30-06 reloading questions about brass

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jd_huntalot

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:Hey y'all, got a few questions about the brass I'm using to reload with. I'm shooting my ruger m77 mkII synthetic stainless in 30-06. It's my main hunting gun but I do a lot of shooting with it 300+ rnds/year. I've been reloading for a while now but I've got a lot of random brass, some federal, some federal high energy, winchester, remington, and about 150 once fired military brass. I'm keeping it all seperate right now but does anyone have any suggestions on the brass, what to use, what to toss out... so on and so forth. And with regards to the military casings, can they be reloaded? Thanks:)
 
Most important feature of used brass is the weight. You size the brass to be the same size on the outside, so heavier or lighter means it is larger or smaller on the inside, meaning larger or smaller powder capacity.
I sort my brass according to weight. For example, 30-06 brass weighing between, say, 185 and 192 grains, are treated by me, as being equal, regardless of what is on the headstamp.
The military brass may be well over 200 grains, and thus will have maybe 1 or 1½ grains less powder capacity, and this should be allowed for in loading, by using less powder.
I have checked two 30-06 cases. One weighed 190 grains, while the other weighed 205, or 15 grains heavier. The difference in powder capacity between the two was one grain of 4320.
Thus, a few grains difference in case weight between cases is not a big deal.
 
H4831 nailed it, but I would like to add that once the primer pockets begin to feel loose its time to chuck the brass.

With regards for military brass, it is only reasonable to reload brass with boxer primers. You might noticve that some mi8klitary brass has the primer ctrimped into place. Once you have deprimed this stuff, you will have to remove the crimp around the primer pocket. This can be accomplished with a swaging die (RCBS), a special tool for cutting the crimp away (Wilson) or even your deburring tool might work. After that you reload as you would any other brass with the proviso that you consider the reduced powder capacity as mentioned above.
 
Garand said:
IMI brass primer pockets stretch after a couple of reloads. Dump them.
Click to expand...

If primer pockets stretch after a couple of reloads, this is solid proof that the reloads were far too heavy! This is getting into the danger level.
 
Yes, I should have added that the loading was far too heavy, in the brass that enlarged the primer pocket, after a couple of loadings.
 
Garand said:
It only happened with IMI brass, and not with the any other of the dozen brands of brass I had.
Click to expand...


That likely meant that it was heavier brass and you used the same load, thus less internal space for the powder to go boom, thus increased pressure.

If you only shoot 300 rounds a year, why not forget the old brass and buy a new bag once a year. Typically unless the loads are really hot you can get 6 loadings from 30-06 brass.
 
Its really hard to get the point that IMI brass is soft, here, you know that!
In the 22 years that I have loaded multiple thousands of rounds of .30-06 FMJ & Tracer (I love my Garand), I have only had problems with IMI Brass.
 
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