What is it with AMERC brass

[la5676]

Picked up a batch of 45 ACP brass recently. Mixed range brass, tagged as large primer, but I spotted a small primer here and there, no biggie. I am seeing some AMERC brass now, have never loaded any of this before. I have never felt the need for my shooting purposes to separate brass by makers, but while processing (I run them through my progressive (sizing, depriming, and flaring only) I notice the AMERC brass always has a bulge in it. I use an RCBC flaring die, which has the stem that leads the flared edge into the case. The stem measures .448 up to the flare. I also noticed the AMERC brass mics almost double the thickness of any of the other mixed brass. Most others measure .011, but AMERC mics .017 to almost .020.

I do have one of those universal flaring tools that would do the flare without bulging the case, but I assume the stem is opening the case mouth a bit to allow insertion of boolit. Those using the LEE powder through expander die don't have this deeper case mouth expansion feature of the RCBS.

I'll prolly sit down in my man chair and separate some night, but also feel since when I load, I have the LEE FCD in the last station, this will clear it all up, so I should just not worry about it. What do others on the board think of this brass?

I'll end up with only a handful of small primer brass, but of the 2000 mixed, there seems to be maybe 5% or less AMERC.

[turtlezx]

throw them away

[la5676]

throw them away

I'll finish processing them then. It'll be easier to see the difference than to read the bases, ya know, old eyes and all.

[DonMountain]

I have discovered some of them in purchased range brass of 45 ACP, 9mm Luger and 380. When reloaded with projectiles sized to fit the bore of my guns, these AMERC brass don't fit in the chambers. Unless you have really loose chambers in your guns, they don't fit as reloads. I always pick them out and throw them away before doing anything to my brass.

[ReloaderFred]

Recycle any A-Merc brass you come across. It's old stuff, since the company went out of business awhile back, thankfully. If there is an anomaly that can possibly be caused in brass, American Ammunition (A-Merc) somehow managed to produce it.

I had an acquaintance who insisted he was going to reload A-Merc .45 acp brass, and he ended up gluing the primers in, since they fell out of the oversized primer pockets. They fired (for him), and he did it to just prove a point.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Many years ago, AMERC developed a reputation for very poor quality and was shut down. I had fired some of their .223, 4"-5" groups at 100 Yards in rifles that did 1.5" with FC 76 military. Bullets were undersize - .222. I believe Bushmaster would not honor warranty if AMERC was fired in their rifles and said so.

[gpidaho]

AMERC case here just get tossed in the recycle bucket along with worn out brass, they are junk. Thankfully, as stated above, they are out of business. Gp

[wv109323]

Many people that reload .45acp and 9mm do so on progressive presses. Having a stoppage is time consuming to correct. If you can determine a probable cause beforehand you do. Many have found problems with A-merc and thus scrap it to eliminate problems.

[la5676]

Thankfully, so far, I'm only looking at maybe 50 of the 2000 that were Amerc or Win NT. While was was sizing/de-priming, I played around a bit. Stuck the other turret in, and with no primer/powder, just seated some 230's in the cases for ****s and giggles. After seating and running through the LEE FGC station (there was very little friction I felt in the FCD die), I dropped then in my case guage, they all dropped in just fine. Is the 452 sized boolit getting swaged down even more in these thicker cases. I'm culling them, and thanks for the head's up guys. I learnt something. But, why would one have trouble chambering these, if they fit in a case guage? I run every thing through case guage before it gets boxed. Prevents issues at the range.

[sukivel]

throw them away

Yep, we all found them the same way. Straight to the recycling bin...


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[jonp]

Whole lot of AMERC threads online and not many good. I'd cull and toss them. The ones I've ran across were not anything I'd want to mess with.

[ReloaderFred]

But, why would one have trouble chambering these, if they fit in a case guage? I run every thing through case guage before it gets boxed. Prevents issues at the range.

Because you're not shooting them through the case gauge. They have to fit the chamber in order to be fired, so that's what you should be checking them in.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[la5676]

Because you're not shooting them through the case gauge. They have to fit the chamber in order to be fired, so that's what you should be checking them in.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Most (all) case guages are manufactured to SAAMI minimums, in order to fit about any firearm. I don't seem to have tight chambers on anything. I have checked my guages against my chambers, when a few rounds didn't slide into the guage easily, they still did fit my chamber, and besides, the case guage is a hell of a lot handier to mess with than the barrel and a bowl full of loaded rounds, for me anyway.

[Dimner]

I toss them when I find them in 223/556. Awful cases.

[David2011]

Don’t throw them away. Just sell them as scrap.

[kevin c]

I've found A-Merc to be thicker than any other pistol brass by a wide margin, to the point that any coated boolit over jacketed diameter gets shaved or sized down in the case.

It's useless for my needs so it's equated with split, crushed, dented or corroded cases and treated as scrap brass.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I cull Amerc brass and recycle them.
The first time I discovered them, I've found a high percentage give me problems during all the steps of reloading.

[ReloaderFred]

Most (all) case guages are manufactured to SAAMI minimums, in order to fit about any firearm. I don't seem to have tight chambers on anything. I have checked my guages against my chambers, when a few rounds didn't slide into the guage easily, they still did fit my chamber, and besides, the case guage is a hell of a lot handier to mess with than the barrel and a bowl full of loaded rounds, for me anyway.

I think you're going to find that a lot of case gauges are made to SAAMI Maximum, or somewhere in between. The point is, cartridges aren't fired in gauges, they're fired in chambers, so they must fit the chamber they're going to be fired in. A gauge simply tells you whether or not that individual cartridge fits in the gauge, but doesn't tell you if it's going to fit in the chamber of your firearm. I've seen lots of cartridges that fit gauges, but wouldn't chamber and fire. They're two different measuring devices.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[JimB..]

I’ve always scrapped them based on internet lore, really just not worth the tome. Great to hear that they are gone.

[LUBEDUDE]

I discovered Amerc 15-17 years ago when I bought a case of 45acp from Sportsmans Guide. After a few bent decapping pins I have since trashed every piece of Amerc I see.