Limited Quantity of 56-52 Spencer Brass For Sale

[Two Flints]

Hello SSS,

I received the following Email from the Rocky Mountain Cartridge Company www.rockymountaincartridge.com . . . I am posting their Email in case any SSS members might be interested. And if interested, please contact Rocky Mountain for additional information.

"Good morning Two Flints,

We don't have any 56-50 or 56-56 brass in stock.

We do however have 60 cases (3 boxes) of 56-52 that was part of the stockpile when we
purchased the business a little over 2 years ago (manufactured by the previous
owner). We would sell them for $60/box of 20 plus shipping and handling.

It will be quite a while before we can get to the size of brass
bar stock to make the Spencer 56-50 or 56-56 cases - most likely 8 weeks
or more. We have several orders to work on yet and will be placing an
order for more brass bar stock shortly so that we may finish those
orders.

Tom, Cheri & Kody Outland
Rocky Mountain Cartridge LLC
1195 Lane 10
Worland WY 82401
Phone: 307.347.4547 | Fax: 307.347.4261"

Two Flints

[Herbert]

Description seems to indicate these are turned brass cases.  Most turned brass cases have a short life. 32ga brass shot shells can be formed into any Spencer case you need with a little work and are much cheaper.

[El Supremo]

Hello, Herbert:
I highly respect your opinions.  Am puzzled about turned brass cases having a relatively short life. 

All I have used for years are RMC's for my Romano Spencers and those made by another shop for Romano for Maynards.  These have always been made from top grade "cartridge" brass and RMC's are factory annealed. 

In over twenty years, with many fired over a hundred times, none have failed or even displayed cracked mouths.  Ok, Romano chambers are tight and cut with top-grade reamers so there is minimal expansion.  I have never even had to anneal necks, but I impart minimal crimp via CH4D dies and no crimp via Larry's Maynard drive in dies cut with his chambering reamer.  Larry Romano has supplied thousands of turned cases over many years and had no issues.  He assures me that if any arose, he would have heard pronto because he walks the Firing Line at each N-SSA Fort Shenandoah Skirmish and inquires about how his rifles are performing.  Interestingly, Larry remarked to me years back that he was still using RMC cases made 15 years prior by the first owner of the company.  Materials, machinery, case dimensions, chamber dimensions and production steps are unchanged.

Worth noting:
A respected N-SSA skirmisher shared that the BAR stock used by RMC has its GRAIN alignment such that it is NOT the same as in DRAWN cartridge brass stock.  The bar stock IS fine for 40,000 psi use, but not hot modern loads.  Dave Casey, who owned RMC before the Outlands, told me he COULD get bar stock WITH THE SAME GRAIN ALIGNMENT as drawn brass, but shooters wouldn't pay the cost.

So, if you would, please share specifics about what you have learned.  Many thanks.
Regards,
Kevin

[Herbert]

I can only go off experiance that I have had here in Australia with turned brass 577-450 cases,at one time these were  almost the only avalible cases you could get over here for the Martini and Alexander Henry 577-450 military rifles and were very experance,case life was as short as as 3 shots,this was because the military Martini had a wide variation in chamber measurments ,so the brass was turned to the smaller Alexander Henry spects so it would chamber in all rifles, results were very pore case life even if annealed after every use,this has left me with cold on the turned cases,this would not be such a big problem with the Spencer cases if there was very little sizing involved in reloading but if there is a far amount of re-sizing involved turned brass will just not hold up as well as drawn cases.These days turned cases really are not needed as much better and cheeper drawn cases are there to be used.This is only my opinion an others may have had better luck with turned brass cases,but you can not get away from the fact that a drawn brass case will have better structure  grain in the brass than turned brass

[El Supremo]

Thanks, Herbert:
It seems that RMC and one other maker's turned cases have long lives is due in part to their close fit in well cut chambers. 

Regards,
Kevin