Question on new brass for 30-06

[Heavies]

I just got a bunch of never fired LC 68 match brass for 30-06. I have previously run ww and rp cases. My normal load is 59.4 grains of rl-22 in the winchester cases and 58.8 in the Remington, under a 208 amax and pmc lr primer. No pressure signs at all. The lake city runs in wieght right between the rp and ww. My question is how much should I drop my load to be safe in the LC case to be safe? The internal volume seems much smaller than the RP's even tho they are a little lighter.
Sorry for the dumb question but thanks for any input.
B

 

[NCsmitty]

Try measuring a case full of water in each brand to see what the true differences show.
Quite often the milspec brass has a slightly smaller capacity compared to commercial brass. Drop your charge by at least the percentage indicated, if it is actually smaller in capacity.



NCsmitty

 

[Heavies]

Sounds like I'll try that.
Do you think because of the small volume I will get similar velocity with the lower powder charge?
I realize that unfired will be slightly smaller than fireformed. After once fired I'll work back up to my target velocity.

 

[Randy1911]

Most military brass has thicker walls and web. That what the military likes. I would start over with the "working up" of the load if it were me.

 

[W.E.G.]

Unless you are shooting distances of at least 500 yards, whatever difference in velocity there may be will be inconsequential as to performance.

When switching to military brass, drop the charge a couple grains, and work up.

 

[Heavies]

Thank you all for the advice. I loaded slightly lower and will work back up and look for
pressure and velocity. Hopefully it'll be more accurate and consistant than my other brass.

 

[USSR]

Because 7.62x51 military brass is heavier than .308 commercial brass and requires reduced charge weights, many people assume that the .30-06 does as well. In most cases it does not. I use the same exact load with LC Match brass as I do Lapua brass, and get the same velocity. Winchester brass is lighter than most other brands, and if you have a load developed using that brass, then I would reduce the load when using a different brass. Good to see another shooter using RL22 to propel heavy bullets out of the '06. I shoot a lot of 190SMK's using 60.8gr of RL22 out of LC Match or Lapua brass.

Don

 

[Heavies]

I got back from the range Saturday and fireformed my wieght sorted lot of lc 68 cases. I wish I would have read the post by USSR before loading. I found that the few cases I loaded using my low end Remington brass load performed just find, no pressure signs to speak of. (this is using RL-22 faster powders may have a different result)

I would like to mention that I had assumed that since these cases had never been fired that the necks would be allright, but I ended up having to discard about five cases due to neck cracks.
Next time with my other lot that needs to be fireformed I will anneal necks first.
All in all I was very happy with the performace of this brass.
Thanks for all your input
B

 

[Heavies]

I got back from the range Saturday and fireformed my wieght sorted lot of lc 68 cases. I wish I would have read the post by USSR before loading. I found that the few cases I loaded using my low end Remington brass load performed just find, no pressure signs to speak of. (this is using RL-22 faster powders may have a different result)

I would like to mention that I had assumed that since these cases had never been fired that the necks would be allright, but I ended up having to discard about five cases due to neck cracks.
Next time with my other lot that needs to be fireformed I will anneal necks first.
All in all I was very happy with the performace of this brass.
Thanks for all your input
B

 

[Heavies]

Update on fireforming.
Sunday I went to the range again to continue fireforming my
other lot of LC 68 Match brass. Upped the charge a little to 59.1 grains of
RL-22 powder. This time I annealed the necks before the initial
firing. I encountered no cracked necks this time around. No overpressure indications.
Just a few fliers, but I expected that due to some of the cases being dinged up some.
I did have something unusual happed tho. I loaded up some of my
previously fireformed lot with 54.1 and 54.4 grains of rl-22 and the 208 amax.
Both loads performed great, however, some of the primers seemed excessively flattened.
I never encountered pressure at these loads before. What really made it wierd
was that the unformed brass with the same load(59.1) showed no flat primers at all.
Any thoughts on this?