?
    i guess its like air bags or dog food. A few manufacturers have pretty much cornered most of the market.

  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by uscra112 View Post
    I have to assume that Lake City brass is made at the Arsenal.

    Starline makes brass, and I've read that they do contract runs for the big names.

    It doesn't take such a huge investment. For a while we had a small business called Jamison making high quality brass for many obsolete calibers. Sadly they got into legal trouble, closed, then re-opened as Captech, but now they're closed again, some say because of internal conflict among the owners.
    Are you certain they are closed/out of business?

    I ordered a run of brass from Jamison in the summer of 2011. They would not email updates after I called them. Then around 2nd of October I called them and was told the final item needed had arrived to start the run and every thing would be done a a few weeks. Called on the 21st and their phone was dead and web site was gone. Chased them down to a lawyerette in Rhode Island who told me jamison was in receivership. I was given the name of the lawyer who was handling the action. In the end I got my money back which I did not want because I wanted the order completed. And I was told by the new folks they would honor the original order for the same price. I said no way since the same flubba-dubs were working the levers. Next time I will have a lawyer draw up a contract if I have to deal with those people.

    Better to search out real businesses to do the work is what I decided.

    I hope they stay out of business and rot in hell.
    Fifty years a lawyer and you still look down your nose at your fellow citizens who study and know law better than you. Every
    citizen is an attorney.

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    During the Vietnam war there were three primary copper and brass producers of first-draw cups for small arms ammunition: Olin, Anaconda and Scoville.

    Anaconda and Scoville are no longer in the "cup" business, but produce primary copper for other purposes.

    Olin is the sole US producer of cups, so far as I know. Cups are also imported from Italy, ROK and possibly India and China to supply US industry.

    DoD has priority in buying the available cup production. With the need to replace expended war-reserve stocks, this limits the supply available for civilian consumption.

    This is why are are seeing increased use of steel cases imported from Eastern Europe, China and Russia, as well as some US manufacture of aluminum cases.
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  10. #10
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    Peterson
    https://www.petersoncartridge.com/ou.../drawing-brass
    Olin
    https://olinbrass.com/portfolio/ammunition/
    Alpha Munitions
    http://alphamunitions.com
    General Dynamics
    https://www.gd-otscanada.com/product...d-metal-parts/
    PMC
    http://pmcammo.com/about/
    Blackstone
    https://www.blackstonebullets.com/new-brass/
    Nosler - Not sure they make it, but it appears that they do
    https://www.nosler.com/brass/
    agemann
    logo-jagemann

    Jagemann Stamping leverages nearly 70 years of manufacturing experience to provide manufacturers with the absolute best brass, plated brass, and oxidized brass solutions across most pistol and an ever growing number of rifle calibers.

    products-jagemann-01products-jagemann-02products-jagemann-03

    Kinetic Industries
    KineticIndustriesLogo (2)

    Kinetic Industries is a US based brass case manufacturer of rifle brass. They specialize in high end match grade brass cases! Their .308 match brass is available now for OEMs, and more large rifle calibers will be coming soon!
    Alpha Munitions
    http://alphamunitions.com
    Nexus
    https://nexusammo.com
    MAXUM -Rio
    http://www.rioammo.com/en/rio_ammunition/about_rio
    CBC - Sellier & Bellot
    http://www.sellierbellot.us/index.ph...orate/about-us
    Shell Shock
    https://www.shellshocktechnologies.com/about/
    Jagemann
    https://www.jagemannsportinggroup.com/reloading-brass/

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    Right around 2011 Jameson got caught shipping some piddling order of brass to Canada without getting an export license. Feds nailed the owner. That killed the company the first time. A while later (year or two) a group of investors restarted the facility under the name of Captech. All was well until about 18 months ago when they shut down again. Rumors abound. Most plausible one is that there's some conflict among the partners that couldn't be resolved. Hurts. Their brass was top quality. I bought quite a bit of .25-20 Stevens to reform to .22 Lovell. I don't know whether the facility and machinery are still intact.
    Cognitive Dissident

  12. #12
    Boolit Master

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    cci makes their own, as does federal. well, at least all the common stuff, they do at times buy brass for oddballs that it doesnt makes sense to tool up for , or set up a line for a run. pretty sure all the big players make their own. one of my jobs at federal was making rifle brass, and ill tell you it takes some serious machinery to make brass.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    I recently took a tour of the Starline factory in Sedalia, Missouri. During the most personal tour of the shop floor, I saw how they produce all of their brass casings from receiving flat sheets of brass and the initial punching operations, to the cupping operation through the final forming operation along with all of the heat treatment and washing processes. I now buy all of my brass from Starline since I know they are made here in Mid-America! And they produce really good quality casings. Here is their website:
    https://www.starlinebrass.com/

  14. #14
    Boolit Master
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    My guess is none of the companies smelt copper to make brass.
    At one time Olin had a brass mill and WW bought Olin metal.

    Today I suspect everyone buys coiled brass strip stock from a brass mill and draws it into cases.

    So no one really makes their own raw material brass any more than they make their own lead metal.
    EDG

  15. #15
    Boolit Master dbosman's Avatar
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    The story I've read is that Winchester is making the Browning "elk" brass.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master
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    Once upon a time the Hornady Frontier brass appeared identical to WW cases.
    EDG

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    I have another post called Mixed Brass. recently i purchases new PPU 22 hornet. Mixed In one of the sealed packs was Winchester 6mm Remington. all packs were made in Serbia
    I firmly Believe all This is made outside the US
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  18. #18
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lefty o View Post
    cci makes their own, as does federal. well, at least all the common stuff, they do at times buy brass for oddballs that it doesnt makes sense to tool up for , or set up a line for a run. pretty sure all the big players make their own. one of my jobs at federal was making rifle brass, and ill tell you it takes some serious machinery to make brass.
    It does indeed, and it takes some serious smarts to keep the process in tune so that it makes GOOD brass. And it would be simple economics for any of the big loaders to buy cases in the marketplace from time to time. Machinery has to be taken off-line for unexpected maintenance. Demand for a particular caliber may have been underestimated, so they didn't run enough. Copper price is very volatile, so brass price will be, too. Demand for some popular caliber may be so great that they choose to stick with running that, and so buy in the less common ones like 6mm Remington.

    How long did a changeover of dies take? How much scrap was made before everything was tuned-up again?
    Cognitive Dissident

  19. #19
    Boolit Master

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    most lines stick with the same parent case per se. changing from 30-06 to 270 might take up to an hour, and maybe scrap half of a 5gal bucket worth of brass.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    I remember S&B saying in one of their ads that when called upon the make brass for some of our large ammo manufacturers. Years back got a deal on S&B 8mm mauser both fmj and their soft point hunting ammo, $10 bucks a box. This is loaded to CIP specs 198 gr bullet at 2500fps. Though that may have changed. Amerc brass is junk, goes right in the scrap bucket. Speer's regular brass is ok but their cheaper line with the dished case heads leaves me to wonder who makes that think it's their blazer line. Some of the MFS made in Hungary also was ****. Off center flash holes way off center. Frank

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check