[246203]

EDITED TO ADD:
3) What about nickle plated? Can they be reloaded the same?

1) Blazer brass, not the aluminum stuff. Safe to reload?

2) CBC with crimped primers. Worth it to buy the tool to remove crimp or just toss?
2a) If worth it, which tool to get?

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Blazer is by far my favorite brass. I’m convinced it’s the same as FC and Speer. All made by ATK. Extruded instead of traditionally drawn. I think it’s stronger than other headstamps, despite being easier to work. I sort the three ATK headstamps together and everything else is a mix.

CBC goes into the garbage usually. It’s notably stiffer than the other headstamps and you will get more case gauge failure due to hourglass buckling at the base.

 

[Kentguy]

Blazer brass in safe to reload. I have reloaded tons of Blazer brass, works just fine, as a matter of face I have 1,500 pieces of Blazer brass on the shelf waiting to be reloadeed.

Ditch the "crimped primer brass", I have found that type of brass is just a "Pain In The A.." to deal with. Too much other brass to waist you time with that.

 

[Collo Rosso]

If we're talking pistol brass, I'll load anything I pick up. I'll toss those new 2 piece cases (finding more and more of them), anything with that shoulder half way down and crimped primers. It's just not worth dealing with those crimps for 9mm brass when I pick it up by the hundreds. Lake city 5.56 is another story.

 

[unclebob]

For crimped primers, unless you have a 1050 or a 1100 now, The next best thing is the Dillon primer pocket swager.

 

[246203]

Edited the OP because I forgot to ask about the nickle plated stuff I picked up. Reload the same as regular brass?

 

[PRKJayhawk]

I don’t care for nickel brass. You can reload it like the rest, but in my experience I’ve found it to be brittle. It’ll start cracking before the regular stuff. YMMV.

 

[njl]

Blazer is by far my favorite brass. I’m convinced it’s the same as FC and Speer. All made by ATK. Extruded instead of traditionally drawn. I think it’s stronger than other headstamps, despite being easier to work. I sort the three ATK headstamps together and everything else is a mix.

CBC goes into the garbage usually. It’s notably stiffer than the other headstamps and you will get more case gauge failure due to hourglass buckling at the base.

I didn't realize there was CBC with crimped primers, but I agree, CBC sucks for reloading. Technically, it is reloadable brass, but I currently toss CBC and Aguila into a discards bin as I'm loading.

Nickel plated is nice for loading carry ammo since it won't tarnish.

 

[9x45]

Nickel can be reloaded the same as brass.
Blazer brass is just as good as FC, Speer or WW.
CBC is not crimped, but rather just very tight, like S&B.
No, a handful of MilCrimp brass is not worth getting a swaging tool. In the time it takes to deprime and swage even one round you can make 10 more good rounds. Save them for your buddies who run 1050's (built in swagers).


Brass not to use, stepped brass, IMT, Freedom Munitions, AmmoLoad and MaxxTech. You can't use book loads because the pressure will go way up. And they commonly have separation at the step, leaving you with a brass sleeve stuck in the chamber, and a dead gun.


This is mil crimp brass. Usually FC or WW. With the NATO stamp on it.

This is stepped brass.

 

[uofaengr]

Before I started loading 9mm, I had a ton of my own Winchester NATO crimped brass that I ran through the 650 to decap and reamed by hand. It took awhile, but something I'd only have to do once, and I only did it because I had so much of it. Now, if I'm picking up brass and I see a once fired NATO case, I throw it away along with the other known "bad" headstamps. Not worth my time to ream cases now.

 

[unclebob]

No, a handful of MilCrimp brass is not worth getting a swaging tool. In the time it takes to deprime and swage even one round you can make 10 more good rounds. Save them for your buddies who run 1050's (built in swagers).

That all depends on how many mil crimped pieces of brass you have. At one time I had 3 20mm cans of 9mm brass and one 5.56 that I deprimed and swaged.using the Dillon primer pocket swager. Then we had a house fire. And 4 20mm cans of deprimed sized and crimp removed brass disappeared.

 

[sciolist]

Nickel is fine, aluminum is not. Any headstamp is OK for minor. I would lose any stepped stuff for match of full-power.

My approach to crimped brass is to run it through the 1050 with everything else. If it decaps, fine. If not, I catch it at the swager and throw it out.

I have about 35 gallons of clean pick-up 9 and 1 dirty bucket where it starts out. I basically sort on the press. I sort out maybe 60% of splits during pickup, 30% during cleaning, and the rest at casing.

Anything that doesn't case goes in the pull bin, which is not much. I probably pull bullets every 6 months or so. Approaching 400k rounds of 9 loaded, and no real problems with brass. All my match ammo has always been loaded with random pick-up.

 

[Taterhead]

EDITED TO ADD:
3) What about nickle plated? Can they be reloaded the same?

They load fine. As others have said, they might split earlier. But then might not.

1) Blazer brass, not the aluminum stuff. Safe to reload?

Good stuff. Might be the same as Speer.

2) CBC with crimped primers. Worth it to buy the tool to remove crimp or just toss?
2a) If worth it, which tool to get?

Magtech cases are fine. A bit harder brass, not unlike PMC. I haven't noticed crimped primers in 9mm, but the CBC 10mm has stsked primers. I have swaged some 9mm primer pockets and now consider it a waste of time.

The cases I would avoid altogether are ones left over from matches where 9mm major shooters drop them.

Blazer is by far my favorite brass. I’m convinced it’s the same as FC and Speer. All made by ATK. Extruded instead of traditionally drawn. I think it’s stronger than other headstamps, despite being easier to work. I sort the three ATK headstamps together and everything else is a mix.

Agree, it's good brass. I'm fairly certain that Speer and CCI (Blazer) brass is not the same as FC. The FC cases are thinner at the case mouth, and I reserve FC cases for loading .358" cast for a couple guns that have large groove diameters and fairly tight chambers. Blazer and Speer won't fit in those guns, whereas FC does.

 

[Valmet]

While I don’t reload 9mm, I’ve successfully used lots of Blazer brass in .45ACP over the years.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Agree, it's good brass. I'm fairly certain that Speer and CCI (Blazer) brass is not the same as FC. The FC cases are thinner at the case mouth, and I reserve FC cases for loading .358" cast for a couple guns that have large groove diameters and fairly tight chambers. Blazer and Speer won't fit in those guns, whereas FC does.

Have you tried new production FC like is used on Fed Champion? I find older FC brass sometimes that is absolutely different. The lettering font looks different, weight is different, and it is thinner. I believe this stuff to be produced before extruded brass was a thing. Those relatively rare FC headstamps end up in my mixed brass.

Definitely possible I’m mistaken. As you know, there are several variations of FC headstamps with dots in different locations.

ETA:
I believe these are identical to Blazer/Speer

And I believe these are thinner, older pieces which are different

 

[Taterhead]

Have you tried new production FC like is used on Fed Champion? I find older FC brass sometimes that is absolutely different. The lettering font looks different, weight is different, and it is thinner. I believe this stuff to be produced before extruded brass was a thing. Those relatively rare FC headstamps end up in my mixed brass.

Definitely possible I’m mistaken. As you know, there are several variations of FC headstamps with dots in different locations.

ETA:
I believe these are identical to Blazer/Speer

And I believe these are thinner, older pieces which are different

Yeah, there are many different FC headstamps. The range pickups on hand, admittedly I have no idea the boxes that they came in. I haven't purchased factory 9mm range ammo for 25+ years.

The Speer cases that I've inspected have had concave case heads, IIRC. I'll try to snap a pic later.

 

[papercidal]

Blazer brass is my preferred 9mm case I typically can get less than 1 out of 1,000 that does not pass a case gauge when loading .358 coated cast.

 

[kf4zra]

The WCC or WW military 9mm with the NATO stamps on it are my favorite. I can get em dirt cheap because lots of people dont want to deal with the crimps. The 1050 makes quick work of them. I can only reload about 3 times not because of brass quality, but because the subguns are incredibly tough on brass and tend to throw it a long way.

 

[kf4zra]

The nickel stuff is fine. I used to load it like normal, but a buddy of mine likes to use it on his subsonic loads so he can tell the difference between them and standard loads really quickly.

 

[SARDG]

The nickel stuff is fine. I used to load it like normal, but a buddy of mine likes to use it on his subsonic loads so he can tell the difference between them and standard loads really quickly.

...and the subsonic doesn't stress that brittle nickel.
I was ROing a GSSF match once and the shooter had a... malfunction. A case head separated on his nickel reload and sent the extractor flying by my nose.