I have several brands of once fired 45LC brass to choose from, Winchester, Remington, and CBC. Which is the best for heavy loads, or are they all equal? Just curious about your thoughts and experience.

Thanks,

Mark.

I was always told Federal had the strongest 45Colt brass. Of the brass you have I am not certain, but would say Winchester. One thing I have learned is check your chamber size. Often 45Colt chambers are very sloppy in many different guns. If any kind of brass has to expand and be resized significantly and is repeatedly exposed it will not last long.

Andy

Unless your looking to push the brass into the 50kpsi range, strength isn't what you need. Even with Ruger level loads you're going to split necks long before primer pockets loosen up, and chamber dimensions will greatly effect when the necks split. Large chambers = short case life.

I've fired mostly winchester brass with almost all being Ruger level in several different guns, none of them being very tight chambers. Most of the split necks come after 10-15 firings.

I my experience the Winchester brass seemed to hold up much better than Remington with very heavy loads. The Remington stuff seemed to get stuck in the chambers before the Winchester ones did. I got stupid and ruined the cylinder on my Stainless 4 5/8 Blackhawk trying to push 405's fast. I lost track of how many times I loaded the same cases back in 96' and most of them are still good today.

i've settled on hornady -- but i load pretty mild anymore

I use Starline exclusively in all of my handguns where available. Never had problem with their 45 Colt brass even when pushed in my 5 shot Ruger.

Yes, I load my 45 Colt Ruger and Seville stuff much more on the mild side now. I have to keep the brass seperate for them. Brass fired in the Ruger will not chamber in the Seville.

Supershot,
I use all of the brands of brass you mention, and it is all at least adequate for ordinary loads. Winchester used to make decent brass but the stuff they are selling now is crap IMHO. The deep cannelure on Magtech (CBC) may interfere with some bullets with long shanks. Federal makes good brass but they don’t list it as a component anymore in 45colt. I use Stairline if I’m getting serious.

quote:

Originally posted by Boxhead:
I use Starline exclusively in all of my handguns where available. Never had problem with their 45 Colt brass even when pushed in my 5 shot Ruger.

I use Starline 45LC brass for my wild 300g loads and mixed brass for my plinking loads that run around 850-900fps. Seems to work ok

I can't tell a difference. I've used winchester,starline,remington,magtech and all have held up well. From what I have seen after slinging a 350gr runnin 1200fps the brass sizes easier than after some of the 260s-280s runnin max loads. I shoot lots and have only needed to discard a handful of cases over the last few years. Some brass I know has 10+ loadings on them. So the long way to answer your question,I don't feel there is a best,and they are all about equal.

I've loaded alot of 45LC over the years, all kinds of loads, no problems with any of it, even some very old brass which has been loaded probably a dozen times.

The hottest load I have shot in my 45LC Bisley Vaquero is a 335 grain LSWC with gas check. I loaded this bullet over 23.5 grains of H110 but used Starline 454Casull brass trimmed to fit in the 45LC chambers, and lit with Magtech small rifle primers. The load was accurate and ran about 1293 ft/sec. All was well until I changed the hammer for a standard Blackhawk hammer, because the reduced weight of the new hammer I started experiencing misfires. I then tried this load in 45LC brass using Win Large pistol primers and the misfire problem was fixed but I encountered a new problem because of the weaker brass, the bullets jumped the crimp and locked the cylinder up. I have since abandened this load and only use 270 grain Keith style bullets in a more moderate load.

I've been reloading for .45 Colt for more than 40 years, originally for a Colt's Single Action in .45 Colt, and then in 1978, a Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt, 4 5/8" bbl.

It didn't much matter what I used in the Colt's as the loads were duplicating standard factory loads. With the Ruger, I reloaded hotter loads, using mainly Federal brass, then Starline.

It's not too scientific, but I think the Starline brass holds up to hotter loads than Federal or Remington in the great .45 Colt. I still prefer the Starline brass in my Ruger .45 Colt.

L.W.

quote:

I got stupid and ruined the cylinder on my Stainless 4 5/8 Blackhawk trying to push 405's fast.

Lar45. can you explain how this happened?
Peter

Even though Starline was not one of your options...


This from the Starline catalog:

"45 Colt Brass (Large Pistol primer) 1.273"-1.283" O.A.L. (Backordered expected availability: 02/28/2012 )
45 Colt Brass. Originally designed for use with blackpowder, the .45 Colt is one of the most powerful, commonly available handgun cartridges when loaded with smokeless powder. Our .45 Colt brass has been tested to .44 Magnum pressures in gun systems suitable for such loads."


http://forums.accuratereloadin...2911043/m/4781047171

I only use Starline.

But I am new to the beloved 45 Colt

Snake

I bought 500 pieces of Starline brass for both my 45LC and my 10mm. The 45lc brass has seen some heavy loads through it with no signs of bulging. The 10mm brass has held up well as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:

quote:

I got stupid and ruined the cylinder on my Stainless 4 5/8 Blackhawk trying to push 405's fast.

Lar45. can you explain how this happened?
Peter

A friend of mine had just received a Linebaugh built .475 and I had a bad case of 475 envy, lol. So I thought I would see just how close I could come with 405s in my lil 45 Colt Blackhawk. In a moment of stupidity I decided to try BlueDot instead of 296. I got just past 1200fps when the brass got stuck in the cylinder. I pounded and pounded and finally got the cases out. A couple of the chambers had some chatter looking marks in them and one had a spiral line inside of it. Luckily my Buddies new .475 started life as a 45Colt, so I bought his cylinder and stoned the nose and ratchet ends to fit my frame.