Until recent times, cartridge neck annealing was a process that shooters either “Swore By” or “Swore At”. For many, annealing enables the hand-loader to revive their brass and keep it as workable as the day they bought it. Some shooters claim 50 or more firings per case with no problems! With the price of brass cartridge cases what they are today, more and more high volume shooters are looking for better mileage from their brass. On the other side of the fence, you have those folks who feel it’s a process that’s too complicated or time consuming for their taste. I guess I have always fallen into the second group, until now….

So, what exactly is case neck annealing? I’m not a scientist, by any mean, so for simplicity sake let’s say it is the process of restoring work hardened brass cases to a softer workable state specifically in the neck area. Annealing cases properly softens the neck, softens a portion of the body just ever so slightly,and makes no change to the case head and lower portion of the case. Annealing is done by quickly heating the neck to 750 to 800 degrees and quickly cooling the case before that heat has a chance to reach the case head which would render that case useless.

Now, we are ready for the meat & potatoes of this article: The Hornady Case Neck Annealing Kit #041220 ($52.95). The kit consists of three case holders, a bottle of Tempilaq heat sensitive paint, and instructions. All we need is a propane torch, a vari-speed drill or electric screwdriver, and a small bucket or coffee can with enough cold water to cover the number of cases you are working with.

Hornady Annealing Kit Part #041220 $52.95

I decided to anneal 50 pieces of Nosler Custom .308 cases with four firings on the odometer, and re-anneal after every two firings for the duration of this year’s shooting season. At the end of the year, I will compare with the 50 non-annealed sister cases, it should be interesting. I will keep you all posted on the results!

So…Let’s get started! First, you want to start with clean de-primed cases. Last thing you need is a rogue live primer subjected to the effects of a propane torch. (remember Murphy’s Law). Also, with the primers removed, when the hot annealed brass is dropped into our cold water it will circulate through the flash hole and primer pocket for better cooling. Next, if your cases are dirty, drop them in a tumbler for thirty minutes or polish with Flitz or some sort of brass polish. You want the necks to be nice and shiny, so it is easier to see them change color during annealing. Brush out the inside of the case necks and you are ready to apply the Tempilaq paint. You need to put an 1/8” mark of Tempilaq on the case body ¼” below the shoulder. After marking all cases, set them in a loading block and allow them to dry for 3 to 4 min. Next, pick the correct case holder for your brass and install into your screw driver or variable drill set at 200 rpm. If your work area has a vise, place the torch into and snug it up just enough to keep it from tipping over (again remember Mr. Murphy!). Ok, fire up your torch and adjust to produce a medium length light blue flame. With your water bucket close by, insert a case in to the holder and begin spinning. Center the spinning case neck in the middle of the flame observing the Tempilaq marking and the case neck. In roughly 6 to 8 seconds the paste will change color and the case neck will start to glow a dull maroon color. When you see that maroon color change, quickly tip your drill or screw driver over your container, and drop the annealed case into the water. Load up another case and repeat the process until you have finished all of the cases.

Sinclair Reloading Technician, and author Rod Green Demonstrates the Motions of Annealing with the Hornady Annealing Kit.

One Quick Tip: by dimming or lowering the light in your work area, it will help you to see the maroon color change during heating on the case necks much easier. The whole procedure, start to finish for 50 pieces of brass took fifteen minutes. After cooling you can towel dry and air dry. After the cases are dry you can pop your brass into your tumbler for thirty minutes to remove any heat scale from the annealing.

There you have it… Fifty annealed cartridge cases ready for reloading. Was the task at hand difficult? Not at all. Was it worth while? Yes, I feel it was. The Hornady Case Neck Annealing Kit is an inexpensive way to give new life to some old brass, and I feel the Kit is a lot of bang for the buck. So, if you have some tired brass needing a jump start, I would recommend giving the Hornady Annealing Kit a shot. I will let you know how these 50 cases made it through the season. Be safe and “keep ‘em in the 10 ring” !

Rod Green
Sales Tech, Sinclair International
NRA Life Member
VHA Life Member
NRA Cert. Metallic Cart. Instr.

This is deviating from talking about shooting to talking about football but I am finally paying up on a three week old debt to a friend in the shooting fraternity. It is shooting related because I am promoting one of the finest shooting programs in the media.

A few days before the 2010 Super Bowl featuring the New Orleans Saints and the talented and fantastic Indianapolis Colts, Tom Gresham e-mailed me and talked about the game. Now first I have to set the stage; most of you know Tom Gresham who hosts the extremely popular GunTalk radio show that is broadcast weekly all over the country including Sirius (channel 108) and XM Radio (channel 139). Tom has been a great friend to Sinclair International and Brownells over the years and he knew I was a long-time Indianapolis Colts fan and season ticket holder. It also just happens that Tom resides in Northwestern Louisiana and is naturally a Saints supporter. What follows is a re-cap of Tom’s e-mail:

Bill,
I thought it might be a good idea to have a little wager on the upcoming Saints/Colts game this Sunday, you know, kind of like the governors do!

If the Colts win, we’ll send you a supply of good Cajun food to chomp down on and if the Saints win you can send us ………..well, wait just a minute – there’s no such thing as fine Midwest Cuisine! You’ll figure something out.

Tom

Obviously Tom knows how to bait a guy into a bet. First, he knew I would take a bet against the Colts, second he questioned Indiana’s contribution to the culinary world (in fact I think he challenged the entire Midwest), and third he knew I couldn’t resist the Cajun food offer.

Well, it was a sucker bet right from the start because I was pretty certain my Colts would post a “W”, Tom knew I had lived in Louisiana about a quarter of my life during a portion of the Archie Manning era, and knew I really like Cajun food. I saw this bet as “easy money” and was already envisioning platters of crawfish etouffe, some deep bowls of fine gumbo, and maybe some Gulf shrimp stuffed with crabmeat. My wife and I had been longing for a good Louisiana meal so the timing was perfect.

We all know the outcome of the big game, congratulations to the Saints and their fans but finally its time to pay the piper. I searched high and low for some Indiana delicacies to send to Tom. The staff at Sinclair International suggested rounding up some fried tenderloins, Indiana State Fair corn dogs, or maybe some sweet corn (out of season). All of these items figured out to be too hard to ship and remain fresh (read non-soggy) so I had to start beating the bush for Indiana notables in the food category. I hate to admit it but after a weeks search I was beginning to think Tom was “on target” with his Midwest cuisine comment.

My package to Tom ended up with the following:

- A bottle of wine from Oliver Winery, a nationally recognized winery in southern Indiana outside of Bloomington (next to Indiana University and very convenient for the students)
- Some sweet bread and butter cucumber slices from Sechler’s Pickles in St. Joe, Indiana (right next to the trap and skeet club I shoot at)
- Cousin Willie’s Kettle Corn located in Ramsey, Indiana (Orville Redenbacher was my first choice but this Indiana brand moved their headquarters to Nebraska)
- A big bottle of Red Gold Ketchup out of Elwood, Indiana. Inside joke: Tom, ask Jason Hornady from Hornady Manufacturing about Red Gold.
- A five-pack of Old Fort Porter from Mad Anthony Brewery located in Fort Wayne, Indiana (I swear Tom, it’s an Indiana bottling tradition to leave an empty chamber in the box – like carrying a six-gun).
- Some of the finest truffles in the world from DeBrand’s Chocolatier in Fort Wayne, Indiana (very close to the home of Sinclair’s). Tom, I would suggest sharing this item with your lovely wife.
- Finally, some special sugar cookies made just for Tom by the Cookie Cottage located in Fort Wayne, IN (a nationally know cookie bakery). See photo.

Midwest Basket of Goodies

Cookies just for Tom from the Cookie Cottage in Fort Wayne, IN

Tom, your package is going out by air today. Thenext time you are in town I’ll buy you the biggest tenderloin I can find you. If the Saints and Colts play again in the big game, don’t e-mail me!

Good Shooting,

Bill Gravatt
President – Sinclair International

Okay folks, this wasn’t part of the bet but since we are on the subject this is a great time to give you some info about GunTalk Radio., Tom’s radio show GunTalk is a great program and one of the biggest advocates of gun rights in our country plus its packed full of interesting guests from throughout the shooting industry (competitors, hunters, manufacturer spokespersons, etc.). There is a lot of good information shared on Tom’s program by Tom, his guests, and our fellow shooters that call in. A wonderful way to spend a Sunday night is to be sitting in your reloading room doing some case prep work while listening to Tom’s show. You can find out more about GunTalk at www.guntalk.com and find the radio stations that offer the broadcast in your area. The GunTalk website has a state by state listing that makes it easy to find your local station. Don’t worry, if you don’t get coverage in your area you can always download the show each week from the website. In addition, let your local station know you want them to pick up the show.

No sign of a break in the weather yet in Northern Indiana but it should be right around the corner. Many of us are finishing up our case prep work we do each winter to prepare for the upcoming season. I thought you might find it interesting to hear what the Sinclair techs are currently working on.

Ron is continuing to work the bugs out of his 6mm/223 that he wrote about in the December 2009 – Reloading Press. He also has been working on his 30-06 for some 1000 yard shooting using Berger 175 gr. BT’s.

Bob, who answers most of our tech mail, is working on forming some brass for his 6mm/284 long range varmint rifle while he is waiting on a new stock. He is also getting ready to test some new cast bullets in his 300 Whisper and 7mm TCU. Bob is also retiring some barrels on his .243 Ackley and is going to start shooting a new 6mm CM barrel from Satern.

Pete has been busy sorting his Berger 7mm 180 gr VLD’s using our bullet sorting stand, trimming meplats, and doing some bullet pointing using the Whidden Bullet Pointing system. He has his Lapua brass prepped and ready to go.

Phil is preparing for a full season of shooting Long-Range (Palma and other) plus some 3-Gun. Phil didn’t expand in much detail – not sure what he is up to.

For myself, I have been busy installing a new Hornady shot shell reloader setup for 12 gauge on my bench to do some shot shell reloading and a MEC for my 20 gauge. I haven’t spent a lot of time shot shell reloading but lately I wanted to start reloading my own so I could control my own supply. Many of our customers have asked us to start carrying shot shell reloading gear so we are slowly trying to expand our line in this direction. We have had many of our customers comment that they reload both metallic and shot shells and would like to get their tools from us.

All the others are busy just doing their routine brass preparation for spring. Remember, if we can help you with anything as all of us approach the busy shooting season, please let us know.

Our big catalog #2010-A should be arriving in your mail box sometime this week or next week. We have a lot of new reloading tools, components, optics, and cleaning gear – take some time to check it out! Based what we hear from you we are continuing to add to our line of products at such a fast rate that many of the new products didn’t make the catalog but they will be added to the website as fast as we can. I look forward to chatting with you next month. We appreciate your continued business and look forward to serving you again.

Good Shooting,

Bill Gravatt
President – Sinclair International, Inc.

Editors Note: This is the 1^st part in a series of articles by Pete Petros in the methodology he uses to prepare his bullets for long-range shooting.

When it comes to precision reloading and shooting, the main goal is to ensure everything from start to finish in the reloading process is close to the same as possible.  Most shooters think of this as choosing the best brass for the cartridge, sorting it by weight, and prepping it properly to attain replication in brass properties.  Then by carefully weighing each powder charge and seating the bullet to the same depth each time, the finished products will act the same as they are fired through the barrel.

This is very true, and these steps along with many sub-steps in case preparation are critical to attaining the most consistent results out of a load, but let us back up a step.

What is the most important component in a loaded round?  Many would argue it is the type of powder and charge being used. Others may say the brass choice or even the primer make the load.  The most important component in the mix is definitely what will give the final results, and that is the bullet.

These days there are so many choices in bullet types and style in every caliber to get the job done.  Some are known to perform better than others, and certain rifles will shoot certain choices better.  In fact, most of the bullets available to the reloader today are all good quality and will get the job done.  It is no secret that a high Ballistic Coefficient VLD (Very Low Drag) type bullet will shoot better at long ranges and cut through the wind better.  But what can you as the shooter do to make your bullet choice even better?

In the same essence as modifying a stock engine in a car to enhance or increase performance, you can do the same to your choice projectile to squeeze a tad more performance out of it.  There are a few steps that can be taken to do this quite simply.  Flash back to the beginning of the article.  We talked about brass sorting and prep prior to loading.  The same goes for your bullet.  Through sorting your bullets in the same lot and prepping them, you can tighten your groups dramatically, and make your “close to the same” loads even closer to being identical.

The absolute first step in bullet sorting by some reloaders is to sort the lot by weight.  Even in the highest quality bullets you will find a few tenths of a grain spread or more in weights.  Through sorting by weight you can split the entire lot up by variation.  A simple and affordable scale for this step is the MTM DS-1250 mini digital scale ($36.95).   Although any scale type will work for this job.

MTM DS-1250 Mini Scale

The next step taken in bullet sorting is to take the lot of bullets planned on being loaded, and measure them by base to bullet ogive.  You will notice that even in the highest quality bullets available there is a variance of a few thousands of an inch or more.  Take your lot, and sort them by base to ogive length and group them together.

Base to Ogive Measurement

This can be done in a couple of ways.  One of our most recent tools that we have released is the Sinclair Bullet Sorting Stand.  This stand comes with a dial indicator with a finger lever to lift the indicator leg up built on a post off a solid trued flat granite block.  We offer special bullet comparators just for this tool that sit flat and true on the granite surface.  This makes the job of sorting easy and fast, and you can be done in no time. 

Sinclair Bullet Sorting Stand with Indicator $79.95 (comparators sold separately)

Another traditional way to measure the bullet ogive to base length is by the use of a caliper with a clamp on comparator body/insert combo.  This technique works, but is a bit slower and has a tendency to be a bit more inconsistent than the stand method.  

Traditional measurement method with comparator and calipers

The secret to consistency in both of these tools is the most important rule to remember.  Basically the softest material in the process is the copper jacket of the bullet being measured.  It will give a few thousandths with the more pressure you put onto the base while inserting it into the comparator.  What is important and critical to this is to make sure you use the same light but steady pressure on the bullet base while measuring.  This is where the bullet Sinclair Bullet Sorting Stand excels.  After you lift the indicator stem up, lower it (slowly and steadily) onto the bullet while in the comparator, it will give the same amount of pressure each time.  Prior to measuring the bullet, lightly “seat” the bullet ogive into the comparator with your finger to “seat” the ogive, then proceed to measure.  Repeat this the same way each time to attain similar results.  A good tip from reloaders that have been using the stand is to use the pointed indicator end versus the included flat end.  While measuring be sure that the point is centered on the bullet base.  The flat end tends to be more inconsistent in measurements.

Lightly seating the ogive into the comparator to ensure consistent measurement.

Once you are set up and ready to sort bullets, take a batch of ten of the bullets randomly out of the un-measured lot.  Measure each one as described earlier.  Write each measurement down on a piece of masking tape and lay out on a flat surface with the measured bullets on your workbench in order of what you found.   When all are measured, repeat the process with the same ten until you see consistency in your recorded test lot.  When you achieve the same results during the repeating process, you have a consistent technique, and are ready to sort the entire batch.

With the measurements taken from the ten test bullets find the average of the batch.  This is most likely the same or close to the average of the entire box or lot you will be sorting.  The average measurement will be your “0” batch.  Take one of the average bullets, place it in the stand and zero out the indicator face so it shows “0” when it is being measured.  Test it a few times again to make sure that the zero is true and consistent.

The next step is setting up a system of separating the measured bullets.  A great way to do this is by using empty bullet boxes, or glad ware containers.  Take your chosen containers and mark them with masking tape labeled “0 (average), -.001, -.002….+.001, +.002…and so forth depending on how wide the spread of measurements are.  These numbers are the difference in thousandths of an inch, found from the average you found in the test sequence.

Sinclair Bullet Sorting Stand in action with a “zeroed” out average bullet. Note the labeled containers with sorted bullets in background.

Now it is time to measure. Place each bullet in the appropriate container for what you find. Keep these measured batches together, and label them so you remember which batches are which for the next steps in the bullet prep process. (see picture above).  Many will leave it here and go ahead with the reloading process.  In the next installment of this article, I will outline the next steps that can be taken to maximize these sorted bullets even more for performance.  These next steps are meplat trimming and bullet pointing.  The final steps in tweaking the ultimate long range bullet,  Keep your eyes peeled for the next part of this series in future Reloading Press newsletters!

Congratulations to our first monthly product review winner, Ross Livingston! Ross reviewed a few products for us in the month of January and one of his reviews was randomly selected as our winner. Thanks, Ross, for being such a great Sinclair International customer!

Every approved review will give you an entry into our monthly drawing for a $100 gift certificate. That means if you review one product, you get one entry. If you review ten products, you get ten entries. Winners are chosen at the end of every month and will receive a $100 Sinclair International Gift Certificate via e-mail.

So whether you’ve purchased the product three days ago or three years ago, be sure to write up a review. Remember, it pays to review your Sinclair International products!

I saw this product last year at the SHOT Show and was instantly impressed with it. Camo Form from McNett Corporation is a protective camouflage wrap that can be used to wrap firearms, bows, spotting scopes, insulated bottles, etc. Three features I really like about this product are; 1) it doesn’t stick to the surface being wrapped, it just sticks to itself so it doesn’t leave any residue, 2) it adds a barrier of protection to your rifle/shotgun in the field giving it some cushion against scrapes and bumps, and 3) the additional grip the Camo Form gives you on a field gun is fantastic.

Camo Form currently comes in 11 different camouflage patterns including several Mossy Oak favorites and several digital patterns. It is very easy to apply. You can wrap it in overlays or cut smaller pieces to fit around scope caps, bolt handles, sling studs, etc. As long as it makes contact with another piece it will stick incredibly well.

I took one of my favorite wood stocked rifles, a Remington 722 chambered in 257 Roberts with a Herter’s scope and tried the snow pattern. I covered it really thoroughly and used a roll and a half. If you were just trying to break up the geometric lines of the gun, one roll would be sufficient. See pictures before and after.

Before

After

One of the other guys on our staff, Phil H used one roll of the Woodland digital pattern on his Savage Model 12 FV chambered in .223 Remington and covered the majority of the rifle but did a good job in breaking up the lines of the rifle. The scope is a Nikon Monarch 6.5-20 x 44. See picture below.

The Camo Form protective wrap can be taken off and wound back up into a roll for use again. I know in my own particular situation, I would probably take it off after use just in case any moisture got in the wrap and was trapped against the metal or wood stock.

I went on a bear hunt a couple of years ago and took a Pre-64 Model 70 (original wood stock) that my dad handed down to me. I babied it in the brush but the Camo Form would have given me that extra layer of protection.

It does contain natural latex so if you are allergic you might want to stay away from it. Very nice product and one I am glad we are carrying.

Good Shooting,

Bill Gravatt
President – Sinclair International, Inc.

Wow, not only do I have to clean my gun but I have to clean my cleaning gear too? Well, yes you do or at least you should. Most of your cleaning tools and accessories will pick up grit and crud from your cleaning session. Not only do you want to clean your tools out so you don’t re-introduce debris into your rifle/shotgun the next time you clean it but you have some money invested in your cleaning tools and a quick cleaning before they are put away will insure you get a lot more life out of them.

Cleaning rods are the worst for picking up the grit, solvent residue, powder residue, etc. from the bore. Give your cleaning sticks a good wipe down before you store them using a couple of large patches or some soft paper towels. The solvent is probably the most important stuff to remove. Some of today’s aggressive solvents can eat away some of the coatings on the coated rods.

Other items to clean are your rod guides. Spray the inside and outside with some Gun Scrubber or Quickscrub and wipe down the outside with a paper towel. One reason we make the Sinclair Rod Guides out of white Delrin is that the grit and grime is easily visible. Make sure the o-rings are wiped clean and inspect them for nicks and cuts so they are ready to go for the next cleaning session.

You can extend the life of your bronze and nylon bore brushes and chamber brushes by rinsing them off with Quickscrub or mineral spirits. Any solvent left on your brushes will eat away the material while they are stored.

Also, make sure your action cleaning tools are kept clean. They rub against the action interior walls and pick up grit that should be removed from your tools. The breech body on the Sinclair AR-15 lug recess tool will pick up some debris when inserted into the receiver. Again, a judicious use of Gun Scrubber will work wonders.

This tech tip is a real basic reminder. All of us here need reminding once in awhile to take that extra step before we put our tools away.

The Sinclair Staff

We are just returned from another visit to the shooting industry’s big show – The SHOT Show. The show was held in Las Vegas this year and is the industry’s showcase of new products for manufacturers, distributors, and dealers. It was good to see some old friends and make some new ones.

Our new 2010-A Sinclair catalog will be printing soon and you should see it arrive in your mailbox sometime in mid to late February. Showcased in the catalog are a couple of new Hornady products that will be available soon – one is the new Lock-N-Load Auto Charge Powder Dispenser and the other is their Lock-N-Load Sonic Cleaner designed for case cleaning. I was given a prototype Sonic Cleaner a few weeks ago and it promises to be a very handy tool. I was amazed how clean the inside of my dirty cases were. I am still waiting on the arrival of the new Auto Charge Powder Dispenser so I can give it a workout.

Lapua has finally decided to produce some 22-250 Remington brass – this unprimed brass won’t be available until later this spring but we wanted to make sure you were aware that it is coming. We have been after them to make this cartridge for a long time. I am sure it will be of the same great quality as all of the other Lapua products. Another new product offering this year from Lapua will be their 308 Winchester Palma brass with a small primer pocket. There will be a big demand from both 308 shooters and wildcat reloaders. We should see this cartridge arrive in a few months.

I would be remiss in not mentioning two old product names that will be back in the Sinclair catalog. Redfield scopes are being re-introduced into the market by Leupold and Birchwood Casey has brought back the RIG products (RIG grease, RIG-Rags, etc.). Both of these product lines will be welcome additions. I am looking forward to trying out one of the new Redfield 4-12 scopes and also their compact, digital laser rangefinders. We should see these on our shelves shortly.

Good Shooting,

Bill Gravatt
President – Sinclair International, Inc.

The SHOT Show, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is the largest shooting and hunting exposition in the world. Designed for distributors and dealers to see new products and prepare their buying activities for the new year. It was held in Las Vegas this year and will return there in 2011 and 2012.

Three of us from Sinclair walked the show for four (4) days and met with many of the manufacturers we deal with. I wanted to try to give you a brief rundown of some of the things we saw that may be of interest to you.

Lapua

The big news from Lapua is the introduction of their new .308 Winchester brass with the small primer pocket. A lot of reloaders and wildcatters have been looking forward to this and their will be quite a demand when it hits the shelf. Lapua is also adding the 22-250 Remington case in their line. We have been after them to make the 22-250 case for years. Not only will this be a plus for the 22-250 Remington reloaders but also for the folks wanting to use it as a parent case.

We also will be adding some additional Lapua bullets and Lapua ammunition to our line in the near future.

Berger Bullets

We spent quite a bit of time with the crew from Berger. They are working additional shifts to try to get their production up to meet the increased demand for their product – that’s great news. They also let us know that they are working on some new 7mm bullets in the 180 grain weight range that promise to have some of the highest B.C.’s of any bullets they have ever produced. Also, getting ready to be tested are some 6mmm benchrest bullets of a new design. We will continue to keep you posted as we get more details when these new bullets will be available.

Norma Precision

The 6 PPC brass from Norma is back and will be stronger and longer lasting than before. We are looking forward to seeing this brass in the next couple of months. We’ll be adding some target bullets from the Norma line soon along with some of their super accurate ammunition.

Hornady Manufacturing

I mentioned in the cover letter about a couple of their new reloading tools; the Hornady Sonic Brass Cleaner and the Hornady Lock N’ Load Auto Charge Powder Dispenser. We are looking forward to their arrival in the next month or so. A big talk lately has been Hornady’s Superformance Ammunition. This ammunition utilizes progressive propellants that add 100 to 200 FPS over conventional factory ammunition. These specially blended powders increase velocity without increases in felt recoil, muzzle blast, temperature sensitivity, fouling or loss of accuracy. This stuff will be hard to get but we should be getting some allocated to us as soon as it becomes available.

Military brass, range brass, “once fired” brass bought at a gun show. We are all looking for ways to save money these days on reloading components.  Buying new brass is always the best way especially if you are just starting out as a reloader. The staff at Sinclair suggests that even the more experienced reloader follow this advice for the safety and aggravation issues that “used” brass may cause.

What are some of the pitfalls we may encounter by using brass that has not been fired in the rifle we intend to reload for? Well first of all we have to realize that brass is a very “elastic” metal and it has a “memory”. When a new piece of brass is fired in a rifle, that is the last step in its forming process and as a result it will try to “spring back” to that form after resizing. This is why brass that was not fired in your rifle’s chamber may not fit even after full length sizing. This is especially true for military brass that may have been fired in an automatic weapon – these weapons usually have very large chambers in them to aid in feeding and extraction. You may be able to get around this sizing issue with a “small base” full length die that will size your brass down to a point below where the spring back will be reduced to a point where it will chamber in your rifle but don’t count on it. In any event we suggest having a Wilson or some other type of case gage on your bench to check your resized brass for headspace, trim length and spring back of the case body. Also when it comes to military brass it has generally has thicker walls due to the fact that it is designed for rough handling and long storage so you should start with the lowest powder charge listed for your bullet, cartridge, powder combination and work up from there while looking for pressure signs. Other issues with military brass include the crimped in primers, badly off center flash holes and Berdan primed cases (two flash holes) instead of Boxer primed cases (standard one flash hole). You can check your cases to determine whether they are Berdan or Boxer primed by looking down through the case mouth. Do this before you try to de-prime any fired cartridges of unknown origin. If the cases are Berdan primed I suggest you discard them.

Now that we have touched on the down side of military and range brass, what are some of the procedures and tools we need to process this brass to where it may be useable again? In my case I was given a large amount of 5.56×45 brass that was known to be once fired out of M-16 military shooting team rifles so I knew right off the bat what I was dealing with, you may not know where your military brass came from so my suggestions may not work for all situations. My first step was to clean all this brass in hot soapy water to remove all the mud and spiders. I rinsed it and then let it sit in the sun to dry. An RCBS decapping die (#87580) was used to remove all the primers before tumbling. This die was used instead of a full length or neck die because I don’t like running brass that may still have some gunk on it through my reloading dies to prevent damage to them. Step two was to run the brass through a Redding small base full length die (RD91323) with the carbide expander ball upgrade kit (RD48223). The set up on the die in the press is so the base of the die is just above the shell holder with the press ram fully raised. In some situations the die may have to be set up so that you “cam over” the press ram to get a little extra shoulder bump if you need it. Step three is to check the resized piece of brass with a Wilson .223 Remington case gage (W223G).What this case gage will tell us is:

1. Have the case body and shoulder sprung back so the case will not fit in the gage? (If so discard the piece and go to the next case)

2. If the case does go into the gage, is the case head above the top of the base of the case gage? If so, adjust the full length die down so the press cams over, then resize the piece and try it in the gage again. If the case head is still above the top of the gage, discard it.

3.I f the case head is below the second step of the Wilson gage you are pushing the shoulder back too far and you need to readjust the die up away from the shoulder until the case head of the sized case falls between the top and bottom steps of the gage.

4. If the case mouth protrudes above the top step of the case gage we need to trim the case to the proper length.

Now we need to remove the crimp from around the primer pocket so we can re-prime the case. To do this you can use a primer pocket swaging tool from RCBS or Dillon. If you have a Wilson trimmer you can use a Wilson primer pocket reamer (Small Rifle – WR175, Large Rifle – WR210). I use one of our Wilson/Sinclair deburring tool and holder kits (05-150) with the inside case mouth chamfering end out along with a Skil electric screw pistol I got from Home Depot (about $25.00). Be careful not to take too much brass out of the primer pocket using this method.

Now it’s time to load up a few “dummy” rounds to test their function through the rifle. If the dummy rounds manually feed and extract okay, load up a few live test rounds using the lowest powder charge listed for your cartridge, bullet, powder combination and test them out at the range. If you are good to go there, start working up your load in small increments looking for pressure signs as you go along. Remember, military brass is thicker and heavier than standard brass so it has less capacity and you will probably see pressure signs before you get to the maximum load listed.

Be safe and good shooting!

Phil H.

Sinclair International Reloading Technician

Certified NRA Metallic Reloading Instructor

Certified NRA Shot Shell Reloading Instructor