[Master Blaster]

Hi all Im thinking about buying 500 pieces of .308 brass from midway that they advertise as once fired stuff for $35 thats already tumbled and decapped.

Has anyone ever bought any?

How is the condition, the ad says fired from a full auto.
Is it dented? Do the primer pockets need to be swaged(crimp?)?

Will a full length resize die work for these or do I really need a small base die?

I buy new for benchrest shooting in a bolt gun, but these seem like the ticket for my .308 Saiga, (which dents my good brass).

Thanks

[FireInTheHole]

"Fired from a FA" fishy.

Probably fired from a MACHINEGUN, supposedly they are really hard on the brass, requiring alot of trimming, sizing, etc.

Might be worth your while to just buy some cheap reloadable surplus and use the cases (assuming you can find they after shooting!).

I've been doing this with some indian ammo I picked up. Gonna Use the brass up then follow another poster's advice and buy some once fired LC match.


EDIT:
Check out this (http://www.iidbs.com/hitech) link for some decent unfired military brass for $35/500.......

[Nero Steptoe]

Last I heard, Midway bought their brass from Scharch's. You can buy directly from Scharch's and probably get a better deal than you can from Midway. Scharch's offers .308 brass that's been "100% processed". It's been cleaned, decrimped, roll-sized and trimmed. Scharch's prices include shipping.

[Big_R]

I've loaded a bunch and found it only necessary to use small base dies for my Savage '99. Ironically, my dad's remington 7400 likes it just fine through the regular dies.

I've never had any problems with dents, cracks, etc. When loading military cases, keep in mind the case web is usually a bit thicker, which will result in higher pressure than commercial cases when loaded with equal charges.

You can usually get once fired commercial cases from brassman are pretty competitive. http://www.brassmanbrass.com/inventory-001-1.html

Ryan

[Adventurer_96]

You can also try www.gibrass.com for some processed brass. I bought some LC91 Special Ball stuff a few months ago, and it's absolutely excellent.

I'm guessing that the primer pockets are crimped, but that's just based upon the fact that it's normal military brass.

[Master Blaster]

Well I rec'd my box of brass from Midway and my small base dies.

I will be sending it back, I found it damn near impossible to resize this brass. I used the small base resize die and lubed the cases very well.

I have my rock chucker bolted to my bench with 3.5" lag screws, was was able to rip 3 threads of the lag screw out of the bench top resizing three cases.

I was afraid that I would break the pins in my rock chucker.

This brass looks nice and is all LC brass, but its impossible to resize.

I will be trying the resized schrach's brass next.

Pass on this brass. Its worthless (at least the box I rec'd was)

[goon]

I would look for some once fired LC.
I got some for free from a gunshop I go to alot.
It was pretty hard to resize compared to commercial brass, but it did come out OK.

[Grump]

I had terrific results and accuracy out of my batch, so I trimmed them and deburred the flash holes after the first firing (or wazzit before first load?). Decrimping was not much of a bother. Sorted the middle =/- 1 standard deviation (for weight) for match-equivalent brass and shot 168s out of it, with perfect 2 inch 5-round groups at 200 yards using iron sights and the NRA load of 43.0 grains of WW748 (but using CCI primers instead of WW).

On the fifth loading, I started getting case separations 1/2-inch or 5/8 or so up the brass--they were breaking on extraction, and STILL ejected the front cylinders. Plenty of brass sidewalls for chamber sealing.

Turns out my dies were sizing to minimum .308 case dimensions and my chamber is at mid-range NATO specs. Do the math on .015 inch headspace and you'll see why they pulled apart after four prior firings.:(

IME, small-base dies are not needed to feed semiauto .308s. I've never even personally KNOWN anyone who needed them.

[Adventurer_96]

When I started reloading .308 for my M-14, I was having trouble with getting rounds to eject due to the brass being improperly resized, especially on hot days. I tracked it down to not resizing all of the case. The dies weren't screwed down far enough apparently, and they were older RCBS dies. New Hornady dies adjusted properly fixed the problem.

Additionally, when I was resizing the brass, it required a lot of force, much like what was described in this thread. Then, I switched to Dillon's spray-on case lube, and now the same batch of brass resizes easily with one hand. I could probably load it in a progressive. Give it a shot, it worked much better than the RCBS spray-on lubricant.

[Nero Steptoe]

"I will be sending it back, I found it damn near impossible to resize this brass. I used the small base resize die and lubed the cases very well.

I have my rock chucker bolted to my bench with 3.5" lag screws, was was able to rip 3 threads of the lag screw out of the bench top resizing three cases.

I was afraid that I would break the pins in my rock chucker.

This brass looks nice and is all LC brass, but its impossible to resize.

I will be trying the resized schrach's brass next.

Pass on this brass. Its worthless (at least the box I rec'd was)"

HMMMM. Did you try resizing the brass with regular, rather than small base dies? More than likely, the problem is your choice of dies and not the brass. Small base dies work brass unnecessarily and are rarely needed.

[1badmagnum]

I have the small base dies and the brass from midway.
I have absolutely no problems although all the brass was trimmed prior to sizing.
the brass is not uniform since its once fired,I would double check your die settings and use more lubricant.

[Master Blaster]

Then, I switched to Dillon's spray-on case lube

Thats what I used.

After I had problems with the small base die that Midways CS insisted that I needed to resize the brass I tried first neck sizing the brass with a redding neck size die, followed by a redding full length resize die.

I had quite a time getting the case out of my FL die as well, I could not get the last 1/2" of the brass to go into the die, the threads of the lag screws began to rip out of my bench again (I retightened them after the first time).

I dont doubt the experiences of other folks here who had no problem.

My guess is that it is the luck of the draw, one box may be fine, the next useless. It depends what Machine gun the brass you rec'd is fired from.
Maybe the chamber was looser or the headspace going on the MG that fired my brass.

In any event $30 down the drain.

Order from Schrachs, their brass is resized for the same price with shipping.

[Grump]

PM me if you'd like me to test 5-10 rounds in my die/press combination. If Midway won't let you send it back, I *may* take it.

IMNSHO, however, Midway should take it back, with the sized ones you have, and give you full credit towards other merchandise. Credit you the shipping back, too.

Tell them I said so. Maybe they'll listen.;)

[Adventurer_96]

I neglected to mention that the brass I'm using is GI Match brass, presumably fired out of a tuned M-14. Understandably, the brass is most likely going to be easier to resize than the stuff that may have been fired in a MG.

What brand dies are you using? I'm considering ordering the RCBS X dies to reduce the need for trimming on my brass.

Also, do you have a link for Schrach's?

Good luck.

[Master Blaster]

Thanks for all of your replys, and suggestions.

My last range outing I had fired abot 10 commercial cases out of my SAIGA, which has a somewhat looser chamber than my bolt gun, I tried the small base dies on these cases, and I had no problem resizing them.

The MG stuff Midway is selling must be really out of spec, that makes me wonder how many safe loadings I could get out of these cases if I could resize them.

Like I said I think ist the luck of the draw. One box may be fine and the next box useless.

I am returning the cases to midway, and of course I lose out on the shipping and a 15% restocking fee.

Here is a link for 100% processed resized brass.
With shipping its about the same price as Midways un sized brass.

http://www.scharch.com/

[LAH]

We have a bit for sale. 10.00 per 100. It's been cleaned. Money back if not happy.

[Clark]

I got 1000 pieces of processed 308, 223, 40sw, 10mm, and 45acp from Scharch.

I am VERY happy with the quality.
With the free shipping, I don't have to think:)

[Adventurer_96]

Thanks for the link.

I may look into Scharch's in the future as the price is right, but I'd end up resizing the cases anyway before using them. :rolleyes: The stuff from gibrass.com is excellent, I won't be using it for quite a while though as I've got a bunch of LC Match stuff to use up first.

What rifle are you firing them out of, by the way?

[larryw]

Regarding the, I presume Forster NM, small base dies and military brass. The problem you encountered is probably due to the expander ball being too big. Remember, military brass is much thicker, even at the mouth. I wound up chucking the expander in a drill and using emery cloth to turn it down so it would lightly touch the mouth without overworking the brass. ;)

[Master Blaster]

Thanks for the suggestion but neck sizing was not a problem on this brass, the expander ball has nothing to do with the fact that the case head was expanded so far from firing that it could not be resized by me, even with the regular full length dies.

Luck of the draw one box may be fine and the next fired in a mg thats due for a rebarrel.

[Swamprabbit]

I've gone through about 1k rounds of the stuff from Midway. Yes, some of the brass must have been shot in a machine gun because some go through the SB die harder than others. I use a good dosing of Hornady spray lube and get through it fairly easily. When I reload them the second time, they don't give hardly any trouble after being fired in my SAR-48.

The brass I got is mostly US stuff with headstamps from 67, or so, to about 80. I use it for hardball loadings so I don't bother with sorting. All in all, I think it is a pretty good deal. I like getting it from Midway since my orders from them arrive the next day via standard UPS ground and shipping is very reasonable.

[Master Blaster]

I love it I must be lying.

Soon someone will tell me that their brass didn't even need to be resized and it fit fine into their match chambered gun.

ALL of you are correct I'm sure.

The reason I first posted this was to see if anyone had bad experiences with the Midway brass, one person did (another thread). I ordered some thinking that Midway only sells good stuff, which is my experience with them till now.

I am now letting people know that some of this brass may not be usable.

Some may get lucky and get a good box.

Be smart ORDER from SCHARCHs and ALWAYS GET USABLE BRASS.

[larryw]

MB, next time you encounter a piece of brass like that, try sizing it with the expander ball removed; I think you'll understand then. ;)

[Master Blaster]

I rec'd brass fr scharchs.

It was as described, 39.95 delivered to my door (includes shipping) 500 pieces of Lake city once fired, resized to SAAMI spec, crimped primer pocked swaged, polished, and trimmed.

Headstamps LC 91 to 00.

Heck I could even use the small base die to resize it again, no problem.

I loaded and fired 20 rounds of it, I full length resized it.

I didn't even have to remove the expander ball.

By the way the point at which the midway junk stuck in the die is the last 1/3" of the bottom of the case, at that point the expander ball is not touching anything

Skip the Midway GARBAGE, I sent it back for a refund.