Steel Brass 9mm

[sureYnot]

Wet tumbled some brass and it came out a dull brownish color. Figured maybe I just hadn't cleaned up good enough after the previous batch, which had been very filthy. So, I ran them back through and they came out better but still a little off and some of them had a sort of red/purple hue to them. Seemed like I had maybe read once that a piece of steel can cause this. Thinking maybe my old eyes just couldn't pick it out, I grabbed a magnet.


I didn't look at them all. But, the ones I did look at were all stamped "FM". Prior to the wet tumble, they looked exactly like any other brass.
I'm sure a lot of you already know about this. But it was news to me and is probably news to a few others...

[nun2kute]

something is wrong with my computer (mainly the operator) or i'd show you pictures of the ones I found. they are 2 piece'd together. the mouth down to where it hits the web looks like Nichol washed brass, just like the primer does. but the head looks like anodized aluminum, and there is a crease or separation between the two pieces.

I have found some like yours also in the past, I just throw everything in a bucket and sort the ferrous out before I use it. But an occasional heads up is really appreciated.

[jdfoxinc]

Send them to me. The 2 part cases are made by shell shock tech. You need special dies to reload them. I'm transitioning to these and making .40 jacketed bullets out of my 9x19 brass.

[Burnt Fingers]

https://www.shellshocktechnologies.com/sst-products/

I've thought about diving into this pit. But the entry cost is quite high when I consider that I'm picking up 9mm brass for free.

[jdfoxinc]

I bought my entry from a member.

[The Dar]

I run a magnet through all my range pick up brass before doing anything with it. I have found 9mm in the past just like the ones pictured. Lately I'm finding 5.56/223.

[kevin c]

I've run across a few of these two part cases in range pick up brass but hadn't learned anything about them. Thanks for the website link.

Some of the pros mentioned in the referenced article are intriguing, but the type of shooting I do (action pistol, where bulls eye type accuracy is not needed) and the fact that I get once fired brass cases at no out of pocket cost means that if I come across a bunch of these cases, I'll send them on to jdfoxinc.

And as for the "regular" steel cases mentioned in the OP, I still dump all of them in the trash. FM (Freedom Munitions), S&B, and Xtreme are the headstamps I've encountered that have brass coated steel cased versions of their ammo.

[igolfat8]

Watch out for the internally stepped cases too.

[lightman]

A magnet is a permanent tool on my loading bench. I have had discolored brass because a stray steel case got tumbled with a batch of brass. The magnet helps sort out the steel.

[kevin c]

Watch out for the internally stepped cases too.

I haven't had any problems with them personally, running 9 mm 147's over a fast powder (VV N320) at 900 fps through factory Glock barrels. I even ran the load through the same stepped FM cases multiple times and only got split case mouths and zero case head separations. It's not my preferred brass for match ammo, but I don't sort it out for practice brass.

Of course, that was MY experience with MY brand of cast boolit (test done before I started casting my own) with MY load through MY guns. Results can and will vary with the reloader, but at least I can say my experience hasn't matched up with what others have written here.