5.56 IVI brass?

coyoteking

coyoteking

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
33   0   0
Location
SW Sask
Is this stuff any good? Fairly consistent? Well made? Long lasting?

I found a pile of it but thought I better get the advice of the more sage reloaders here before I spend hours prepping and sorting it. I’m currently using Winchester bulk brass that gets me .4 moa out to 300 yards, but my load is a little warm and after 4 firings I’m seeing loose primer pockets.

Also, why is it verboten to sell IVI brass on the EE?
 
I'm unimpressed with it. Firstly, the crimped in primers are a pita. I've tried removing the crimp with a dremel and a burr, and I have the swaging tool that RCBS sells... both a pita. Worse, I'm getting split case necks on the first firing. That means a long session of annealing if I want to use them more than once.

More work than they're worth imo.
 
It's as good as any milspec brass. I like it myself but I just load bulk FMJ typically. The crimped primers are no issue after prepping, never had any trouble removing them myself. You can't sell IVI brass in the EE because the owner seems it so. I think the excuse used is that it may be stolen, which wasn't an issue for well over a decade before.
 
B said:
It's as good as any milspec brass. I like it myself but I just load bulk FMJ typically. The crimped primers are no issue after prepping, never had any trouble removing them myself. You can't sell IVI brass in the EE because the owner seems it so. I think the excuse used is that it may be stolen, which wasn't an issue for well over a decade before.
Click to expand...

And yet you have dealers on here selling loaded IVI 9mm. I guess Dominion Arsenal brass is okay though? lol
 
X Metal in Quebec use these brass for their commercial reload, it’s not bad for plinking loads but as stated above, it is military brass so scale down the load when reloading these.

They are no worst than Norinco brass but it’s not Lapua either.
 
Weigh a few Winchester cases and then some IVI cases, it is my understanding military cases are made of harder brass and not thicker brass.

It is also my understanding that General Dynamics Weapons Division runs the IVI plant and makes the brass to the same standards as American Lake City brass.

I buy bulk once fired Lake City 5.56 and 7.62 brass because of its above average quality and uniformity and cost savings.

The advantage of having a "pile" of one brand of brass is its uniformity. So the question boils down to are you shooting a bolt action or a AR15 type rifle and do you like "free" brass.

A semi-auto rifle throws perfectly good brass away and makes you go look for it, and you don't cry if you lose a few "free" cases. So what are you paying for Winchester brass and I would assume the pile of free IVI brass was a better deal.

Bottom line, a cheap bastard knows the answer.

4kXrGuI.png


LjAQ7L9.jpg


PExmCCk.jpg
 
I'm an IVI fan boy, but for a good reason...

Think about it like this....

How much does 300 rounds of your favorite brand of brass cost?

What is the consistency error in the 300 rounds?

Answer, at best all within ONE grain.

Now, for the cost of that 300 rounds of premium brass, how many once fired IVI cases can you buy?

I'll throw out a number of about 3,000

So, after you do all the due diligence and resize all 3000 rounds (using a small based die), length trim, deburr flash holes, anneal and tumble in stainless media....

What do you have?

Answer 3,000 rounds of brass that over the 3000 rounds is almost certainly less consistent than your premium brass... are you with me so far?

But wait... we are not done....

Now get out a sharpie and a scale and weigh every case and write the weight on each one.

Weight sort all of them and separate into lots of 100 closest in weight.

Now what do you have?

30 lots of 100 with most of them weighing the exact same weight within 1/10th of a grain.

So now what would you rather have, 3 lots of 100 within ONE grain or 30 lots of 100 within 1/10th grain?

As for the heavy weight of IVI brass... well yes it is heavy... just like Lapua.

If you neck turn them to 0.012" like I do, well, game on boys.

But I will say this... Lake City brass is better.... You will notice this particularily when swaging the crimped primer pockets.... You will undoubtedly notice how hard the heads are on Lake City.

I have encountered nothing harder than Lake City.
 
Last edited:
I have a ton of IVI 15 and IVI 18. I sold a bunch of LC 07 because I'm using the IVI exclusively. With no special case prep I shot a 0.65" 200 yard 5-shot group yesterday. I've never had issues with case neck splits. The only problem is some of the semi-autos that the stuff gets fired in have a pretty generous chamber and some are tighter. When you go to resize it for the first time, your headspace dimension on the sized brass can vary by 3 to 4 thousandths with the same die setting. I just set my die so that the longest ones are a snug fit in my tight chamber. Never had to use a small-base die, though. Just the headspace/shoulder pushback being inconsistent.

The experts keep saying that case capacity is lower on military brass but I measured 30.4 gr H2O on the IVI 15 brass, pretty much the same as commerical R-P that I checked.
 
Save $$ By Using Lake City 5.56x45mm Once-Fired GI Brass (my comment, or using IVI brass)
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2019/10/save-by-using-lake-city-5-56x45mm-once-fired-gi-brass/

Accuracy Potential of Mil-Surp 5.56×45 Brass

So, how accurate can previously-fired GI surplus brass be in a good National Match AR-15? Well, here’s a data point from many years ago that might be of interest. A High Power shooter who wrote for the late Precision Shooting magazine took a Bill Wylde-built AR match rifle to a registered Benchrest match. His first 5-round group ever fired in a BR match was officially measured at 0.231″ at 200 hundred yards. This was fired in front of witnesses, while using a moving target backer that confirmed all five rounds were fired.

He recounted that his ammo was loaded progressively with factory 52gr match bullets and a spherical powder using mixed years of LC brass with no special preparation whatsoever. Obviously, this was “exceptional”. However, he had no difficulty obtaining consistent 0.5-0.6 MOA accuracy at 200 yards using LC brass and a generic “practice” load that was not tuned to his rifle.
 
Thanks everyone. I’ve got lots of time on my hands at the moment so I think I’ll do a little testing on these. This particular rifle is real easy to build accurate loads for, spending the big bucks on Lapua brass probably won’t get me significant gains in accuracy for what I’m requiring anyways.
 
B said:
Anyone with a business account may sell it. If you like rumors I have heard several times that a dealer or two may have complained.
Click to expand...

Err, no.
The rumor is incorrect.
The concern was with DND brass being stolen and sold.
Brass was sold off by the Government in bulk quantities, purchased by businesses, then resold. That is why businesses were allowed to sell it here.
Irrelevant now - any bulk brass sold by the Government must be scrapped, and cannot be reused as ammunition.
 
tiriaq said:
Err, no.
The rumor is incorrect.
The concern was with DND brass being stolen and sold.
Brass was sold off by the Government in bulk quantities, purchased by businesses, then resold. That is why businesses were allowed to sell it here.
Irrelevant now - any bulk brass sold by the Government must be scrapped, and cannot be reused as ammunition.
Click to expand...

Then the RCMP just leaves it in the scrap bin at our gun club after their range rental. Works for me :).
 
tiriaq said:
Err, no.
The rumor is incorrect.
The concern was with DND brass being stolen and sold.
Brass was sold off by the Government in bulk quantities, purchased by businesses, then resold. That is why businesses were allowed to sell it here.
Irrelevant now - any bulk brass sold by the Government must be scrapped, and cannot be reused as ammunition.
Click to expand...

So something that wasn't a concern for well over a decade was suddenly deemed improper..? If no one at all can sell the scrap why do businesses continue to get a pass? Genuinely curious here. It all seems a bit absurd since obtaining IVI is not all that hard legally, certainly much less difficult than stealing from DND.
 
B said:
So something that wasn't a concern for well over a decade was suddenly deemed improper..? If no one at all can sell the scrap why do businesses continue to get a pass? Genuinely curious here. It all seems a bit absurd since obtaining IVI is not all that hard legally, certainly much less difficult than stealing from DND.
Click to expand...

The businesses only sale of IVI brass on CGN has been the rule for years.
Because all DND sold brass must be scrapped, there is no ready source for IVI cases in 5.56 and 7.62.
IVI/General Dynamics does sell some ammunition commercially - the 147gr 9mm ball being an example.
CGN doesn't care if folks scavenge after the RCMP, etc. Sale on CGN is CGN's business, and GN cannot be seen as a marketplace for goods of questionable origin.
You will have noticed that CGN doesn't allow the sale of current ex-government property, unless the goods are ones that have been disposed of as surplus.
If a member advertises something that is current issue, the ad is usually flagged and brought to the attention of all mods and the admin, a number of whom are serving members of the CAF. The member will be contacted and asked to explain the origin of the goods. "Bought at a gunshow" isn't good enough.
Incidentally, in years past, IVI was the successor to CIL as far as commercial ammunition manufacture was concerned. IVI .22-.250 brass has nothing to do with government property
 
winter time

covid time

Stay home and prep brass for something to do... as watching the same old videos gets boring

even the ski hills are shut down

if you have property and a sled ... have fun out side :)
 
I deburr with a counter sink tool ($7.00) in an electric drill. Can do a bucket of brass in a few minutes. Just kiss the pocket and cut off the crimp.

Use the same tool to champfer the case mouth, too.

U9Y44tu.jpg
 
Ganderite said:
I deburr with a counter sink tool ($7.00) in an electric drill. Can do a bucket of brass in a few minutes. Just kiss the pocket and cut off the crimp.

Use the same tool to champfer the case mouth, too.

U9Y44tu.jpg
Click to expand...

Same thing I do, but I chuck it into my benchtop drill press
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom