45 Long Colt Brass

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Just FYI ...

Through a quirk of the site, all 45LC brass on MidwayUSA's site appears to be out of stock, no backorder. However, for some reason it's using the nickel plated version for that status. They actually HAVE the unplated regular brass in stock but limited to 2 bags of 100. This is Star-Line brass at this link ... https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1021319333?pid=195841.

[Ysabel Kid]

Starline itself is out of stock.

[Walt]

Thanks, Rimfire. I had been checking almost every day in both nickel and brass.....must have just become available.

[Griff]

Check Starline 45 Colt brass every day. They'll accept backorders sooner or later... When I ordered, I ordered 2,000 and received them inside a week after placing the order. I'd ordered 1,000 .44-40 a few months earlier, as they were allowing backorders and received them a few days later. I don't believe I'll run out of either anytime soon. With 10 firearms in 45 Colt and just one .44-40 I might have got the ratio a little wrong... but sitting down to load, it's nice to go until the bucket (GI ammo cans) are full, rather than running out of brass. The nicest thing about brass is that it doesn't spoil... I just went and looked... I bought the 45 Colt 2-½ years ago... it still looks new... (what I haven't loaded). @$198.50/1,000 it was a great investment. The .44-40 I bought about 6 months earlier and it was $252.00/1,000. Another great investment... it did cost significantly less than today... but more importantly, I have it on the shelf ready to load when needed. When I shoot a match, it generally consists of 60 rounds of rifle ammo, over 6 stages... out the 10 rifle rounds per stage, I probably average 8 or 9 being returned. Anything ejected forward of the firing line has to wait until the end of the match to gather. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

[AJMD429]

.
It sounds like the secret is like with a lot of other things, make sure you order before you get too low on stock, and then order a bunch so that it incentivizes a production run.

And I guess the other lesson is don't depend entirely on something that isn't common and run of the mill, even if it's mediocre. 9 mm Luger and 44 Magnum and 223 and 308 may all be lesser than some of their competition, but I'd rather have 10,000 rounds of 9 mm then 75 rounds of 10 mm.

[Griff]

It sounds like the secret is like with a lot of other things, make sure you order before you get too low on stock, and then order a bunch so that it incentivizes a production run.
And I guess the other lesson is don't depend entirely on something that isn't common and run of the mill, even if it's mediocre. 9 mm Luger and 44 Magnum and 223 and 308 may all be lesser than some of their competition, but I'd rather have 10,000 rounds of 9 mm then 75 rounds of 10 mm.

Back in 1987 when I got my Sharps, I slowly gathered about 180 rounds of 45 Basic brass to be able to shoot a BPCRS match and had collected about 180 pieces... when I went to the Nationals in 1990 and shot my first big match. Being my 1st NRA match I had to enter as an Open shooter. At the end of the match I qualified as a "B" shooter, and gained a very sore shoulder after firing the 80 round course over 2 days. At the Nationals in 1991 in Raton, at the end of the 3 day, 120 round match, I'd shot a solid B class match for my 2nd outing and ended up in 7th place after tying with 10 folks for 3rd. Including sighters, etc... I ran out of ammo after shooting the 3 extra runs at the Pigs to finish in 7th place. I'm very certain I' could've finished better had I not run out of brass. I got home from that match and immediately ordered another 200 pieces of Bertram Brass for it... I tend to keep 50 round loaded with smokeless, and another 50 or so loaded with BP. Who knows when a herd of buffalo might wander onto the farm!

I got a notice from Midway yesterday that they had limited stock of .32-40 by a brass company I've never heard of, Quality Brass of Las Vegas... Limited to 2 boxes of 20... but since I've never heard of 'em... I only ordered 1 box... I think that is the very first time I've ever ordered (or bought), less than 100 rounds of anything if it was available. I've been slowly increasing the amount of .32-40 I have available. I even took two boxes of the JW Commemorative ammo out of the nine in my collection to have some extra. I don't like to take a trip to the range, shoot a few groups and have to take that brass and reload it to have ammo on hand. I may never have more than a few hundred loaded .30-30 on hand at any given time... but I've got a goodly stash of brass to back that up... The rounds I'm short on loaded ammo for... are only those I cast for. I do find it hard to keep up on my casting. I need some more GC .30 cal bullets cast up... maybe even powder coat some of 'em. I might be brass poor, but... I have the capability to have plenty of ammo, whenever the need arises!

[piller]

It seems funny to me that non-shooters think a thousand rounds of anything is an arsenal. Go shooting once every other month and that is not even enough to outlast a shortage caused by a political event. I have run out of ammo to practice with one time. I keep enough of what I shoot regularly to keep me going for a while. Having all the components is a good idea.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Absolutely! A lot of folks got caught up short during this latest dry spell. I’m loading with primers that I bought back during the Bush administration when they said that they were going to somehow have primers expire over time. Never regretted stocking up at the time.

[Turdyturdy]

Ref. The subject of the 32-40 brass at Midway. The 32-40 brass is about the easiest brass to reform from other calibers. It can be made from 38-55, 30-30 and 32 Special. All you need is a 32-40 full length die. Using 38-55 you may have to trim just slightly. I have made and shot hundreds that way. The 32 Special I have found the best as the neck is already the correct size and it does at least show a 32 on the head stamp.

[Griff]

Ref. The subject of the 32-40 brass at Midway. The 32-40 brass is about the easiest brass to reform from other calibers. It can be made from 38-55, 30-30 and 32 Special. All you need is a 32-40 full length die. Using 38-55 you may have to trim just slightly. I have made and shot hundreds that way. The 32 Special I have found the best as the neck is already the correct size and it does at least show a 32 on the head stamp.

Except... with the exception of the long 38-55 brass the rest end up short. .32-40 should actually have very sightly a longer trim to length at, 2.120", max length 2.13", vs. the .38-55's 2.118". All the other cases based off the .38-55 have a trim to length of 2.028".

[Turdyturdy]

Well those reformed “short” for 32-40 cases turns out to be a big plus. It allows 32 Special bullets to be crimped in the cannelure and still feed through a model 94 action. Try that with a 32-40 length case and the cartridge will jamb on top of the lifter.

[Griff]

Well those reformed “short” for 32-40 cases turns out to be a big plus. It allows 32 Special bullets to be crimped in the cannelure and still feed through a model 94 action. Try that with a 32-40 length case and the cartridge will jamb on top of the lifter.

I'm shooting an 1885. Length is immaterial.

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[Turdyturdy]

Griff, that is a beauty! What load are you shooting?

[Griff]

Griff, that is a beauty! What load are you shooting?

15 grains of AA5744 behind a 170 pb flat nose, or about 35 grains by volume of Goex Cartridge being the same bullet. Both around 1400fps

My 1st test used 19 grains of 5744 and, group was too large along with ES, SD & AD numbers. Haven't shot lighter load... BP gave good numbers, AD = 27.8, but I think that can be improved, just as I'm anticipating the lighter 5744 load will drop those number from 3 digit to low 2s. I'd like both AD #s to be in the low teens if not single digit!

[Turdyturdy]

Griff, my 1894 shoots jacketed 170 Speer accurately using IMR 4198. I have not yet found a cast load with any accuracy. Using hard cast .322 Rim Rock 170 grain. I started with 15 grains 5744, tried Shooters World Buffalo Rifle 15 to 17 grains, same results, all over the target. A little better with 16 grains of 4198. On a whim after loading some 257 Roberts with IMR 4350 I thought what to heck let’s try it in the 32-40. Loaded 25 grains behind the 170 PB and wow. Pretty close to the jacketed accuracy. Since I shot my Crony testing some 16 gauge slug loads (embarrassing) I don’t have any numbers. I’m going to also try 8-9 grains of Unique for a 1200 fps load