Best brass for Cast Boolits

[JWFilips]

Hello all:
I'm brand new here to this forum & am about to take the plunge into loading casts for the first time. I eagerly have read much of the post on this forum & decide this is a great place with very knowledgeable folks that may be able to help a cast newbie. I have been handloading since the late 70's so I'm very familiar with handloading regular "bullets" I'm not into casting yet but am awaiting delivery a some cast boolits for my .40 S&W 4046 auto.

My first question I have ( since I have a lot of my own once fired brass) is which brand brass would you all recommend for loading cast boolits in a .40 S&W? I know some brands have different characteristics. I have Federal, WW, R-P & Fiocchi in good quantities on my bench.
I'm starting out with some 175 grain Semi Wad Cutter from Carolina Cast Bullets These are tumbled lubed 45/45/10

Not sure what powders I will be using yet: I have in my supply: Bullseye, Red Dot, Unique, and Power Pistol
Any additional help would be appreciated as to where to start
Thanks

[LUCKYDAWG13]

for yhe most part i like R/P for rifle and starline for pistol
and welcome to cast boolits

[Wolfer]

I shoot mostly starline in my pistols but don't always get a good seal on the low pressure stuff but I suspect it will last forever.
In rifles I prefer Winchester but shoot whatever I find laying around.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here but shooting cast in rifles I don't sort my cases by brand much less by weight. My thoughts here are there is so much air space in the loaded case to negate case thickness.

[delt167502]

i've been casting and shooting starting in 1959 and still going.I made almost all the mistakes a person can.In my opinion Collect all the brass you can ,then seprate according to head stamps . work up a load for the same name brass, if you find some wrong caliber throw it in a bucket and save it .( trading stock ).starting to cast I would'nt worry to much about the brass,after you settle on a load then think about the brass.( This is refering to the pistol brass.)The rifle brass is different seperate the head stamps and find what works in your rifle.

[429421Cowboy]

I probably have more WW pistol brass than anything and have many many reloads in .44 mag cast loads without any cracking yet. Starline is a top performer but i don't have much of that. I have found the Fiocchi stuff to be very hard and more prone to splitting than other brands, also the spring-back is considerable so boolit tension is not as consistant or strong in my experence.

[canyon-ghost]

I just chamfered another 50 Starline for 41 magnum. I like Starline, it's less brittle than Winchester and is really nice stuff.

http://www.starlinebrass.com/

I discovered this brass when shooting silhouettes with the Master Class shooters.

[afish4570]

If you are a bullseye shooter or plinking when you have the option of picking up your own brass then you can buy new and be sure to pickup your own with a min. of loss........However if you are on a range, club or public, you are limited in the time allowed to pickup brass, or everyone else is just grabbing....Then grab your share and sort by head stamps. Back when I shot alot of jacketed bullets I shot mixed brass for my action pistol sports.Just one point of view. Pick a safe powder charge from a reloading manual and start loading. afish4570

[TXGunNut]

I prefer WW or Starline for pistol loading but in my 45's I load whatever I pick up. Did the same when I loaded 40 S&W. Try loading a small lot of new or once-fired and see if they outperform mixed for your purposes.

[stubshaft]

Most anything I can scrounge but usually buy Starline.

[fa38]

If you are buying brass do not buy the nickle plated stuff. It cracks or splits two to three times faster than regular brass.

[garym1a2]

I load lots of 40S&W and the best brass for me is free brass. Just watch for the Glock buldge.
Powder depends on your load, if loading Major I would use a slower powder like Unique or Universal. For my 40 Minor loads I like 3.7gr of WST with a 175GR TC. Of course a charge of 4 gr of bullseye will be an easy load as well. I would not load hot in 40 till I got lots of experance with it.




Hello all:
I'm brand new here to this forum & am about to take the plunge into loading casts for the first time. I eagerly have read much of the post on this forum & decide this is a great place with very knowledgeable folks that may be able to help a cast newbie. I have been handloading since the late 70's so I'm very familiar with handloading regular "bullets" I'm not into casting yet but am awaiting delivery a some cast boolits for my .40 S&W 4046 auto.

My first question I have ( since I have a lot of my own once fired brass) is which brand brass would you all recommend for loading cast boolits in a .40 S&W? I know some brands have different characteristics. I have Federal, WW, R-P & Fiocchi in good quantities on my bench.
I'm starting out with some 175 grain Semi Wad Cutter from Carolina Cast Bullets These are tumbled lubed 45/45/10

Not sure what powders I will be using yet: I have in my supply: Bullseye, Red Dot, Unique, and Power Pistol
Any additional help would be appreciated as to where to start
Thanks

[GT27]

Another vote for Starline here!

[PDshooter]

What ever I find on the range.........;-)

[lead chucker]

Load whatever you find and do some test loads and see what works best. My plinking rounds are all mixed head Stamp and my hunting rounds are all segregated. When I find range brass I always clean them real good and use a primer pocket unifier. I only pick up what looks like once fired cases. You can usually tell cus the empty box is usually near buy.