Brass Thickness & Primer Hardness

[Lucky Eddie]

Where can I find a list of manufacturers, (a) brass from thickest to thinnest. and (b) primers from hardest to softest?

[Camille Eonich]

I don't know of one for either.


Primers are from hard to soft
CCI
Remington
Winchester
Federal

[Lucky Irish Tom]

Starline is supposed to be a thicker brass cartridge than most.  If you are worried about what will hold up to reloading I can attest  that Winchester brass seems to hold up as well as Starline to repeated reloadings although it seems a little thinner, based on resistance in my relaoding machines.  If you are going to be shooting Black Powder make sure you use a ggod full charge with Starline or you could get some blowback, since too light a charge won't expand the case enough.

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[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I'm not aware of anybody who has compiled such a list for brass thickness. In my experience, Winchester brass tends to run a tad thinner than most other brands, but only by .001 or so. That's about all I am aware of on the subject.

As for primer hardness, it's the most of us seem to feel that CCI are the hardest, Winchester are in the middle, and Federals are the lightest. I dunno where Remington falls into that scheme.

[Trailrider]

Howdy, Pard,

This kind of question, though very proper isn't all that easy to answer without a lot of research.  The reason is that there can be variations depending on caliber and type of cartridge.  So far as the ammo we generally use in CAS, Winchester tends to be the thinnest at the neck, Starline somewhere in between, and Remington the thickest.  I've not done enough with other brands to tell where they lie in the scheme of things.  Despite Winchester being the thinnest, especially in .44-40, that does NOT mean it is weakest, as their heat treatment tends to make the stuff a bit harder/stronger, whereas Remington is thicker, but more ductile, though NOT so much as to compensate, IMHO, for the problems the thicker necks cause me in my Ruger Old Model Vaqueros.  I find Winchester .44-40 brass to suit me the best.  As to how long they last, I can't really say...  I'm still using a bunch of brass I started with about 20-odd years agao, and they are about on their 20th or 21st reload and the only problems I have is the case mouths occasionally catching on the extractor hook cutout on the breech end of the barrel of my Rossi M65 (Winchester '92), which sometimes tears them.  And that isn't the fault of the brass!  The others that I have lost...are just that...lost!  In tall grass, at no-brass matches, etc.  Does attrit things sometimes.