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Winchester is good.
Federal is good, but beware of some Federal brass that used small primers. You might accidentally pick up some brass with the small primers and try to stuff a large primer into a small hole.
That would be unfortunate. There are some other brands that used small primers.

Military brass is good too but it might be crimped.

The good thing about 45 acp is that it is very forgiving and does not operate at high pressure. If you keep your reloads at low-medium velocity, the brass can last a very long time. Maybe more than 10 reloads before the rim gets all bashed up..

Starline is excellent brass and typically lasts a long, long time, especially in the relatively lower pressure loadings normally associated with 45 ACP.  The downside is that it can be costly, especially when compared to once-fired brass.  Another thing I've found with the Starline brass is that the first couple loadings tend to be a little sticky when coming off the powder funnel.  Took a few loadings to smooth out in 45 ACP, however in .38 super they smoothed out completely after one load /fire cycle.  With Starline, I usually lose the brass before it becomes unusable.

My favorite once fired brass for 9, .40, and .45 is definitely Federal.  However in .45 ACP, like Oldfart posted, some of the Federal .45 ACP ammo uses SPP. CCI also makes .45 with SPP and if you run into this brass while reloading on a progressive they will at the very least mess up your rhythm, and at the worst, may possibly cause the primer to light off if you unknowingly try hard enough to stuff a LPP into a SPP cup. 

The brass that I absolutely avoid for all calibers has a RWS head stamp.  Some have good luck with it, however I've had nothing but problems when RWS cases hit the resize/deprime die.  So much so that along with the current load data I have written on my dry erase board hanging above my press, I have written as a reminder, "NO RWS CASES".

Thank you both.

Keeping an eye out for big and small primers is written in my notes, I don't want it to jam me up! I've been reading a lot of good things about loading 45acp and how people are saying it's easy and forgiving like you guys are saying.


Oldfart, I don't mean to put you on the spot but I saw in another thread you offering to show another 2AHawaii member how to load, is that open to another member...such as myself? I live in the same area too!
Please let me know, I'll put in for a breakfast plate or plate lunch or what ever lol. But if no, then it's still okay either way! You've already helped me a some here!

Thank you both.

Keeping an eye out for big and small primers is written in my notes, I don't want it to jam me up! I've been reading a lot of good things about loading 45acp and how people are saying it's easy and forgiving like you guys are saying.


Oldfart, I don't mean to put you on the spot but I saw in another thread you offering to show another 2AHawaii member how to load, is that open to another member...such as myself? I live in the same area too!
Please let me know, I'll put in for a breakfast plate or plate lunch or what ever lol. But if no, then it's still okay either way! You've already helped me a some here!

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The offer to mentor any newbie loader is a standing offer. We just have to coordinate the schedule. Let us PM a meeting.

The brass that I absolutely avoid for all calibers has a RWS head stamp.  Some have good luck with it, however I've had nothing but problems when RWS cases hit the resize/deprime die.  So much so that along with the current load data I have written on my dry erase board hanging above my press, I have written as a reminder, "NO RWS CASES".

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Curious...
Specifically, what problem with the size/deprime are you experiencing?
My friends buy the RWS 45 ball from Sport Auth. and I have reloaded their shells for them. I did not see anything unusual.

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The offer to mentor any newbie loader is a standing offer. We just have to coordinate the schedule. Let us PM a meeting.

You will learn a lot from OldFart. He's a good and generous person.

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Curious...
Specifically, what problem with the size/deprime are you experiencing?
My friends buy the RWS 45 ball from Sport Auth. and I have reloaded their shells for them. I did not see anything unusual.

Funny someone mentioned RWS head stamped cases. I picked up a bunch of 9mm brass with the RWS head stamp and I separated them out from the rest of my mixed range pick ups. I reloaded some and found them to work flawlessly so I put them back into my mixed brass reloads. It was on the third or fourth reload that I found 2 or 3 exhibited split cases. Which was surprising to me. But after that I have not seen any other failures since. Some of them are probably on their 5th or 6th reload now and still going strong.

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Curious...
Specifically, what problem with the size/deprime are you experiencing?
My friends buy the RWS 45 ball from Sport Auth. and I have reloaded their shells for them. I did not see anything unusual.

Im not sure if it was the .45 specifically that was giving me the most issues, if I remember correctly it was definitely the 9mm( but possibly the ACP also) that I had problems with.  Resize wasn't the issue, it was deprime that was giving me fits.  If I had to estimate, probably close to 70% was either really hard to deprime (primer would come out, but would take way more force that any other cases), or the primer wouldn't come out at all and I'd have to stop, remove that case, clear the shell plate, then start again.  I tried using both the Dillon resize/deprime die and the EGW, no difference.  I removed the deprimer and was able to run the case through station 1 without any issues with resizing so I narrowed it down to the deprime function.  Since pretty much all my brass is either FC, Speer or Starline, I just decided to cull the RWS cases I had (most likely range pick ups, or more likely cases my wife had picked up during matches) and just avoid the stuff altogether.  Made life simpler for me as I really do not enjoy reloading or tinkering with my dies to get stuff to run smoothly.  Yup, I'm that lazy.

I think when I researched any issues with RWS cases at that time (was couple years ago, if I remember), there were others who either said it was an okay head stamp, but a bunch reported having the same issues I was having.  Some reported that it was almost like it was crimped, but I didn't really bother looking that closely.  Seeing as none of my other inventory had these issues, I took the easy (lazy might be more accurate), path and just swore off the stuff. 

Im not sure if it was the .45 specifically that was giving me the most issues, if I remember correctly it was definitely the 9mm( but possibly the ACP also) that I had problems with.  Resize wasn't the issue, it was deprime that was giving me fits.  If I had to estimate, probably close to 70% was either really hard to deprime (primer would come out, but would take way more force that any other cases), or the primer wouldn't come out at all and I'd have to stop, remove that case, clear the shell plate, then start again.  I tried using both the Dillon resize/deprime die and the EGW, no difference.  I removed the deprimer and was able to run the case through station 1 without any issues with resizing so I narrowed it down to the deprime function. 

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FWIW-I would suspect the deprime stem bottoming  out on the case web.

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FWIW-I would suspect the deprime stem bottoming  out on the case web.

Thanks for the tip.  Perhaps RWS cases have a thicker web which could cause this, or the pin was just off-centered enough to cause issues in those cases?  To be honest, I didn't even try adjusting the decapping pin depth.  I just figured they might've had a lot tighter pocket and with what few RWS cases I had compared to the rest, I opted to just toss them. 

I will keep that idea in mind though, as getting all same headstamp cases, especially in 9mm is getting to be harder and harder.  I just might have to pick up mixed headstamp 9 cases in the not so distant future and have to deal with RWS cases.  Thanks again for the suggestion, I appreciate the assistance.

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The offer to mentor any newbie loader is a standing offer. We just have to coordinate the schedule. Let us PM a meeting.

Sweet! Thank you!