Igman brass suitability for reloading

tokguy

tokguy

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
93   0   0
Location
Buffalo Republic
If anyone has any feedback on the suitability of Igman brass for reloading I'd appreciate the advice.
In sorting out my brass bucket it appears that I have a double handfull of Igman 303 br rounds. They were fed through LE but are destined for a M-H or a Ross ( stamped E for enlarged chamber ).
I've no shortage of 303 brass, and yes I keep the M-H brass seperate from the Ross.
Strangely the M-H (which has a Parker-Hale BBL) has the larger chamber.
I'd had thought the 'E' stamped Ross would have had more generous chamber dimensions.
But , I digress...if the Igman should be thrown out it's not a huge deal; still brass is brass right? If it's good reload it, correct?
 
I have some and I believe I reloaded it. I remember it either being harder to size or prime but it still worked fine. Inspect as usual and load would be my call.
 
Nothing wrong with the Igman brass.
I have a bunch in 8x57JS that is on it's 4th reloading.
It has been issue-free.
I believe the PPU [Privi Partisan] brass is even better, though.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
Some igman brass has undersize flashholes, will break your decapping pin. Use an undersize pin, drill the flashhole larger, and deal with crimped primer pocket as required. Is it worth it? Check for abnormality before scrapping.
 
I have used Igman 303 brass for reloading and after 2 or 3 reloads I was getting marks around the primers where gass was blowing back around the primers. I then decided not to use any Igman brass again, for the cost of brass it was not worth it.
 
I definitely do not recommend using Igman brass for loading Barnes bullets...

I resized a mix of Remington, Winchester, Federal and Igman 30-06 brass I had, and loaded with some 150 grain Barnes TSX...

All the Igman brass had bulges in the necks from the Barnes, but no problems whatsoever with the other brands... I assume it's thinner walled brass?
 
glycerin said:
Some igman brass has undersize flashholes, will break your decapping pin. Use an undersize pin, drill the flashhole larger, and deal with crimped primer pocket as required. Is it worth it? Check for abnormality before scrapping.
Click to expand...

I ran into that issue with some once fired 6.5x55 IGMAN. I researched everywhere I could and found some people had no issues some had lots. Well, I had a BIG issue with mine. After talking to people on other forums and spending alot of time trying to figure out what the hell was going on. As it turned out some not all Igman brass were produced with an extra small primer flash hole. Broke two pins myself. What I ended up doing was buying the cheapest Lee dies I could find(in green box), slowly sanded down the decapping pin till it fit loosely in the flash hole, and then deprimed all the brass. After that I drilled ot the flash hole to match normal boxer diamentions and then cleaned up the primer pocket which all seemed to be slightly different in size and deburred the flash hole after I drilled it out. Lots of work but I saved over two hundred casings so it was worth it to me. After that mess, they reload great multiple times without issue.
 
From my limited loading of Igman brass, I have found the following with the 6.5 Swede stuff:
- small primer holes (mentioned before)
- thicker brass -> harder to resize and decreased case capicity

Have some 303 stuff, but haven't shot it yet.

(E) :cool:
 
Thanks guys.
I think the Igman will get ####canned, at very best put on the shelf to tarnish.
Life's too short to #### with sketchy brass unless it's a last resort
 
Thing is - the blown out shoulder on the Ross chamber is difficult to reload for - at least for partial resizing, as the shoulder gets worked excessively. Might be worth using this brass on the basis that it is consumable...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom