.45 ACP brass hardness and reduced loads

I find Starline brass to be stiff and hard and often with reduced loads see blow back char on the cases. I was wondering if there is softer brass that might expand to seal the chamber better with reduced loads? I have searched the forum and there are a few references to Winchester brass being softer and better for wad cutter loads, so I am just looking for input.

Thanks

BTDT…Don’t resize, or just neck size. I suspect that this doesn’t offer supreme precision though.

I use 45 Colt sizing die for loading SWC.  Yes, Winchester brass mostly, although it is sub-.890".  Tighter crimp - 0.464"/0.465".
I also found that PMC brass is quite good for SWCs, and most cases are .890"+ after sizing. However these have inconsistent, or I should say, two distinct wall thicknesses as I measured.  Since all brass was range pickup I can't trace / attribute to one or another OEM loads.

AP

Raven Rock Precision is selling new Norma 45 acp brass primed for approximately $170 per thousand. I haven't received mine yet but saw a friend of mines and it looked pretty good.

Bill

Greetings,

Found the website.

https://ravenrocksprecision.com/new-primed-45-acp-brass-large-pistol-primer-updating/

It is a closeout. Norma headstamp made by JAG.

I have some JAG brass and it is nicely finished. Just need to load some up for testing.

Cheers,

Dave

Greetings,

Back to the original topic.

I, too, have noticed that StarLine cases need more effort to size.

All the other brands I have size with less effort.

Cheers,

Dave

To the OP:
Have you tried annealing some Starline cases before using them for your reduced loads?  I’ve never annealed pistol brass but I would always anneal wildcat (bottleneck) cases formed from a parent cartridge.  It’s been a few years (decades) since then but as I recall, once annealed, the cases could be loaded several times before they became work hardened again.

DK

With pistol brass /45 acp being so short I think the web area would get hot before the case mouth became annealed. That would be bad since it would weaken the web area.
Maybe hot sand annealing but then that's a lot of trouble for a little gain. JMO

About the only way is to stand them up in water.  But it’s a LOT of fuss for pistol.

My method back then was to use a Sinclair Int. caseholder and driver chucked into a powered screwdriver.  Load a case, tighten the caseholder, present the spinning case mouth to the butane torch flame, count to three, then reverse the screwdriver to release the case from the holder and let it drop into a pan of water.  

It takes about as much time to anneal a case as it does to read the above paragraph.  Not too bad really and as mentioned, it takes several loading cycles on a case before it may need another annealing treatment.

Like Alex, I also use a .45 Colt sizing die for .45 ACP SWC in order to minimize how much the brass is worked.