I picked up 100 pcs of Federal 357 Maximum brass at a local gun show. The brass is packaged in 50 rnd boxes and the headstamp says IHMSA 357 Max. The brass is nickel plated.
Before I just go ahead and reload these are they worth anything to collectors?

I don't know how collectible it is, but if there's any doubt, you may want to check out Midway. They current have new Remington Max brass for ~$14.00 per hundred.

Lee Martin
www.singleactions.com

I have 100 rounds of that nickled Ihmsa stuff too, if it's valuable, let me know...I'll sell it and buy the new stuff from Midway.

regards,
Graycg

I've only been able to find Remington brass. I'd like to find some Federal cases, but not nickle plated though.

I've never seen the Federal brass. I've accumulated over 1000 Remington cases... The Remington brass is pretty good, but when used in MY Contender barrel, it all needs to be precisely trimmed to a certain length for best performance and there has been quite a bit of variance in length with this brass.

I've got Remington, Winchester and the Federal IHMSA stuff, never seen any other brands though.
Interesting to hear about the trim length issue Hobie...Guess I should look at that...only ever worried about case length to ensure even crimping...never really paid attention to it when I wasn't crimping the rounds.

regards,
Graycg

Well, I've got a factory barrel and I guess this is THE quirk! Trimming ensures that all brass releases the bullets the same way. Also, since I use H110/W296, the crimp is critical to good, repeatable performance.

I have to admit, that for my first 600 rounds or so I didn't pay attention to the crimp either. A few unexplainable flyers and sticky cases made me look at what was going on and the only variable is the crimp based on case length. When I eliminated that variable, the anomalies went away.

This is an efficient, well-balanced cartridge that gets .30-30 performance without a lot of powder. It will match factory .35 Remington ammo. I like it.

See what you mean about the crimping/trimming. I concur with you about the max being a primo contender round, more fun than we should be allowed to have.

Wish I lived in your part of VA over my part of VA/DC.....

regards,
Graycg

graycg,

My daughter lives in McLean and works in Arlington. She loves it up there because so many of her friends from college are up there and there's so much night life, music, xtreme sports stuff, etc. However, I note that when she gets full of it she'll call and get an invite to come home for decompression!

Personally, I can't take more than a day up there. Its even getting crowded here... But, VA is more gun friendly than a lot of places.

The MAX is a great little cartridge. I think I'm going to find me some 1680 and the next batches of reloads will be the 200 gr. RN at about 1900 or the 205 FNGC at about 1600 (as I'm loading them now).