.357 PPU brass / a warning

[atr]

Hello all, and good afternoon.
I recently received some PPU 357 Mag brass from one of the members here. It was a mix of once fired and new.
It is beautiful brass, BUT the wall thickness is too great.
I loaded up some dummy rounds to check the fit in my S&W and Herter/Sauer.
I tried standard J's and cast sized .359, .358 and .357, I also tried different seating combinations, and none of them fed smoothly into the cylinder. I measured the case wall thickness of the PPU and it was greater than any of the wall thickness of Winchester and Remington brass I have on hand.
Not willing to give up I then tried all the same combinations with Remington brass, and they all fit into the chambers.

My warning is to pay attention to the brass you are using and DO make some dummy "check" rounds to verify fit.

I am wondering if anyone else has encountered a similar problem with PPU .357 brass?

atr

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Good to know! Thanks!

[trapper9260]

I got some once fired brass and has some of that brass in the mix. I will need to see how that will work in my Ruger BH and Rossi and after I get my Ruger SP 101 .will check it out since this was posted. Thank you

[Wheelguns 1961]

I have 300 ppu cases in 357 that I have been loading for a couple years without any problems. Maybe they changed their brass since then, or my chambers are large. I also have some gfl brass that I thought was thicker than my ppu brass, but I didn’t measure any as they all chamber in all my 357’s.

[trapper9260]

I had just check the ones I got loaded and try them in my Ruger BH and also in my Rossi 92 and they feed ok , no problems. I had size the boolits to .358 and I did use the LFC after also. I have no problem with them.Just in case some one was wonder .

[tankgunner59]

Good to hear. I don't have any PPU in my .357 Mag brass that I know of, but I will go through it and if I find any I'll build a dummy and check it in my Taurus Tracker.

[wmitty]

Did you have a micrometer to check the case wall thickness? Seat a bullet of known size and measure outside diameter/2 = avg wall thickness?

[cwtebay]

Good to know! I have around 200 that I have reloaded several times since fall. None seem to be a problem after 4-5 loadings with Lee 0.358' - 158grain boolits. Wonder if there's some variability in lots?

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[samari46]

Get a ball mike.Stick the ball in the case and anvil against the case and turn the handle. Strangely enough with all the reloading I've done over the years I don't have one. Frank

[atr]

I measured a J at 0.357" dia.
then loaded that into a PPU case and measured the dia. = 0.377
(.377-.358)/2=0.01 inch wall thickness
then I took my glasses off....cleaned them and measured again....same numbers.

[kevin c]

I had trouble loading their 9mm brass: too thick for my 147's sized to .357 and loaded short. The GFL head stamp, again in 9mm, gave me the same problems.

Now that I have a custom M style die from Lathesmith, I might not have the same problem, but, out of habit, I just avoid using those two brands.

[Texas by God]

I had no reason to think those brass were suspect, ATR. Please accept my apologies. I have not loaded 357 in years and brass comes and goes around here. Good thing it was free- I hope the boolits are ok.

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[atr]

Texas....NOT A PROBLEM !!! / apologies not necessary but thank you ...I figure it was just another learning experience

and Yes I managed to load the bootlits in different brass.
sincerely
ATR

[Texas by God]

I hope it was just a hangover batch or such. I've had great luck with their rifle brass and currently use it in 22-250, .243, and 25-06. I'll be watching for problems with their 9mm and .45 brass. Drill the flash holes and relegate those to wax bullet use- the lemon/ lemonade thing you know.

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[atr]

I think it might have been a bad batch because I have used PPU brass before without a problem