Re: Should I buy 7.62 NATO & 5.56 NATO IVI brass

Henry Nierychlo

Henry Nierychlo

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Re: Should I buy 7.62 NATO & 5.56 NATO IVI brass

Hi guys.
I'm looking for some advice here.
I've got a line on some 1fired .308/7.62 NATO & .223/5.56 NATO brass.
It's in really good shape.
It's all IVI headstamp & has crimped primers. I won't say how many is available.
I'm wondering if I should buy it and how much I should pay for it.
Any input is appreciated.
Regards, Henry
 
It's very good quality stuff and will stand up to multiple reloads. The case capacity is slightly less than commercial brass, because of heavier side walls and bases. The outside dimensions are identical. The crimped primers can be a pain.
Once the primers are punched out, take a countersink bit and chuck it up in a battery powered hand drill. I've ground the flutes on mine so that I can't go to deep when removing the crimp. It also makes all of the counter sink cuts even.

If you're prepared to go through the effort, buy as much as you can. There is also a market for this stuff, once the crimps have been removed.

I saw a punch, that was hand made in the US. It looked like a long handled pair of pump pliers with a specialy ground attachment made out of carbide. It was exactly the same size as a primer and took very little effort to press out the crimp and leave a nicely contoured lip on the primer pocket. I always swore that would make one for myself but never did.
 
Henry Nierychlo said:
Hi guys.
I'm looking for some advice here.
I've got a line on some 1fired .308/7.62 NATO & .223/5.56 NATO brass.
It's in really good shape.
It's all IVI headstamp & has crimped primers. I won't say how many is available.
I'm wondering if I should buy it and how much I should pay for it.
Any input is appreciated.
Regards, Henry
Click to expand...

Crimped primers and Berdan flash holes or Boxer flash hole?

Have you deprimed any of them yet to see?

See if you can get one piece and check out the flash holes. If they are Berdan, the process of converting them to Boxer is tedious, but possible. If they are Boxer, you just have to work to get the crimped primers out.
 
ki11ercane said:
Crimped primers and Berdan flash holes or Boxer flash hole?

Have you deprimed any of them yet to see?

See if you can get one piece and check out the flash holes. If they are Berdan, the process of converting them to Boxer is tedious, but possible. If they are Boxer, you just have to work to get the crimped primers out.
Click to expand...

IVI headstamp=boxer primed.
 
Henry Nierychlo said:
Hi guys.
I'm looking for some advice here.
I've got a line on some 1fired .308/7.62 NATO & .223/5.56 NATO brass.
It's in really good shape.
It's all IVI headstamp & has crimped primers. I won't say how many is available.
I'm wondering if I should buy it and how much I should pay for it.
Any input is appreciated.
Regards, Henry
Click to expand...

Great brass! Just have to reduce your loads due to internal case capacity and like stated - remove the primer crimp. I shoot both 7.62 and 5.56 cases.

They are boxer primed.

I go to town when I prep it though:

-uniform primer pockets and deburr internally
-clean up and uniform necks
-clean em till they gleam like new
-anneal necks
-FL resize and trim to uniform length - after that, I just neck size em till they need another FL size
-sort by weight and group lots for internal capacity and headstamp year

I have so much of them, I'll have brass for the rest of my life - helps when you anneal them.

Cheers, Carl
 
Henry Nierychlo said:
Hi guys.
I'm looking for some advice here.
I've got a line on some 1fired .308/7.62 NATO & .223/5.56 NATO brass.
It's in really good shape.
It's all IVI headstamp & has crimped primers. I won't say how many is available.
I'm wondering if I should buy it and how much I should pay for it.
Any input is appreciated.
Regards, Henry
Click to expand...

Yes. Buy lots. This is Canadian made NATO. All NATO will be hard to come by as the US DOS stops exports. I have seen the 7.62 size go for 25 cents on the EE.
I have paid 75 cents for a complete round of 7.62/308 this month.
 
I have never found a need to anneal IVI brass. Even after many reloads. It is annealed at the factory as the final step of making the brass. Unlike commercail brass, it is not acid washed after annealing, so you can see the blue discoloration in the neck.

I suggest you find out if has been fired in a machine gun. get some samples. The machine gun chambers are big and the brass is a ##### to re-size. I like military brass for some applications, but would not bother with machine gun brass. Too much work and bad language...

If you are going to process a large quantity, I suggest the Dillon pocket swager. It runs a die into the pocket and irons out the crimp, leaving a nice uniform round pocket.

DILLONPOCKETSWADGER.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi Henry,we meet again!
Ditto what the others said,IVI is good brass,however,as made for the military/police,the primers are swaged in and the pockets need to be swaged out.Funnily enough,I have just finished repriming a bunch of 223 and 308 and had to discard about 10% of the 223 becuase I didn't want to bother swaging the primer pockets;I managed to force fit all the 308 though some strained my hand priming tools to the max.I should have separated out the PMC with the military crimp,and swaged the primer pockets.Not a big deal,but an extra step in reloading.
Cheers!!
 
I love IVI brass. Have great stockpiles in 7.62mm and about 12K cases of 5.56mm. It is excellent for reloading after swaging the primer crimps. I just finished processing all the 5.56mm using a Dillon Super Swage and a Giuard trimmer. Made short work of an otherwise long and boring job.

Once properly prepped, I find that I can develop loads that are just as accurate as rounds loaded with Winchester or Lapua brass.

I never pass up the opportunity to grab more IVI when I see laying around the range.
 
yes 7.62 fired in a MG is hard to size, even worse if you are using a small base sizing die. I actually broke a Rockchucker and a Lyman Orange Crusher press doing thousands and thousands about 25 years ago. I then bought a used C+H Heavy Weight Champion press and no more problems with breakage, and it took much less effort to operate as well.

Imperial sizing wax seems to work the best for this.
 
The only IVI brass I have and have used is in 303Br. I have a number of different brands of 303Br. brass I use and I've found IVI to be as good as any.

X2 on the opinion by buckbrush of Imperial sizing die wax.
 
I agree with others; and I'll also say that the Lake City brass I recently purchased from you is FANTASTIC. I can second the comments of others regarding MG-fired rounds being a bit harder to size at the base, even with a TON of lube, but with some patience and elbow grease they still go.

I'd definitely buy IVI if it were available and I had, say, an M14-style rifle that needed feeding. For now, my thousand LC05-06-07 cases will last me in my bolt-action Savage... but there are a LOT of guys tired of paying $0.75-1.05 a loaded round from the factory and still wanting to blast with their M305 Norc's or Springfield M1A's.

-M
 
majormarine said:
the IVI 7.62 NATO brass is hard to resize. it gets very sticky near the end of the base and it seems like if i go further i would get a stuck case and/or a broken press. yes, i put LOTS of lube!
Click to expand...

you're not the only one- i had to remove mine from my dillon my banging on the ram WITH A HAMMER-the downstroke was no problem, and i used lots of lube as well
 
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