By John Kleespies
I started competitive shooting with a Gen 2 Glock 17 that patterned like a shotgun, so (like many newbies) for a cool minute I achieved my accuracy via volume. As soon as I had the pennies saved, though, I transitioned to a Single Stack .45acp that I shot to the point of literally wearing out the mag well from performing so many reloads on the clock. For that 1911’s last hurrah, I bought some ten-rounders and gave that .45 a go in USPSA Limited-10, where I managed to land my name on the Southwest Pistol League’s Perpetual Cup in 2015. After that, I switched back to 9mm, but now in Pistol Caliber Carbine, until I practiced my way up to Steel Challenge grandmaster rankings in both PCC optics and irons.
All of that took a constant supply of ammunition, so, yeah, I can attest to having hand loaded a ton of pistol since the early aughts. I can also say that during the entirety of this span, I’ve bought new pistol brass exactly zero times. To my mind, there’s only ever been two kinds of pistol cases: the free stuff, and the stuff that somebody else is going to turn into my free stuff.
’Til today. More on that later…
For pistol, I’ve always used the “range brass” that’s left on the ground after the day is done. Of course, it’s also called “mixed salad” because it contains every kind of head stamp known to man. All range brass is used, some of it is once-fired, and some of it is straight-up split from having been reloaded too many times already. The pile will also have stepped cases and steel cases, plus some Russian junk that won’t take a primer, and rocks and twigs and bits of who knows what just to keep it interesting.
No, you don’t pay for range brass, but it ain’t exactly “free” due to all the work it takes to separate the crap out. Even after that, it’s still not going to be particularly accurate thanks to all wear from use on top of the variances in manufacturer specs.
There is one trick to getting accurate stuff out of range brass, though… requiring more work, of course. On practice days, search for a smattering of especially shiny looking pieces that are laying in more or less the same spot. Check out the head stamps. If they’re all Winchester, then you just struck gold, as some non-reloader trained in that spot with his Wally World White Box, all full of once-fired Winchester brass. Keep that stuff separate for a special occasion! I used to squirrel mine away for championship matches.
For real precision shooting, you’ll need to buy new brass that has consistent tolerances throughout. For my .308win bolt-action, it’s been nothing but boxed Lapua – that’s also been trimmed, neck-sized, and annealed – because I know that I need to control my brass if I’m going to achieve the sort of accuracy that I’m requiring from that gun. Of course, I’m also only shooting 30 to 50 rounds per bolt-action session, rather than 200 rounds with something like an AR… and my AR ate a whole lot of range brass when I was training up for my never-to-occur 3-gun career.
But, today, I’m not loading for volume. I’m loading for accuracy… in friggin’ 9mm.
My plan is to develop a new 9mm PCC home defense load (that article to come in the future) and really want to get accurate velocity reads during the testing. Yes, it’s a pistol round, but it’s also going to be an accuracy round that happens to be spit out of a carbine, so I’m biting the bullet (sorry) and securing a bunch of new brass for this process.
To answer the title’s question, then, it’s pretty cut and dry: range brass for cost-effective volume and new brass for accuracy.
