Reloading Perfecta brass

**Iron Sights** · October 14th, 2016, 07:08 PM

I was at the range a few days ago and the guy next to me was shooting a Taurus 9mm and using Perfecta cartridges. He shot about 50 and walked away leaving the brass on the ground. Since the guy said he didn't reload and it came out of a Perfecta box, I figured picking up some once fired brass was a good find. I noticed that most of the primers were bulged but I still put them through the tumbler. I tried depriming some and they would not fit in the shell holder. Do you think it is the brass or the pistol that caused this?

**dkf** · October 14th, 2016, 07:41 PM

So the primer is sticking down too far to slide into the proper shellholder?

**Iron Sights** · October 14th, 2016, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by dkf

So the primer is sticking down too far to slide into the proper shellholder?

Correct. Not the entire primer, just the area where the firing pin hit it. Looks like a ring formed around the pin hit. The correct shell holder is being used.

**frankski** · October 15th, 2016, 09:41 AM

I have a couple hundred Perfecta 9mm brass accumulated from bulk purchase and range pickup.

For grins I just ran five at random through the deprimer/resizer on the Dillon 550B. No problems, very smooth.

Then I inspected a handful of the rest of them but none had any unusual marks or primer protrusion.

That suggests the Taurus pistol as the source of the primer aberration, but I have no suggestion as to the mechanics of it.

**raxar** · October 15th, 2016, 10:12 AM

The only thing I've noticed about perfecta brass is that the flash hole is always off center.

**Iron Sights** · October 16th, 2016, 08:35 AM

Originally Posted by raxar

The only thing I've noticed about perfecta brass is that the flash hole is always off center.

I noticed that also after knocking out the primers with a thin finishing nail making sure the nail was smaller than a normal flash hole. The majority had off center flash holes. Did you reload the ones you had and how did they work?

**dkf** · October 16th, 2016, 07:42 PM

If you have cases that won't fit in the shellholder like that because of the primer sticking down just use a larger shellholder and sit the brass on it. Something like a .44mag shellholder will do. Offset primer pockets and crimped primers is where the Lee universal expander is nice, it will push up if too much force is put on it often keeping the pin from breaking.

**abner13** · October 16th, 2016, 08:23 PM

Perfecta is made by Fiocchi. Good stuff.

**raxar** · October 16th, 2016, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by Iron Sights

I noticed that also after knocking out the primers with a thin finishing nail making sure the nail was smaller than a normal flash hole. The majority had off center flash holes. Did you reload the ones you had and how did they work?

I actually didn't even notice until I looked at them after decapping. There was no difference between them and normal brass running them though the die.

**Iron Sights** · October 17th, 2016, 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by dkf

If you have cases that won't fit in the shellholder like that because of the primer sticking down just use a larger shellholder and sit the brass on it. Something like a .44mag shellholder will do. Offset primer pockets and crimped primers is where the Lee universal expander is nice, it will push up if too much force is put on it often keeping the pin from breaking.

I did try a different shell holder (.38 special/.357) and ended up with a stuck case, luckily I stopped before the shell went in to far and was able to pull it out with a pair of vice grips. I could feel that the shell was not being held by the holder and sure enough it let go when I tried to pull the shell out after it had gone in about 1/3 of the way.