6/3/14 UPDATE: Just scrounged a bunch more brass over at OGC, and found EVEN MORE Ammoload and IMT brass than before!! That means that it is likely that a few or A BUNCH of you will be getting stuck with this stuff Sort 9mm carefully from now on, people, because it's your continued good health that will be on the line.....
Just ran across about 10 more of these little pressure cookers at OGC, so I thought I shorten up and repeat my warning from last year.
UPDATE!! Just found a 2nd headstamp with the same reduced internal space: IMT
Was sorting my 9mm range brass I had scrounged, and came across some very weird stuff:
There are also 45ACP Ammoload cases, and it has the same weird ledge inside the case in the lower half of it. As with 9mm, if you do reload this stuff, you're going to have to develop a whole new recipe for this reduced powder volume case. If you don't find 200 0r 300 all lying there in a pile, then you better make sure this doesn't get in with your other brass!!
These cases have a ledge and thus a substantially thicker base to them, which will make them VERY different from any other 9mm brass, and if you mix this stuff in with your other 9mm, you are asking for trouble. I went to the trouble of weighing the cases, and on average, they are 8.8% heavier than the average of 6 other popular brands, which is what you would expect with that extra brass in there. I then did a volume determination with water, and found out these cases had 4.4% LESS volume that standard 9mm cases. That's misleading, however, as the front half of the case is taken up by the bullet, so as far as the space for the powder is concerned, Ammoload cases have about 9% LESS internal volume than other cases. That's significant, and if you're loading full power loads with a quick burning powder like 231, something could go KABOOM on you. As such, if you run into this stuff, segregate it and make sure it isn't loaded with anything ELSE!!
