Andy
09-18-2015, 04:47 PM
Recently purchased a large batch of .45 acp SMALL pistol primer brass to reload with for a 1911. With this gun I want to test various concepts loading for maximum accuracy and see how far I can take it. Toward that end I thought I would try sorting by headstamp for a while and see what effect it has.
Not really trying to discuss whether it is worth sorting by headstamp (I know there is much disagreement on that) as I am trying to simplify the process for those people who want to try it, myself included, for whatever reason. If anyone has done a thorough test on whether it matters or not please do add that to this discussion though.
Looking for advice on which headstamps can be grouped together (i.e. they are made by the same parent manufacturer and just stamped differently, with absolutely zero measurable difference in the actual case). I have heard that some of the cases (speer, blazer, gfi?) are made by another company, can anyone shed any light on this? I'm not expecting one headstamp to outperform another, but do expect that groups would spread if you are shooting mix headstamp brass of different weights, vs single headstamp brass.
What I have run into so far are the following:
Federal
Federal NT
Speer
Blazer
Fiocchi
GFI
WIN NT
I assumed the federal and federal NT would be the same until I weighed them and the NT were consistently more than 2 grains lighter than the regular federal cases, so maybe the only answer is that everything has to be separated by headstamp.
If two brands consistently weigh the same over a large sample base, could they be lumped together based on that fact alone?
Not really trying to discuss whether it is worth sorting by headstamp (I know there is much disagreement on that) as I am trying to simplify the process for those people who want to try it, myself included, for whatever reason. If anyone has done a thorough test on whether it matters or not please do add that to this discussion though.
Looking for advice on which headstamps can be grouped together (i.e. they are made by the same parent manufacturer and just stamped differently, with absolutely zero measurable difference in the actual case). I have heard that some of the cases (speer, blazer, gfi?) are made by another company, can anyone shed any light on this? I'm not expecting one headstamp to outperform another, but do expect that groups would spread if you are shooting mix headstamp brass of different weights, vs single headstamp brass.
What I have run into so far are the following:
Federal
Federal NT
Speer
Blazer
Fiocchi
GFI
WIN NT
I assumed the federal and federal NT would be the same until I weighed them and the NT were consistently more than 2 grains lighter than the regular federal cases, so maybe the only answer is that everything has to be separated by headstamp.
If two brands consistently weigh the same over a large sample base, could they be lumped together based on that fact alone?