Comments on: Military and “Once Fired” Brass — Deal or No Deal? http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/ Sinclair International Precision Shooting Blog Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:58:22 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Cowboy http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-7955 Cowboy Tue, 08 Feb 2011 02:05:21 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-7955 Excellent information. Now I know why I have had problems with Military brass. Thanks Excellent information. Now I know why I have had problems with Military brass.
Thanks

]]> By: admin http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-6722 admin Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:22:41 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-6722 Ron, Sizing dies will usually leave this area of the case unsized. What I would suggest though is to purchase a Wilson case gauge (W308G) so you can check your sized brass to make sure you don’t have one that “springs back” to be too large to chamber in your rifle. This really is critical to do with once fired military brass because of the weapons that brass may have been fired in. Hope this helps! Take care, Phil H. Ron,
Sizing dies will usually leave this area of the case unsized. What I would suggest though is to purchase a Wilson case gauge (W308G) so you can check your sized brass to make sure you don’t have one that “springs back” to be too large to chamber in your rifle. This really is critical to do with once fired military brass because of the weapons that brass may have been fired in. Hope this helps!
Take care,
Phil H.

]]> By: Ron civils http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-6668 Ron civils Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:06:35 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-6668 Phil I just purchased 1000 rds of L C 308 brass. It was cleaned and polished. I have to resize and punch primer. I have a Bonanza f l die set. In trying to size the brass which I can get all but the last 1/4 in into the sizing die, I just fed the empty brass case into my cetme 308 to see if it would chamber which it did . Do I not need to worry about sizing the case all the way to the rim ? I am new to rifle reloading. hand gun no prob. Phil I just purchased 1000 rds of L C 308 brass. It was cleaned and polished. I have to resize and punch primer. I have a Bonanza f l die set. In trying to size the brass which I can get all but the last 1/4 in into the sizing die, I just fed the empty brass case into my cetme 308 to see if it would chamber which it did . Do I not need to worry about sizing the case all the way to the rim ? I am new to rifle reloading. hand gun no prob.

]]> By: admin http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-1881 admin Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:05:16 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-1881 Paul, Because the brass is thicker you will reach your maximum velocity with a lower powder charge sooner. For example, my .308 Palma rifle reaches the velocity I need with 47.5 grains of N550 powder in a Lapua case that weighs on average 172.0 grains. To get the same velocity out of a Winchester case that weighs 156.0 grains on average I have to use 48 grains of N550. So I will see pressure signs earlier on the Lapua brass than the Winchester brass as I work my load up in both the primer and case web. Hope this helps! Take care, Phil H. Paul,
Because the brass is thicker you will reach your maximum velocity with a lower powder charge sooner. For example, my .308 Palma rifle reaches the velocity I need with 47.5 grains of N550 powder in a Lapua case that weighs on average 172.0 grains. To get the same velocity out of a Winchester case that weighs 156.0 grains on average I have to use 48 grains of N550. So I will see pressure signs earlier on the Lapua brass than the Winchester brass as I work my load up in both the primer and case web.
Hope this helps!
Take care,
Phil H.

]]> By: Paul Adamowski http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-1854 Paul Adamowski Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:24:47 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-1854 Hi Phil: Great article. I am currently at procession round 2500 of newly acquired LC brass. One thought you presented is playing with my mind. In your last sentence, you acknowledge that Military Brass is thicker and heavier and consequently does not have the powder or gas volume of commercial cartridges. If I can't get the same amount of powder in as I can in commercially manufactured case, I won't be approaching the max load as soon and I won't be seeing the pressure signs earlier than I would for the commerical cases. Small point but I can't see what I am missing in trying to follow the logic of your statement. The pressure signs would, I suspect be limited to the primer signals in that the webbing is much thicker on a military case than the commercial. Sorry but my beer induced tupor won't let me see the practicality of your last thought. Hi Phil:
Great article. I am currently at procession round 2500 of newly acquired LC brass. One thought you presented is playing with my mind. In your last sentence, you acknowledge that Military Brass is thicker and heavier and consequently does not have the powder or gas volume of commercial cartridges. If I can’t get the same amount of powder in as I can in commercially manufactured case, I won’t be approaching the max load as soon and I won’t be seeing the pressure signs earlier than I would for the commerical cases. Small point but I can’t see what I am missing in trying to follow the logic of your statement. The pressure signs would, I suspect be limited to the primer signals in that the webbing is much thicker on a military case than the commercial. Sorry but my beer induced tupor won’t let me see the practicality of your last thought.

]]> By: Kevin Tlachac http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-1847 Kevin Tlachac Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:33:18 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-1847 I am doing this right now, prepping Lake City brass I purchased at a gun show. The brass had already been, resized, deprimed and crimp removed. What I am finding is on a few cases, after firing, I’m getting blow back through the primer pocket. Not many, but a few here and there. Some brass, it looks like, just a bad job of removing the crimp, still nothing I’m to worry about, I just toss those and move on. I also separated them by headstamp and am treating each as its own brand, so to speak. I also found that the headspace measurement was “more” on the once fired brass, which is good as I am able to bring it to my chamber measurement by simply resizing full length. I am also cleaning up the case necks by turning and deburring the flash holes. All and all it has been a pleasant experience working with this brass, and of course, the savings have been astronomical as I bought this brass in June of ‘08. Pricing it now, it is worth tinkering with it. And, it is also 3 deg. outside with a wind-chill in the double digits below zero, might as well make good use of my time. Accuracy out of my untuned Rem VTR, 223 and 55 gr V-max has been in the 3/4″ range for 5 shots, minute of coyote for sure. Kevin I am doing this right now, prepping Lake City brass I purchased at a gun show. The brass had already been, resized, deprimed and crimp removed. What I am finding is on a few cases, after firing, I’m getting blow back through the primer pocket. Not many, but a few here and there. Some brass, it looks like, just a bad job of removing the crimp, still nothing I’m to worry about, I just toss those and move on. I also separated them by headstamp and am treating each as its own brand, so to speak. I also found that the headspace measurement was “more” on the once fired brass, which is good as I am able to bring it to my chamber measurement by simply resizing full length. I am also cleaning up the case necks by turning and deburring the flash holes. All and all it has been a pleasant experience working with this brass, and of course, the savings have been astronomical as I bought this brass in June of ‘08. Pricing it now, it is worth tinkering with it. And, it is also 3 deg. outside with a wind-chill in the double digits below zero, might as well make good use of my time. Accuracy out of my untuned Rem VTR, 223 and 55 gr V-max has been in the 3/4″ range for 5 shots, minute of coyote for sure. Kevin

]]> By: Bobby Hernandez http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-1840 Bobby Hernandez Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:01:53 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-1840 I tried resizing some previously fired .308 cal Hornady Match brass in my Redding die, and discovered that it wouldn't chamber despite following the set up instructions for full case resizing. I kept lowering the die until it made full contact with the top of I tried resizing some previously fired .308 cal Hornady Match brass in my Redding die, and discovered that it wouldn't chamber despite following the set up instructions for full case resizing. I kept lowering the die until it made full contact with the top of the shell holder. It wasn't until then that the cartridge was able to chamber. I did a bit of resizing but it appears to have worked. I haven't gone further in reloading these pieces of brass. Should I be contemplating a problem here. What I ended up doing to chamber the cartridge was nothing mentioned in the instructions, but it appears to work. The rifle is a .308 cal Remington 700. I've full sized other brands of brass for this same rifle and have never run into this situation. I'm not going further until I hear from you. I tried resizing some previously fired .308 cal Hornady Match brass in my Redding die, and discovered that it wouldn’t chamber despite following the set up instructions for full case resizing. I kept lowering the die until it made full contact with the top of I tried resizing some previously fired .308 cal Hornady Match brass in my Redding die, and discovered that it wouldn’t chamber despite following the set up instructions for full case resizing. I kept lowering the die until it made full contact with the top of the shell holder. It wasn’t until then that the cartridge was able to chamber. I did a bit of resizing but it appears to have worked. I haven’t gone further in reloading these pieces of brass. Should I be contemplating a problem here. What I ended up doing to chamber the cartridge was nothing mentioned in the instructions, but it appears to work. The rifle is a .308 cal Remington 700.

I’ve full sized other brands of brass for this same rifle and have never run into this situation. I’m not going further until I hear from you.

]]> By: Joe Reno http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-1834 Joe Reno Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:45:52 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-1834 Phil... Nice artical. I wish I had read it last year before I bought 500 pieces of LC "pulled', unfired 7.62X51 brass. I knew before I started that I would have to do many of the operations you suggested but I didn't count on the necks being coated with some sort of tar, I'm sure it was meant to waterproof the cartridges, but... what a pain in the butt. I under-estimated the thicker wall aspect of NATO brass and was very surprised at how tight the bolt was on my 1903-A3 after firing. That's when the tar issue really raised it's ugly head. I had to pull the other dozen or so bullets I had loaded and step down the charge a bit but found that pulling them was wayyyy harder than any other bullets I have pulled using my Hornady collet type puller. I ended up with all of the brass in a can of solvent and a .32 cal brush in my drill press and wearing thick rubber gloves scrubbing out each case neck. I would have been much better served just waiting for the backordered factory brass. Anyway... Thanks for the hind sight (20-20 you know). Joe Phil…

Nice artical. I wish I had read it last year before I bought 500 pieces of LC “pulled’, unfired 7.62X51 brass. I knew before I started that I would have to do many of the operations you suggested but I didn’t count on the necks being coated with some sort of tar, I’m sure it was meant to waterproof the cartridges, but… what a pain in the butt. I under-estimated the thicker wall aspect of NATO brass and was very surprised at how tight the bolt was on my 1903-A3 after firing. That’s when the tar issue really raised it’s ugly head. I had to pull the other dozen or so bullets I had loaded and step down the charge a bit but found that pulling them was wayyyy harder than any other bullets I have pulled using my Hornady collet type puller. I ended up with all of the brass in a can of solvent and a .32 cal brush in my drill press and wearing thick rubber gloves scrubbing out each case neck. I would have been much better served just waiting for the backordered factory brass. Anyway… Thanks for the hind sight (20-20 you know).
Joe

]]> By: Bob Schmuck http://blog.sinclairintl.com/2010/01/21/military-and-%e2%80%9conce-fired%e2%80%9d-brass-deal-or-no-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-1832 Bob Schmuck Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:48:16 +0000 http://blog.sinclairintl.com/?p=614#comment-1832 Very helpful - thank you. Will also pass this along to my reloading customers. Very helpful – thank you. Will also pass this along to my reloading customers.

]]>