.30-06 Milsurp not reloadable?

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billj888

billj888

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Lugged so much brass home from the range I thought my days of buying empties was over -until the depriming started. When full length resizing my depriming pin kept being pushed up through the pinch nut that couldn't hold it no matter how hard it was tightened. When I ran a few once-fired Win cases the primer popped right out. Didn't take long to figure out the Milsurp ones were crimped in. The few that I got out would not take a new primer even after scraping hard with a primer pocket tool. Just crushed a few primers. Does anyone take the time to get these primers out with a stronger tool then touch the right size drill to the hole to accept a primer? Too much work. My shells went out with the trash.
 
But well worth the effort if you have enough to fool with.

A standard RCBS FL sizing die will take crimped primers out.

So will your Lee die if you use two wrenches to tighten the collet with.

Reaming or swaging primer pockets ain't no big thing either.

I did it in 1962 when I started with a sharp Case pocket knife blade until I could afford something better.

rc
 
Get a Lee Universal Decapping Die and tighten that bad boy down. Decap all of your brass.

Then get a chamfer bit, I use one from a Lyman 6-in-1 hand tool. Wrap the threads in tape and chuck it in a power drill. Run the drill about 1/3 speed and hit each primer pocket just enough enough to take off the crimp. Or pony up the cash for a Dillon or RCBS swaging tool.

It sounds like you probably tossed out a bunch of perfectly good brass. I hope you put it in a recycle bucket and not in your household trash....brass is worth money.
 
Having the proper tools makes ALL the difference in the world, no matter what the job is. A Universal Decapping Die is a handy tool to have. I use mine all the time, and have removed the decapping pins from all my rifle sizing dies. A swaging die or better yet, the Dillon Super Swage 600 makes short work of crimped primer pockets.

Don
 
I use lee dies for my 30-06 reloading and the vast majority of my 30-06 brass is from CMP ammo (hxp et al) that I've fired. It's definitely more effort to deprime, but the brass is great. Crank down the lock nut at the top and it won't slip. If they're still in the trash, pull them back out. Many people will pay you for them.

Matt
 
The fact the primers were crimped tells me it was once fired 30-06 brass, something I go out of my way to find.

I agree with RC in that I have never had problems decapping the stuff using RCBS or Lee full length sizing dies. Size them, prime them and load them.

I also maintain a stash of pins for my dies so if one does break I just replace it and continue to march.
 
Just need to apply a little more pressure with a crimped primer. I have Lee, RCBS, Redding sizing dies for calibers that would have a crimp, and decapped 1000's of rounds and not one pin broke. I haven't got on the Lee Collet die band wagon, those have a solid rod that goes through. Im still old school with my dies.

As far as crimp goes, some people take their chamfer tool and chamfer the primer pocket a little and it loosens the crimp to fall out.

But 98% of the crimped pockets i have dealt with, i don't need to take the crimp out to re-prime, i just spin the case in my Lee Auto Prime, and it primes it. Both 223 and 9mm. Im just getting back into 30-06, because i need to feed a Garand.
 
You only have to remove that crimp one time, they're fine after that. Hornady sells a cutter to remove those military crimps on both large and small primered cases. Put it in a drill and it works awesome, I've done thousands of them.
 
But 98% of the crimped pockets i have dealt with, i don't need to take the crimp out to re-prime,
Click to expand...
Then you haven't dealt with the ones I have dealt with over the last 45 years.

All the problems I ever had with AR-15's were caused by smashing primers in, kicking & screaming, in crimped GI brass that I had failed to completely remove the crimps from.

If you aren't smashing primers in now, you will be sooner or later.

Ream or swage them before you run into problems with crushed & flattened primers you don't want to have!

rc
 
Personally I like to ream and as with swaging you need to pay attention, both will ruin brass if you don't. Comes down to personal choice and what your comfortable with, if you read the article that's basically what the guy says.
 
I much prefer military cases over commercial. The milsurp brass is stronger and seems to last for more reloads than commercial. As stated, remove the crimp once and it's good forever, never have to touch it again. I prefer to swage the pockets, because if you cut too much away with a reamer, the brass is no good. Swaging doesn't remove any brass, just pushes it back where it was before being crimped.
 
oneounceload said:
Guess you do not know the price of scrap brass then..........let alone that someone would have bought those from you. RCBS makes a tool for taking the crimp out as do others
Click to expand...
Hornady also makes a hand reamer for what that's worth. I have one and it works just fine.
 
Did you check to see if it was Berdan primed ? I bought some 30-06 milsurp a few years ago that came in 8 round en-bloc Garand clips but I don't remember what country it was from....
 
+1 on the Lee universal decapper for removing crimped primers from both 5.56 and 30.06 MilSurp. I have reloaded a boatload (well, maybe a dingy) of both. Occasionally it will bend or break the decapping pin but I have learned to keep a handful of extras on standby for just such an occasion. I also picked up the crimped primer pocket cutting tool for my RCBS case prep station. A quick pass over that wonderful tool yields a very receptive primer pocket and with the HXP brass, some very pretty and durable cases that will survive several reloading cycles.

I have learned to truly hate the occasional berdan primed brass that infiltrates my range finds, particularly the 5.56!:cuss:
 
Yup.
Rocky Gibbs recommended USGI brass for his extreme wildcats.
He even had preferred makers and years, maybe even lot numbers that he knew to be strong enough to be blown out and then rather overloaded. I recall NM brass was on his good list, and that without crimped primers.

He wasn't a total wacko on loads, he said the maximum load was the most that could be reloaded 10 times in his recommended brass without loosening the primer pockets.
 
Seriously, why don't people ask questions BEFORE they go and do stuff like this. Seriously, half of the hour long complaints and problems I hear from new reloaders could have been solved with a five minute conversation.
 
I go with the brass being Berdan primed.

I've had the pins move and I've broken pins but in every case it was the Berdan that was the cause. I just case prepped 1000 .223 brass and 90% were crimped but everyone deprimed without any problem except for a little more oomf on the handle.
 
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