Friday, February 20, 2015

Proof that while beggars can't be choosers, they can still bitch about it.

I would like to announce my official disdain, disgust and disaffection with PPU head-stamped once-fired 9mm brass which has primers made out of some soft material that jams up my decapping press with distressing regularity. Just wanted to get that on the record.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

you might want to check the de-capping pin. It may be the cause of your troubles.

Galaxie_Man said...

Probably another consequence of "green ammo", just like the newer Federal .45 ACP brass that has small pistol primer pockets, instead of the large pistol primer pockets they had since 1911. It would behoove the re-loaders among us to carefully inspect any brass you scrounge up at the range to ensure it meets your expected specs. Trying to cram a large pistol primer into a small primer pocket could make a fully loaded progressive press go "BOOM!"

Anonymous said...

Can you adjust your decapping rod a little deeper, or does the rod penetrate the caps?

Anonymous said...

PPU is Prvi Partizan, which in my experience has usually been pretty decent brass, though I've only reloaded it in 45 Auto.

Is the decapping pin piercing the old primers without knocking them out?

Anonymous said...

I have 100 rounds of PPU 22 hornet that will not extract from my rifle. Junk ammo

Marshall Thompson PhD said...

I regularly reload PPU brass (9 mm and all other calibers I happen to reload) and never have any significant problems with it. I use a separate Lee Universal Decapping Die for this purpose since I decap before wet cleaning with SS pins. I do notice that fired PPU primers are a little harder to remove due to them having a tighter fit in the primer pocket. You also have to press a little harder to get the new primer in for the same reason. However, other than that, they work just like other brass. One other interesting note, PPU must use a slightly different brass alloy than other manufacturers (70/30 copper/zinc is normal) since it usually has a slightly more coppery color than other brass.

If you really don't like using it put it in a bag and I'll take it off your hands ;-)

Marshall