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So as the title reads I screwed up my first batch of 30 06 brass a few days ago and thought I would share. Sorry for the long post I will break it up in a few different posts.
So far this has been by first bonehead move in reloading but I'm sure it's not going to be the last. I would like to share so hopefully I get some suggestions and also so others don't make the same mistake I did ruining 100 30 06 cases.
This was my first batch of reloads for my newly re barreled Garand, I was kind of in a pinch for time because I wanted to shoot a Garand match the following day so I put the process in a fast pace yet still pretty meticulous about my reloading as always.
I started out with 100 Winchester once fired brass cases. They were supposed to be tumbled, re sized and trimmed but I decided I needed to do it just in case.
I hit them down with some Lyman's quick spray and ran them through the resizing die. Next I tumbled again to remove the lube. After tumbling I trimmed, chamfer, and deburred all the cases.
This is where things go south. I've read as much as possible on the Internet about the reloading for the Garand, not really about charges and bullets I have plenty of reloading books for that but what had me concerned was the primer seating depth.
I have looked for a hard military type primer locally but the only large rifle primer available was Winchester's WLRM's which I have read are not near as hard as they use to be not to mention a magnum primer. The solution to my problem from what I've read on the Internet and from a few local people was to back down the load and to seat the primer .002 deep.
OK on to preparing the cases. At the new local reloading supply store, http://reloaderssupply.net/ I picked up a smartreloader's case prep tool that contained both large and small reamers, primer pocket uniformers, chamfer tool, and case neck brushes.
Before I had been using my Lee chamfer tool to remove the military crimp and the Lee primer pocket cleaner for my .223 reloads with Lake City brass. While the Lee worked it did not really set the primers very deep and some where still hard to seat resulting in a primer that was flush with the case.
So, since I was in a bit of a hurry wanting to develop a load and also test and zero at 200 yds before dark, I chucked the reamer up in my drill and went to town. The way the reamer is shaped it looked impossible to ream too much so I just gave every case a good trigger pull on the drill holding the case in my hand. The brass didn't have a military crimp but in my inexperienced eyes they looked great, a nice and deep 45 degree cut. I then chucked the primer pocket uniformer in the drill and proceeded to hit all 100 cases in the same manner.
Wow I thought the brass looked great, polished, trimmed, deburred, and the primer pockets all looked perfectly uniformed. I loaded up the primer tool, filled the measure with some IMR 4064 ready to drop 44grs, got my box of Hornady 168gr Match bthp's ready to go and proceeded to load the first round.
So far this has been by first bonehead move in reloading but I'm sure it's not going to be the last. I would like to share so hopefully I get some suggestions and also so others don't make the same mistake I did ruining 100 30 06 cases.
This was my first batch of reloads for my newly re barreled Garand, I was kind of in a pinch for time because I wanted to shoot a Garand match the following day so I put the process in a fast pace yet still pretty meticulous about my reloading as always.
I started out with 100 Winchester once fired brass cases. They were supposed to be tumbled, re sized and trimmed but I decided I needed to do it just in case.
I hit them down with some Lyman's quick spray and ran them through the resizing die. Next I tumbled again to remove the lube. After tumbling I trimmed, chamfer, and deburred all the cases.
This is where things go south. I've read as much as possible on the Internet about the reloading for the Garand, not really about charges and bullets I have plenty of reloading books for that but what had me concerned was the primer seating depth.
I have looked for a hard military type primer locally but the only large rifle primer available was Winchester's WLRM's which I have read are not near as hard as they use to be not to mention a magnum primer. The solution to my problem from what I've read on the Internet and from a few local people was to back down the load and to seat the primer .002 deep.
OK on to preparing the cases. At the new local reloading supply store, http://reloaderssupply.net/ I picked up a smartreloader's case prep tool that contained both large and small reamers, primer pocket uniformers, chamfer tool, and case neck brushes.
Before I had been using my Lee chamfer tool to remove the military crimp and the Lee primer pocket cleaner for my .223 reloads with Lake City brass. While the Lee worked it did not really set the primers very deep and some where still hard to seat resulting in a primer that was flush with the case.
So, since I was in a bit of a hurry wanting to develop a load and also test and zero at 200 yds before dark, I chucked the reamer up in my drill and went to town. The way the reamer is shaped it looked impossible to ream too much so I just gave every case a good trigger pull on the drill holding the case in my hand. The brass didn't have a military crimp but in my inexperienced eyes they looked great, a nice and deep 45 degree cut. I then chucked the primer pocket uniformer in the drill and proceeded to hit all 100 cases in the same manner.
Wow I thought the brass looked great, polished, trimmed, deburred, and the primer pockets all looked perfectly uniformed. I loaded up the primer tool, filled the measure with some IMR 4064 ready to drop 44grs, got my box of Hornady 168gr Match bthp's ready to go and proceeded to load the first round.