Reloading American Ammunition 45 ACP Brass

Has anyone out there had any problems reloading 45 ACP brass with the 'AMERC' head stamp? I believe this is manufactured for/by American Ammunition.

I loaded up some with 230 grain RNL and the bullet created a slight bulge in the case. Other brass by Federal, Win, PMC, etc. was fine. When I cycled the AMERC rounds thru my Ruger P90 they got stuck just short of seating in the barrel. All the other rounds loaded at the same time were fine.

I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this with the AMERC brass.

Thanks for your help.

#Has anyone out there had any problems reloading 45 ACP brass with the #'AMERC' head stamp? I believe this is manufactured for/by American #Ammunition. # #I loaded up some with 230 grain RNL and the bullet created a slight #bulge in the case. Other brass by Federal, Win, PMC, etc. was fine. #When I cycled the AMERC rounds thru my Ruger P90 they got stuck just #short of seating in the barrel. All the other rounds loaded at the #same time were fine. # #I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this with the #AMERC brass. # #Thanks for your help. # #David #

Your best bet with AMERC brand brass is to throw it away as soon as possible. I have seen their brass split on the first firing (new factory ammo). Everyone I know of who has tried reloading AMERC brass has had problems with it. I sell brass on eBay and I sort out all of the AMERC brand cases and throw them in a bucket for the scrap dealer.

The cases that you have bulging on you MIGHT be salvageable by using a Lee factory crimp die. But I would still throw the brass away after you fire the ammo. 45 brass isn't that hard to come by and AMERC brass isn't worth the hassle.

AMERC (American Ammunition) brand brass should not be confused with Federal's American Eagle brand of ammunition. I have had no such problems with American Eagle brass.

# I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this with the # AMERC brass. # # Thanks for your help. # # David # I've not shot any, but there are some AMERC cases in a batch of .38 special brass that I'm prepping for loading and they catch in the shell holder of my loading press. Trying to remove them after sizing or case flaring and the whole shell holder comes out of the ram with it most times... Makes me suspicious now it does...

Hi David. Amerc is about the thickest brass I've come across. It sizes hard and when I'm setup for crimping Win, S&B, Rem (which are thinner) I get a very heavy crimp. Needless to say I throw all the Amerc stuff into my .45 ACP misc. pail. I have the results of what I've found after dissecting a number of different manufactures bass (as far as thickness is concerned) if you or anyone else would like it. Let me know. Marc.

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# Has anyone out there had any problems reloading 45 ACP brass with the # 'AMERC' head stamp? I believe this is manufactured for/by American # Ammunition. # # I loaded up some with 230 grain RNL and the bullet created a slight # bulge in the case. Other brass by Federal, Win, PMC, etc. was fine. # When I cycled the AMERC rounds thru my Ruger P90 they got stuck just # short of seating in the barrel. All the other rounds loaded at the # same time were fine. # # I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this with the # AMERC brass. # # Thanks for your help. # # David

In one word, 'YES.' And so has everyone that I have talked to at the local range. Same problem as you are having. Stay away from it. I mainly use either Starline, R-P or Winchester .45ACP brass but I have reloaded S&B, Federal etc. without any problems whatsoever. I don't know what it is about AMERC but it won't work in my SA Trophy Match either.

# # Has anyone out there had any problems reloading 45 ACP brass with the # 'AMERC' head stamp? I believe this is manufactured for/by American # Ammunition. # # I loaded up some with 230 grain RNL and the bullet created a slight # bulge in the case. Other brass by Federal, Win, PMC, etc. was fine. # When I cycled the AMERC rounds thru my Ruger P90 they got stuck just # short of seating in the barrel. All the other rounds loaded at the # same time were fine. # # I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this with the # AMERC brass.

Most people who post on the reloading boards seem to have a very low impression of the Amerc brass. I've had enough problems myself that I toss any that I happen to pick up when shooting.

Producing brass doesn't seem like rocket science. I often wonder how much money can be saved by producing poor quality brass. I guess if you're producing millons of rounds per year, a penny here and there becomes serious money after a while.

# Most people who post on the reloading boards seem to have a very low # impression of the Amerc brass.

# Phil #

Which boards are these sir? Sounds like it might be a good place to lurk and learn.

Brian Nolen

The Amerc brass is useless. I use a lot of range brass in my semi-auto Thompson .45 and I have to be sure to throw the Amerc stuff out. For some reason I get bulges and blow outs just ahead of the extracter grove. No damage to my gun, but it has thrown pieces of brass and hot gases out the ejection port. I crush any I find with a pair of pliers. I suggest you do the same.

# # # Most people who post on the reloading boards seem to have a very low # # impression of the Amerc brass. # # # Phil # # # # Which boards are these sir? Sounds like it might be a good place to lurk # and learn.

The boards I like are in the following forums:

www.1911forum.com www.glocktalk.com www.sigforum.com

You might also want to check out this site: http://www.reloadbench.com/main.html

#I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this with the #AMERC brass.

Well, yes and no. When I first started loading for the 45 ACP I was coming across some of the A-MERC headstamp cases. The bullet was a cast 200 gr. SWC (H&G 68 style) which were sized to .452 and lubed with a home brew lube. The problem was that the crimp die would not produce enough crimp to keep the bullet in the case. I could push it in and pull it out with my fingers. It was a RCBS die.

I then went to the Lee Factory Crimp Die and the problem was still there. Not as bad but still would happen on about 1/3 of the cases.

About 2 1/2 yrs ago I went to a Dillon 550B and there is no such problem with their dies in the press.

But, I can tell when a piece of A-MERC is going through and I will pull the loaded round. So far I have had no problem with bullet seating or the crimp. The loads I have fired (in a Ruger P-90) have all been satisfactory and some of the brass has already been reloaded two more times and none of them have split (the load is 5.5 grains of Unique under the bullet mentioned earlier).

However, each piece of A-MERC feels funny going through the press and this brass is not my choice. I am just running the experiment for the fun of it. Luckily I have only found about 100 pieces in the last 6,000 cases I have had to load up.

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