The International Box of Brass

[CA Dude]

The other day my sons future Father-In Law asked me to reload some 308 ammo for him. I gave him the same answer I give everyone who asked me that; No, I won't load it for you but I will teach you how to.

When he came over he had a box of brass, a pound of IMR 4064, two hundred CCI primers and a box of 168 gr, Hornady AMAX bullets.

The box of brass contained 116 cases. A check of the Head stamps revealed an interesting story.

The brass was produced in eleven different countries from every Hemisphere of the world; North, South, East and West.

The majority are stamped PPU from Serbia. The next largest amount are stamped CBC from Brazil. There was only one case from Mexico, Taiwan and South Korea. Six cases from India. The rest from Germany, Turkey, Israel, and Austria. The biggest surprise was that the box only contain eight cases from the United States.

Some of the brass had crimped or staked primers, but most did not. After resizing and de-priming, they all final had one thing in common, they all were too long.

I trimmed the cases and worked over the primer pockets as needed, then I weighed them. There is a 26.3 grain difference between the lightest (Austria, 160.0 gr.) and the heaviest (South Korea, 186.3 gr.). I was able to find 100 cases that were within 10 grains of each other and I loaded them.

I would love to learn the back story about how such a collection of brass traveled the world, to end up in Central Arkansas.

CA Dude

[Wayne Smith]

Probably all range pickup. I've found a similar range of 45ACP at the range where I shoot. I've not looked for 308 as I don't have one.

[skeettx]

Have brass, will travel,
Paladin

[Texas by God]

All of my handgun loads except for .41 magnum are a hodgepodge of headstamps. I don’t use maximum loads in 9mm, .38 Special, or .45 ACP. It works for me for for my casual style of shooting. This includes my semi auto carbines, but the rest of my rifles use one head stamp at a time religiously.

[kevin c]

The impression I get from the once fired pistol brass I scrounge at my range is that the new shooters that leave it are buying the cheapest blasting ammo they can find in their LGSs. Besides commercial reloads, that means foreign production.