Question About Federal .38 Brass

by AllAces Sun Oct 11, 2015 7:32 pm

I'm loading .38 wadcutters for my S&W M52. I purchased some once fired brass that includes a batch of Federal brass. I'm having trouble with some of the spent primers punching through and not fully removing from the brass. Looks like the center gets punched out leaving a ring in the primer pocket. This doesn't happen with every piece of Federal brass, just one in about every 50 or so.

Anyone have a similar problem? Other than discarding all of the Federal brass, is there anyway to tell which brass might have this problem when removing the primers?

The problem looks similar to some TZZ .45 ball brass used by the US Marine Corps Pistol Team.

by **Wobbley** Sun Oct 11, 2015 8:10 pm

What you have is called a "ringer" in commercial reloader parlance. Dunno what causes it. Some say corrosion. I've had a few. Just throw it away it isn't worth the time to fix.

by dhenry132 Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:55 am

Ringer's are caused from moisture over time

by AllAces Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:23 pm

Thanks dudes for the quick info. I've culled out all the Federal brass, cleared the jam in my press and just finished a couple hundred rounds without any problems.

by noylj Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:45 am

If you ever want to buy virgin brass for your M52, get R.P. The thinner walls make not swaging the bullet down during seating a lot easier and just seems to produce better accuracy.
Never had an issue with Fed, but agree it is most likely moisture.
Since they are Federal, one assumes they are not military or have swaged primers?
Any sign of sealant around the primer?

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