7.62 Ball ammo, What did I come across here

walleyed99

walleyed99

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Found this at local gun show, from what I can read online, its great brass, was made up here in Canada by Industries Valcartier Inc. , and can be fired out of our M305/M14 pattern rifles, and is good for re loading, NON Corrosive?? My thought was yes. Anyone with any other info for me ?


 
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That should be boxer primed, but personally I've always avoided reloading 7.62 brass with my .308 dies since the brass is usually quite a bit thicker. Unless you picked up a large amount of the IVI it's probably not worth reloading <100 pieces.

Someone please feel free to correct me though, as I said I've never reloaded 7.62 military cases.
 
You are correct; it is Canadian military ammo and is of excellent quality. The brass is heavier that .308 commercial brassso your loads should be reduced slightly due to a bit less internal capacity. The quality of the brass is excellent and should last quite a while (as long as you don't bounce it off of rocks or concrete on ejection). The primers will be crimped in but this is no big deal. Your sizer/decapping die easily removes the spent primer and the crimping ring around the perimeter of the primer pocket is easily removed by swaging it out with a tool RCBS sells for the purpose or even scrapping it out with a pocket knife. Hope this helps.
 
I have and still do reload lots of IVI brass in 308. I also used it in my 243 after necking it down, and now in my 243AI. I got a hold of some IVI match brass, it seems to be very nice. Flash holes are already de-burred. I weight sorted it to see how even it was. I sorted 500 pieces and it broke up into 3 even groups of 1 grain variance, and I had 27 odd balls that I just through in with my m14 brass.
I was getting 5-6 firings out of the machine gun brass in my M14. I had 1 head case separation on the 7th firing and decided to draw the line at 5 reloads.
To get rid of the primer crimp I just chuck a counter sink from home depot in my drill press. Just takes a quick touch on the counter sink and the crimp is gone.
 
It is great ammo, and is non corrosive. I have used IVI ammo in a FNC1A1 with great results. I have also routinely reloaded it. Case capacities are slightly less than Winchester factory brass, so starting at a reduced load and working up will give good results.
 
IVI is reliable, but not terribly accurate. Your M305 will eat it with no fuss. Worked really well out of my Winchester M-14 when I took it on a CF range, long before the current stupid laws existed. Shot a cinder block into wee pieces as a cover vs concealment demo.
No such thing as machine gun brass. All CF 7.62NATO weapons used the same ammo. Mind you, if the brass was fired out of an MG it got worked harder than that fired out of a C1A1.
 
I shot a Magazine of it when out at the range last time. It was COOL, and BREEZY so I didn't do too much shooting, but had to get out and get a bit of trigger time. I managed a decent group with it on the one mag I shot, will burn through the rest of the box next time I am out :)
 
The IVI ball is good, reliable ammo, but it is really only capable of 2 MOA at best. The brass is MILSPEC which means that it is heavy and tough and will stand up well to resizing and firing in a M14 type rifle. Same thing for Cdn DA headstamped 7.62 ammo and brass when you can find it.
 
I have some 74 dated IVI and it is the sh!ts. 4-5 moa and the run out is terrible.
If you have some, great - but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to sourcing it.
 
IVI is good ammo, and excellent brass.

i love using it for reloading, run it though redding dies and it comes up with under 2 thou run out if any. It takes the licking battle rifles give it, and it outlasts most commercial. you use less powerder to get the same kick.... its win win.
 
Boy, did seeing that box bring back a whole flood of memories! Back when I was in the forces, I fired off tons of that stuff. It performed well in the arms for which it was intended and (as was mentioned earlier) it's very good reloadable brass. It shot well out of my Ruger M77 hbar, but as every shooter knows, individual firearms have their ammo preferences. I consider all milsurp ammo to be plinking stuff, even if it performs relatively well. For serious shooting and maximum accuracy, nothing beats reloading. Mind you, I used to have an 8MM Steyr that shot like a dream with anything you fed it.
 
purple said:
The IVI ball is good, reliable ammo, but it is really only capable of 2 MOA at best. The brass is MILSPEC which means that it is heavy and tough and will stand up well to resizing and firing in a M14 type rifle. Same thing for Cdn DA headstamped 7.62 ammo and brass when you can find it.
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X2. I concur with purples summary on IvI NATO ball from this era. The best MOA I saw was 2" in my P-H 1200 with a twist rate idea for the 144-147gr ball bullet. I saw it fired on either side in many era heavy barrelled guns like the Remington 700V's and Ruger 77V's, and they could not out-shoot the old 1200 with it's 1/14 twist giving 2MOA. This gun fired sub .75MOA with hand-loads.

I trained with the C1A1 and had an Lithgow L1A1 and with IVI ball it was nasty at 400 on a 11/59. I can see guys qualifying with C1's shooting this stuff and then getting the C-7's(after my time) with it's A1 sight, 556NATO, and inherent accuracy blowing the C1 out of the water, in scores that is, not capabilities beyond this.

I didn't shoot the Target rifle section back in the Days of Wine and Vinyl, but guys that did coveted the DA 1965 ball in their DCRA and Sportco rifles, but can't remember what was so good about it. I have a tiny lot of that year but can't bring my self to fire it away. Maybe if I ever get one of those DCRA converted 762's or a Sportco then I'll see what all the fuss was about.
 
Hmmm... I've shot the stuff I have in my knight's SR25, LMT MWS and my Sako TRG-22 - all of which are sub moa, and the best it has performed - with 5 round groups no less - has been 4moa.
 
The quality of ammo diminished when we switched from the DA headstamp to IVI in the 1970s. I don't know just why as it was produced in the same plant. IVI hired several retired Vandoo generals for their board of directors and we wondered if they were hanging out at the mess having too many leisurely lunches instead of paying attention to quality control issues. The first IVI 9mm ball was really bad. We were getting stuff at unit level with defective priming, crooked case mouths, etc. There were more QC problems with the first 5.56 ball that IVI produced in the late '80s. A few lots were rejected for poor accuracy and wound up on the civilian market. The IVI 7.62 ball always went bang though.
The DA headstamped 7.62 ball that was put up on 5 rd stripper clips in the waterproof plastic bandoliers was always good ammo. I still have a couple of bandoliers that I've been hoarding for a special occasion. I still have some DA55 .30 Cal that was pulled out of 4B/1T MG ammo produced by DA. It is good ammo and still shoots well in a Garand or M1903. I've used a lot of this brass for handloads over the yrs.
 
purple said:
The quality of ammo diminished when we switched from the DA headstamp to IVI in the 1970s. I don't know just why as it was produced in the same plant. IVI hired several retired Vandoo generals for their board of directors and we wondered if they were hanging out at the mess having too many leisurely lunches instead of paying attention to quality control issues. The first IVI 9mm ball was really bad. We were getting stuff at unit level with defective priming, crooked case mouths, etc. There were more QC problems with the first 5.56 ball that IVI produced in the late '80s. A few lots were rejected for poor accuracy and wound up on the civilian market. The IVI 7.62 ball always went bang though.
The DA headstamped 7.62 ball that was put up on 5 rd stripper clips in the waterproof plastic bandoliers was always good ammo. I still have a couple of bandoliers that I've been hoarding for a special occasion. I still have some DA55 .30 Cal that was pulled out of 4B/1T MG ammo produced by DA. It is good ammo and still shoots well in a Garand or M1903. I've used a lot of this brass for handloads over the yrs.
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Purple do you know which lot's were rejected in 556 in the eighties? I've got some IvI 556NATO stamped 85. Was it later than this?
 
RememberTheSomme said:
Purple do you know which lot's were rejected in 556 in the eighties? I've got some IvI 556NATO stamped 85. Was it later than this?
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1985 sounds about right, but I don't know if it was everything headstamped 85, or specific lots which were put up in the same brass. Military ammo is under technical control by lot number so you might find good and bad/rejected/restricted lots having brass with the same date stamp.
 
Since we are discussing 7.62 nato, I have a can of DAG 90 that is de-linked and has a black ring around the primers. Is this stuff Canadian? It shoots great in the bolt gun.
 
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