Reloading .308 and headspace

geetus

geetus

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I am getting into the reloading game shortly. Slowly piecing together my kit and doing lots of reading. One thing that has me puzzled though is using once fired brass from two different guns.

I have a sps tactical in .308 and my friend whom I regulary shoot with, has a Norc M14. I have inadvertanly picked up some of his brass and mixed it with mine. What I want to know is how do I go about determinining which brass is from which gun. I understand how headspacing works for .308, and I have read about being able to determine headspace from measuring a fired rimless cartridge.

Will the full length resizing dies be able to return the cases to their factory size? Will they need trimming? Could I turn around and shoot the reloaded ammo in both guns?

I will be getting my own M14 soon (hopefully it arrives this year) and will also be reolading for that as well. The brass I have is a mixture of Fed, Win and, S&B and there is a few hundred cases so I don't want to writ them off.

All out accuracy will not be top priority at first but cost saving will, as living in northern Canada ammo gets a bit pricey.

Cheers
 
Full length sizing (and check case length) should allow the ammunition to be used in either rifle.
Now, M-14s can be much more generous with headspace than your SPS is likely to be. It might be a good idea to keep the cases separated, and size them for best results in the rifle in which they will be used.
The M-14s will certainly work the brass harder than the Remington.
 
RCBS makes a micrometer gauge that allows you to measure headspace from a fired case. You can use this if you want to segregate your brass.

One thing to watch with M14s is that many of them tend to have excessive headspace by SAAMI standards. If you have one with headspace more than .010" over GO, the best practice is to neck size dedicated brass for that rifle in order to prevent overworking the brass.

FL resizing will generally allow interchangeability between rifles. Trim cases when they exceed the maximum OAL.
 
I'd keep them separate. Your Remingotn will treat the brass nicer and it only requires Neck sizing with the occasional FL sizing to bump back the shoulder. Brass will last much longer and shoot straighter.
The M14 brass, being used in a semi will ALWAYS need to be FL resized in order to prevent feed stoppages. This, combined with an over-generous chamber will work the brass much harder, causing it to fail more quickly. L
Welcome to the little world of re-loading. It is grat fun and you will learn much. Take everything you find here in this forum into consideration. Some will be excellent info, others will be not so. APPLY COMMON SENSE!! and you will be fine.
 
Great bit of advice. Thanks guys. I think I will pick up one of those RCBS mics, but in the future I will definately be paying more attention to keeping my brass seperate.

I still will go through a bunch more factory ammo before I am setup for reloading so I can start seperating it now.

Cheers, Ryan.
 
You can try chambering the spent brass in your Remington (before resizing). The ones fired in that rifle should chamber easily. The ones fired in the M14 may chamber with more difficulty or not chamber at all, due to the more generous chamber that the M14 is likely to have.

If this turns out to be the case, you have an easy way to sort the brass without having to spend any $. I too would try to keep them seperate from now on.

Once you've distinguished between a few, you may be able to tell the difference from distinctive marks on the case rim or the firing pin mark. This would be much easier than having to chamber them all.
 
I'd use one brand of brass for one gun and another make of brass for the other, don't deviate, you'll have more consistency(accuracy), and can tell them apart easily. One make, you will have to prolly full length resize, the other neck size only. The 2 guns may prefer entirely different loads as well.IMHO
 
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