Has anyone used bertram brass?
And what brass are people having touble finding?

I have not used Bertram but I've heard it's good... but don't quote me on that.

When I have the chance, I use Lapua, Peterson or ADG if they are made in one of my cartridges.

To me, it seems that good brass has been really tough to find during this latest shortage BUT it seem to be getting better and easier to find by the week!

Zeke

Once, and that was enough to learn, never use it again.

LaPua announced a cutback on what they were gonna import about 4 months ago.

not just volume, but some cartridges totally for a while.

quote:

Originally posted by Gundog 64:
Once, and that was enough to learn, never use it again.

Exactly!

The worst brass ever made!

Bertram brass is hit or miss. I have used it for BPE rounds for which I could not get other brass. I anneal it before use.

quote:

Originally posted by Gundog 64:
Once, and that was enough to learn, never use it again.

Good to hear another side of the story.
Sounds like I was mislead by a couple dudes who used it.

Like I said, I have not used it and it looks like I never will now. Thanks

Zeke

I have a box of it in 405; works perfectly fine. If that is the one with the little kangaroos on the head.

The OP has posted the same question on the Medium Bore page for which he has received some answers including my own.

While Bertram may be hit and miss in the quality department for some of his brass, without him and without our support many shooters of old, unusual and obsolete cartridges would struggle to find other sources of brass. The restart of Kynoch branded cartridges was on the back of Bertram brass and again without Kynoch we wouldn't have the same availability of a lot of the old nitro express ammunition that we do today.
The American manufacturers only produce cases and ammo for the most common NE cartridges. It's businesses such as Bertram and Woodleigh that have done so much for the shooting world today and sparked renewed interest in many cartridges of a largely bygone era. Support them, don't knock them.

Bertram has done shooters of odd and obsolete cartridges a huge favor by offering cases no one else would make. I have some of their product in 461#2Gibbs and have been quite happy with it.

That said, sizes and tolerances haven't been consistent in the past. Because of this, whenever someone wanted a reamer made to suit their Bertram cartridge, we insisted on a few samples of the exact brass they intended to use. Things like rims being eccentric with case bodies and base diameters being grossly undersize can cause issues if not taken into account when designing a chamber. The brass isn't cheap either, but it's often available when nothing else is, and that's a good thing.

Dave Manson

quote:

Originally posted by DManson:
Bertram has done shooters of odd and obsolete cartridges a huge favor by offering cases no one else would make. I have some of their product in 461#2Gibbs and have been quite happy with it.

That said, sizes and tolerances haven't been consistent in the past. Because of this, whenever someone wanted a reamer made to suit their Bertram cartridge, we insisted on a few samples of the exact brass they intended to use. Things like rims being eccentric with case bodies and base diameters being grossly undersize can cause issues if not taken into account when designing a chamber. The brass isn't cheap either, but it's often available when nothing else is, and that's a good thing.

Dave Manson

It is a shame the quality couldn't be improved. I recall an article about Bertram and his operation in a copy of the Aussie gun magazine Sporting Shooter many years ago. The writer made a bit of a thing (positive) about the annealing process Bruce had set up for his cases but to me it looked like the machine came out of the ark. It had a couple of gas torches at different angles but didn't seem to rotate cases other than they went around on the circumference of a circular plate in a fixed position. It all looked very primitive.

I posted an image a few weeks back of some recent Bertram brass for sale here on our auction site and you could see the annealing heat discolouration extending well down the case walls at best and at worst almost to the base of some cases. Someone wasn't paying attention when running those cases through the annealer.

Maybe the machinery in Bruce's factory is very old and not capable of good quality control, but for many there is no option when trying to obtain cases that nobody else will make.

Biggest problem I had was the case walls were uneven!

Never had anything like that before with any other brass.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Biggest problem I had was the case walls were uneven!

Never had anything like that before with any other brass.

It does sound like old worn drawing and swaging machinery or possibly a quality issue with the raw brass stock Bertram sources.

I use Rem brass for our 270 Wins, Weatherby brass for my 270 Wby and Jamison brass for my 500 Jeffery. Happy with the choices