Who makes the brass?

[drmarkwg]

Greetings to all. I am an avid reloader, head stamp collector, scientist and seeker of knowledge. I have an on line store where I sell reconditioned pistol brass for reloaders to finance and supply my head stamp collecting hobby. I post a blog titled reloading facts and fiction, which deals primarily with brass cartridge cases. I am interested in factual information regarding cases that can be confirmed. My current interest and one reason for joining your forum is to ask if anyone knows how to obtain information on brass manufacturers. I have anecdotal information that the Olin corporation makes the brass cases for several ammunition makers around the world but have never been able to get them to share this information, nor have I been able to find confirmable data. Same for Federal. Any direction or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KevinThomas]

drmarkwg,

No pun intended, but you need to go on a case by case basis here. Yes, there is (and always has been) some cross over here. Smaller operations (like Starline) have served as an OEM supplier for other companies (like Federal, Speer, etc.) for quite some time now. Taking a tour through one of these operations, you'll frequently see some surprising headstamps show up in their "work in progress" bins. Not to say that all of a given caliber from say, Federal, is made by Starline, but some of it most likely is. Depends on their production scheduled, what machinery they can free up for a given run, etc.. Sometimes, it just makes more sense, both financially and for production time, to subcontract some jobs out of house. Never heard of the larger firms (like Olin) subcontracting out, but I suppose it's possible.

One last thing to remember is that most firms who are conscious of their reputations, will insist upon the level of quality that keeps that reputation intact. If the subcontractors brass reflected poorly on the buyers own quality standards, I can assure you, that brass would never be accepted, or allowed to get on the market. It'd go back, unfired, as scrap brass to be resmelted.

Hope this helps clear things up a bit.

 

[necchi]

And another part of the problem is simply corprate privacy, they sign contracts that include non-disclosure language.
If we all new who made what, we'd try to go direct to save money,,or,,contract out for ourselves.
Not to discourage you at all, Good Luck in your interesting hobby. That can be some really neat stuff when you git into the oldies.
Example; Ma worked for the munitions plant in Ardenhills, Mn. during WW2, it had 20,000 employies at the time. Changed hands several times and ran under several names and contracts till the late 70's.
Now it's closed and a superfund toxic waste clean up area, (go figure,,)