[xtarheel]

I just ordered from the CMP a bunch of LC .30-06 rounds (940 rounds I believe). How do these compare to commercial brass for reloading? Also, am I to assume these will have crimped in primers? What is the best way to remove these crimps if present? I've been reolading since just after Benjamin Frankiln discovered electricity, but have always delt with commercial brass.

[Art Eatman]

I imagine Brownell's is the easiest source for the special punch to tap out the fired primers and not break the pin of your decapping die.

There is also a little tool to ream out the pressed rim of the military crimp, although I've done it via careful use of a pocket knife. Same sort of tool vs. pocket knife for reaming the case mouths. :)

GI brass is thicker-walled than commercial; it holds roughly three grains less weight of powder. You can't use book maximum loads.

In my early days of reloading, all I had was GI brass, and I found that it worked just fine. I've never been able to tell the difference from commercial brass, as far as Bambi is concerned...

Art

[Bullet]

If you have trouble removing fired primers you might try these –

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=REDIWI&item=WPX&type=store

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=REDIWI&item=WBX&type=store

To remove the crimp try these –

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=RECTACWI&item=WR210&type=store

http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=15&min=0&dyn=1&

I have used the Wilson tool since I already have the Wilson case trimmer. It works good but is slow.

I have not used the Dillon swage but many people seem to like it.

[Grumulkin]

I think the military brass is quite good as long as you do some quality control on it. I've found that at least half of them have eccentric primer pockets which can't help accuracy so I discard those.

I've always used standard dies and decapping pins when depriming military brass (I have bent a pin or two replaced free by RCBS). I use a primer pocket uniformer to take out the military crimp; usually that's enough but I usually in addition use the pointed end of a case neck chamfer tool to further take out the crimp.

[USSR]

xtarheel,

Other than having to remove the crimp, they are no different than the brass you are used to. The very best system for removing the crimp is the Dillon Super Swage 600. While military .308 brass has thicker walls than commercial .308 brass, I have not found this to be the case with the .30-06. Case necks seem to have a .0012 - .0014" thickness, and case capacity is similar to my Lapua brass. One thing you should be aware of, however, is that case weights (and hence case capacity) from one case to another varies much more than it does with commercial brass. If you are looking for really accurate loads, it pays to sort the brass by weight.

Don

[ball3006]

removing crimped primers in military brass. And, I have done many thousands. I use a RCBS primer pocket swedging tool and a chamfer tool. There might be better tools out there but it is what I have. I don't load for velocity but for accuracy. Never get close to the max side of the chart....chris3

[BluesBear]

I think the Dillon swage machine is the best out there.
It's the fastest.

The RCBS version works well also but is a little slower.

The main advantage to swage instead of ream is that all of your primer pockets will be uniform. I have seen overzealous loaders oval or enlarge primer pockets to what I consider to be dangerous specs.

[taliv]

a dillon machine is the fastest, but not THAT dillon :)
the swage built into the 1050 press is almost effortless

swaging military brass is the reason i chose the 1050 over the 650

[P-32]

Back in the 80's I broke a de-capping pin on some war time GI brass with an off center hole. I have not had the problem since. (buy a spare pin and it won't get broke)

The brass coming from the CMP right now is good brass. Uniforming the primer pockets after swaging will help let them shoot tighter groups.

Best swage out there is the Dillon Super Swage, but I also have the RCBS swage as well.