Best brass for Norinco M14S?

souwest_ghillie

souwest_ghillie

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I've heard that a NATO spec chamber will stretch brass more so than a SAAMI spec chamber......if I have this wrong please correct me. I'd like to know from shooters experienced with reloading for the Norinco just what brand of commercial brass is most durable. I have on hand a large amount of Winchester, RP, and a mixed weight batch of Lapua. I've done a search in this forum and checked out Mysticplayers website but came up with nothing. Any help would be appreciated.
 
there is no "best brass"- winchester is the lightest according to weight, and since the norm is 4 reloads at best anyway( you DO know the 305 et al are tough on brass) it doesn't really matter- of couse, you're going to get fewer reloads out of a 'hot ' load, but there's just a few grains difference between the bottom load that's enough to cycle the action and the top, so the pressure which is what determines the life of the brass , is roughly the same,- in one of my rifles, not a norc, but a springfield real, it takes 42 grains of 748 to cycle and the pressure signs start showing up at 44 - see what i mean- and the same case, of course- by weight, winchester is the lightest, then r-p and then federal- however, i got the most reloads from a winchester before i heard about the 4 and away rule- i use r/p now but that's because that's waht the dealer had on hand when i wanted/needed 1k of the same brand- that's how much shooting i was doing at the time
 
i've had nothing but bad luck out of ivi- and i lube it properly too- it goes in fine, but on extraction i've had the rim pull right out of the shellholder, leaving the case stick in the die-then i had to take a HAMMER to the decapper to KNOCK IT FREE- it's fine as first run ammo, but for reloads , give me A COMMERCIAL case every time- and for those that say my press isn't big enough, it's a DILLON 550- far as i'm concerned , ivi is pos that i won't deal with
 
Must be good luck with me. I use a universal decapper, then a redding body die, then a lee neck sizer. I ream out the primer cup after as it's crimped in place

I've never had a stuck case yet and I've run through more than 500 rounds.

The brass lasts 2 to 3 times longer than any commercial brass I've used. The only thing is the case wall is thicker so you must downgrade your loads accordingly.
 
look at all the work you've had to go through -decap, resize the body, and then resize the neck- the point is this is SUPPOSED to be a single operation performed by ONE DIE- that's probably why you've never had a failure-your body and neck sizing are 2 operations if i read your post right- it's when the button of the neck expander tries to go back through the neck that the thing gets stuck and then the rim pulls off the shellholder- and yes, it's not just the dillon, i've had it happen on both a lee turret and an old rcbs single stage as well- the other thing is with ivi you may run into some 7.62 that's been through the c6 or whatever they're calling the lmg/gpmg these days and get SHORT HEADSPACING in the case- you have no idea what gun fired it
 
I use mostly IVI brass for my M14S. I've tested a batch that lasted through 15 re-loads so far (full sized too) just to see how tough this brass is. I annealed the necks after 12 reloadings. The trick is not to re-size the brass back to minimum SAAMI specs but to about 0.002" - 0.003" less than the chamber dimension :cool:
 
t-star said:
look at all the work you've had to go through -decap, resize the body, and then resize the neck- the point is this is SUPPOSED to be a single operation performed by ONE DIE- that's probably why you've never had a failure-your body and neck sizing are 2 operations if i read your post right- it's when the button of the neck expander tries to go back through the neck that the thing gets stuck and then the rim pulls off the shellholder- and yes, it's not just the dillon, i've had it happen on both a lee turret and an old rcbs single stage as well- the other thing is with ivi you may run into some 7.62 that's been through the c6 or whatever they're calling the lmg/gpmg these days and get SHORT HEADSPACING in the case- you have no idea what gun fired it
Click to expand...

It's actually not that much work.

FWIW I only have a collet neck sizing die and a body die. I don't own a full length die for 308. So with commercial brass I still would have to go through the same process.

Also I've nver had any more resistance with IVI than with commercial. I'm using a Lee classic press which isn't exactly a powerhouse when it comes to reloading and I can resize easily with one hand. No extra effort nesessary.

Lastly The IVI brass I use came from surplus ammo that was purchased and fired through my rifle, no need to worry about who used it last.

If you are happy with your commercial brass that's cool. I myself couldn't get 5 reloads out of winchester brass, I'm on reload #7 for the IVI and it's still going strong.
 
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