Over the last year, mainly due to shortages in 56-50 Armi-Sport brass from Starline. I've tried three different types, 8mm Lebel, 32 gauge shotgun brass and 348 Winchester brass.
The Criteria:
I'm judging effectiveness using the following criteria.
- Ease of conversion – how much effort had to go into converting the cartridge into usable 56-50 brass.
- Durability – how will the converted cartridge hold up after being reloaded time after time.
- Cartridge capacity – how much powder can you put in each cartridge.
- Accuracy – grouping of 5 round groups at 100 yards.
- Ease of cycling – how easy it is to cycle brass out of the magazine, into the breach and eject.
- Bullet
- 350gr from a RCBS-82309 bought from Montana Bullet works.
- Load
- 9.3gr Trail Boss.
- Primer
- 32ga Brass – Winchester Large Pistol
- 348 Winchester – Winchester Standard Rifle
- 8mm Lebel – Winchester Standard Rifle
The Evaluation:
348 Winchester brass.
| Category | Rating |
| Ease of conversion | 4 |
| Durability | 1 |
| Cartridge capacity | 4 |
| Accuracy | 5 |
| Ease of cycling | 4 |
| Average | 3.6 |
Notes:
Cutting down the brass is not too difficult. It helps to have a small table saw the can handle brass for cutting down not only the Winchester brass, but all the cartridges discussed in this post. The real difficulty with converting this brass is that I found the rim thickness inconsistent. For some bizarre reason the brass I bought had one side of a rim slightly thicker than the other. That left me no choice but to try to selectively bring down the rim thickness, which was time consuming. The brass had to be fire-formed after re-sizing. The resulting brass is durable and I expect it will last a long time.
They shot OK. For cowboy they were good enough although I had a few that didn't eject well. The rims on 348 were just a touch smaller than what the 56-50 Armi-Sport requires, so wrote off the ejection problems to this. Accuracy was an issue, at 100 yards my 5 round groups were consistently 12 inches, the largest grouping of the three cartridges. I shoot long range at my SASS club and I use my Spencer for the 100 yard pistol caliber category. We shoot at 5 circular plates that run from 14” to 6”. I had problems hitting the 10”, 8” and 6” plates constantly with the .348 converted cartridges. As to why I have no idea.
Cartridge capacity is OK – not as much as 32 gauge brass or Starline brass, but better than Lebel brass, which was the thickest walled.
8mm Lebel Brass.
| Category | Rating |
| Ease of conversion | 4 |
| Durability | 1 |
| Cartridge capacity | 4 |
| Accuracy | 3 |
| Ease of cycling | 2 |
| Average | 2.8 |
Notes:
As with .348 Winchester brass, cutting down the brass was not too difficult. The Lebel rims were too thick,
so I had to bring the rim thickness down. I also had to ream out the case mouths since Lebel brass has very thick walls. All these steps were again very time consuming. This brass has to be fire-formed after re-sizing. As with the Winchester brass, the resulting brass is durable and will last a long time.
Lebel Brass Shot OK – pretty much like the 348 Winchester brass. For cowboy they performed well, with no ejection issues. Accuracy was OK, I could consistently hit my club's 100 yard 10” plate. I had greater difficulty on the smaller plates.
Cartridge capacity was the least of all the ones evaluated here, but I believe this brass will stand up the longest.
32 Gauge Brass.
Notes:
In Summary:
Of the three I would use (and are mostly using) 32 gauge brass. It was harder to form, BUT it was much more reliable and accurate.
| Category | Rating |
| Ease of conversion | 4 |
| Durability | 2 |
| Cartridge capacity | 1 |
| Accuracy | 1 |
| Ease of cycling | 1 |
| Average | 1.8 |
Notes:
As with the 348 Winchester and 8mm Lebel brass, cutting down 32 gauge brass was not too difficult. The rims are in great shape and require no modification. Resizing is difficult, 32 gauge brass has a larger diameter that the brass for Armi-Sport 56-50. I advise having a heavy duty press like a Rock Chucker or like press. Its a good idea to lube the outside of the cases before resizing them down. Also anneal this brass before resizing. There are other issues as well – please check out my posts on resizing 32 gauge brass.
Of the three cases discussed here, 32 gauge brass shot and ejected the best. I could consistently hit my club's 100 yard 6” plate as long as I had ammo and I never had an issue cycling the 32 gauge brass through my Spencer. Although it takes time to convert, 32 gauge brass performs as well as Starline brass, but be aware of the difficulties.
Cartridge capacity was the best of all here, but I believe it will have the shortest life of all.
In Summary:
Of the three I would use (and are mostly using) 32 gauge brass. It was harder to form, BUT it was much more reliable and accurate.
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