Ammunition

[dirt ditch]

I've always heard that coated steel cases sometimes deposit small amounts of the coating in the chamber leading to trouble loading / extracting rounds. Anyone have this experience?

Good explanation here. https://www.youtube.com - The Truth About Wolf Ammo

 

[k0ua]

I hate resizing them, it is much harder to do. Pistol dies are carbide and can resize nickel brass, but I don't like to do it. Rifle dies are not carbide and I ruined a resizing die trying to resize nickel plated brass. Hornady replaced the the 20 year old die for free. The kicker is that nickel plated brass is more expensive than regular brass.

OK, well all of my experience is with carbide dies and pistol brass. I have never tried any rifle brass that was nickel.

 

[rtimgray]

I picked up some Monarch ammunition just yesterday. It was at an Academy store and was $12/50 for .380, so I thought I would try it.

.380 is one of the calibers that seemed to disappear a couple of years ago, along with .22lr. I think it was probably not nearly in so much demand as it was a lack of supply. Of course, I think the demand shot up (no pun intended) with the proliferation of the .380 pocket pistols (Ruger LCP, Keltec P3AT, Taurus 738, S&W Bodyguard, etc), so it was a "perfect storm". Now, I think it is just about as common as any other round, and I do enjoy shooting my "mouse gun".

I've shot a mix of steel cased and brass cased in several of my guns, and don't really notice much difference; some of the my guns feed better with steel than brass, but most of the time I can't tell the difference. Of course, I don't shoot much compared to many folks - and I do clean my guns after each shooting session.

Good luck and take care.

 

[Soundguy]

I hate resizing them, it is much harder to do. Pistol dies are carbide and can resize nickel brass, but I don't like to do it. Rifle dies are not carbide and I ruined a resizing die trying to resize nickel plated brass. Hornady replaced the the 20 year old die for free. The kicker is that nickel plated brass is more expensive than regular brass.

I'd say you have a problem with technique or lubrication practices.

I'm with K0ua.. nic/brass cases actually resize easier for me. the nickle wears eventually, and the brass itself is actually ( has to be ) a hair thinner than a normal brass case, since the nic coated cases are brass plus coating and have to be the same dimension of a standard brass case.

 

[Soundguy]

coatings on brass ammo vary widely.

you have the laquer, zinc, and poly.

the poly and zinc never cause problems IMHO.. thought the poly will leave your hands black.

the laq coated ones.. I can see if you were in a sustained fire 'war' environment you might have some transfer.. but on semi auto guns or bolt guns.. I don't see this as being an issue for the average shooter. Just clean your guns after use.. that includes the chamber.

If you shoot laq cased ammo all the time and never clean your guns and one day after years of use, you have a round glued into the chamber... i saw the 'bad' is on the owner for not cleaning the gun...

 

[Soundguy]

OK, well all of my experience is with carbide dies and pistol brass. I have never tried any rifle brass that was nickel.

No issues here.

I have nic coated federal safari cartridges in 'big boy toy' size ranges like 416 rigby.

They resize like you might expect.. clean and lube case, resize, measure, trim.. etc.

The biggest issues I see with hard resizes are, in order I have seen them ( anyway ):

1, bad lube technique

2, liberal chamber, unsuported chamber, and some semi and full auto actions that let the case expand more than normal.. and thus it takes more force to resize.

3, worn dies. rough, unfinished, scratched, etc, or even not cleaned between switching incompatible lube types.

All the problems are addative too.

forget to lube an oversized cartridge and jamb it up in a rough die and yeah.. I imagine you then get to find out how to use a stuck case extractor...

Many people forget that there are some incompatibilities in lubes and you really should clean your dies.

 

[RobertN]

375JDJ base TC Contender are sweet. Had opportunity to shoot one at 200 yards. That thing was a tack driver. Owner had taken Elk with it. Kinda funny, he let me shoot prairie dogs with it. That thing would hold a 2" group at 200 yards, shooting from bench/sand bags.

My dad used to have a 45/70 pistol. Any takers on shooting it? He has a 375 JDJ and a 454 casull. Both are in handguns.

 

[EddieWalker]

... my .458 winmag / .458 lott ...

Do you hunt with this? What have you used it on?

 

[k0ua]

375JDJ base TC Contender are sweet. Had opportunity to shoot one at 200 yards. That thing was a tack driver. Owner had taken Elk with it. Kinda funny, he let me shoot prairie dogs with it. That thing would hold a 2" group at 200 yards, shooting from bench/sand bags.

I shot one of those, exactly twice... Yup, two shots was all it took for me to decide I didn't want no more of that thing. Call me wimp if you like, and I guess I am, but that dang contender in 375JDJ just pushed back so hard, my wrist said "no thank you".. I handed it back to its owner..

 

[Soundguy]

Do you hunt with this? What have you used it on?

Havn't had it out on a hunt yet, but was thinking it might be good for dangerous game.. like ... tyrannosaur

Seriously though.. I picked it up and a 416 rigby, and a 375HH for a safari hunt that just hasn't occured yet.

Only thing it has shot was paper.. and believe me.. the paper was dead.. Dropped on the spot. didn't have to track it any... took out the target frame too.