mixed brass

[fromtheplaines]

I will hopefully start reloading soon in 8x56r. I started off with the hornandy with buying the straight ammo, I am not currently able to find ammo. I am thinking of going to a new ammo. When it comes time to reloading will the mixed brands be an issue?

 

[jwrowland77]

Well, when it comes to rifle ammo, you really want/need to separate your headstamps. The reason for this is because different headstamps have different internal capacity. If you do a load in one headstamp and you go to do that load say in a headstamp that has a smaller internal capacity, you could be over pressure and that's a bad thing.

 

[witchhunter]

JW nailed it. Mixed brass is doable in pistol plinking loads but not in rifle.

 

[mstreddy]

But, you can separate your brass by headstamp and develop loads for them.
As always start low and work up.

 

[Havok7416]

If max-power loads aren't an issue you MAY also be able to work up a load to a slightly lower level that would then be usable for all brass.

 

[BluewaterLa]

Agreed with havoc.. I use multiple head stamps with the same load on the mid-low end of powder charge with no issues. I still separate and prep brass by stamp but have found through my work up that I'm safe with the head stamps I use for heating up the barrel
Work up a load and when you like it work it up with another head stamp and check for pressure signs, none.. Well load em up and enjoy

 

[matworz]

8x56R? Are you shooting out of an M95? What powder? I load 8x50R for my M95 and if you're like most of us MilSurp guys, you won't be loading these heavy. I use IMR4895 in my 8x50's and I keep em pretty light. I have 3 or 4 different brands of brass. I use 7.62x54R to make my 8x50's. I've used a few different brands, never noticed a difference between them. I don't worry much about accuracy or power with this old M95. Minute of paper plate is good enough for me. Are you on the Yesterday's Weapons forum? Lots of guys there the reload for 8x56R.

 

[gamestalker]

I've had some interesting results when using mixed head stamps in bottle necks, not necessarily good either. As a matter of fact, this last hunting season I was unexpectedly hard pressed for time to get some loads together, and I had a little bit of this and that already prepped and ready to charge and seat. So I used a few of the Hornady with that established load I developed with several other different head stamps, each separately, and it wasn't pushing the envelope either. But when I loaded the Hornady head stamp that I only had a few of, that hadn't been developed with that load, pressures went through the roof.

So I would certainly try to work with one head stamp per development if possible.

GS

 

[Swampman]

@ fromtheplaines
I'm not positive about this, but my understanding is that all of the currently manufactured Boxer primed 8x56R brass is produced by Prvi Partizan. This includes Hornady, Graf's, Buffalo Arms and of course Prvi Partizan.

I doubt that you'll find much difference in case capacity, but its simple enough to check.

Remove the decapping pin from your sizing die, then size and trim your once fired cases.
Now fill the cases with an appropriate substance (some folks use water, I prefer Alliant Bullseye powder), then dump and weigh the amounts from each case. Obviously, the more of each headstamp case you weigh, the better the resulting data will be.

If the weights are pretty much the same, capacity of your cases is the same as well.
If the weights vary from brand to brand, you'll get an idea of how each type should be loaded.
Either way you'll know more than you did before you checked.