Last week I found 10 discarded .30-40 Krag rounds at the range. Appeared once fired. Sized them yesterday, am reloading today. Randomly checked OAL on 4 rounds and okay. Apparently one of the remaining 6 rounds was shorter for unknown reasons. It is photographed next to a normal round. As was discarded brass, was presumably fired in shorter configuration. Okay to fire and discard or should I pull the bullet?
Shorter case--okay to fire round and discard?
- Thread starter orpington
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243winxb
Member
Shoot. Lots of neck left . SAAMI minimum is 2.294" brass trim length.
OAL should be fine also.
OAL should be fine also.
FROGO207
Member
As long as there is enough of the neck left to securely hold the bullet in there should be no problem reusing the brass until it fails. I would not attempt to crimp the neck though as the cannalure would not be where the crimp would be. Extra bullet showing is not a problem as long as the OAL is the same as other rounds. The rule I was taught is if there is at least one caliber of neck length to provide tension/hold on the bullet then it will work OK.
Wis-Harpo
Member
The only problem would be if you shot a lot of short rounds, and then went to the standard length there may be a little pressure increase due to a build up of a burnt powder ring in your chamber. Kind of like shooting .22 cal. shorts and then going to Long Rifles, only the pressures in a center fire would be greater.
Good to know. I tend to stick to published data, quantified values, etc. So this is something varying from the norm and not something I would normally do.
I am happy to report the round was fired earlier today, the rifle and I are still in one piece, and there was no variation in accuracy between this shorter round and the rest of them.
FROGO207
Member
Told Ya. 
I once got a pile of Hornaday 45-70 brass that the owner would not reload as it was trimmed for their LVR bullets and he was afraid of using it even after I showed him it could be reloaded safely but a bit shorter due to the need to crimp the bullet.
I once got a pile of Hornaday 45-70 brass that the owner would not reload as it was trimmed for their LVR bullets and he was afraid of using it even after I showed him it could be reloaded safely but a bit shorter due to the need to crimp the bullet. redbullitt
Member
Just like the short hornady stuff and a 38 and 44 specials in their magnum counterparts.
As long as neck tension is okay and everything else is alright you should not have any issues at all. I see alot of those using mixed 308 brass.
As long as neck tension is okay and everything else is alright you should not have any issues at all. I see alot of those using mixed 308 brass.
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