Shot First Batch Today - Question on Imperial

Magnum_Tom

Magnum_Tom

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My son and went to the range today and each got to shoot our first batches of reloads. 8x57mm for him out of his M96 Husky, and me out of my 308 Rem 760. It was a very satisfying feeling shooting our own ammo. Unfortunately, the sun went down and we didn't get to shoot all that we wanted. Oh well...next Sunday will be a full day at the range!

I have a question on Imperial brass though. I'd been saving my brass and brass I'd find in my calibers at the pit or range for many years now, knowing that one day I'd be getting into reloading. In the batch I fired today, there was 10 rounds of Imperial. I remember when I FL sized the cartridges they were tough. Then today every single one of them chambered with difficulty and all were very difficult to extract. I measured them and compared them to my Win brass and nothing jumped out at me. This Imperial brass may have been sitting on the ground for years before I picked it up at a pit. Is it possible it just needs to be annealed or is this brass done?

TIA!

Tom
 
Yes it may need to be annealed, that being said i get leary of brass i find laying about. I have found the later imperial brass very brittle and hard, early imperial or dominion was very good brass. If it chambers hard after being FL sizied I`d toss it but that is just me. You have no way of knowing what it was fired in. You may also have to invest in a small base die for the Rem 760.
 
The problem can be that the brass was fired in rifle with a large chamber - eg 7.62 milsurp. The base of the case is expanded, and very difficult to resize, depending upon the brass. The 760 has relatively little camming action, so cases that seal tight in the chamber dont extract easily.
As you get farther into reloading you'll start to be a bit more picky about brass. Rather than using range pickups, you'll likely go to one brand, and start new. You'll figure out why soon enough...
 
If you have access to a set of small base dies, try sizing the cases in them and test fit the case before loading. If, as mentioned, they were fired in a sloppy chamber the small base dies will get them back to spec.
 
Thanks for the info gents.

I just tried cycling all the Imperial brass. At this point all of yesterday's brass had been FL sized and decapped, and the rifle was cleaned. Everything cycled without problems. At this point I'm thinking the problem might have been with the chamber. Like I said in my OP, the sizing was within spec. But I'm going to keep my eyes open for a small base sizing die as this isn't the first time it's been mentioned for this cartridge. I'm going to reload the Imperial one more time and give it another try before tossing it.

Cheers,

Tom
 
The small base dies arew not because of the cartridge, but rather because of the action type. Some semies, levers and pumps need small base dies due to having less caming force to extract the fired case. I had a 30 -06 pump that needed small base dies to be reliable. As with everything in reloading it depends. lol
 
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