Win 30-06 brass quality report

[jr_roosa]

I just picked up 200 pieces of new Winchester .30-06 brass from PV.

I've read awful things about their quality lately, so I was worried.

I weighed the bunch to sort, and this was before any prep was done.

~100 weighed between 185.5 and 186.5
~80 weighed between 186.5 and 187.5
~20 weighed between 187.5 and 188.5

So, fresh out of the bag there is a 3 grain spread.

They all look good, and I'm going to do prep work today, so we'll see how they go. There is the usual number of cases with neck dents and whatnot. I checked the shoulders, and they are around SAAMI minimum with a range of maybe .003 or so from a non-scientific sample of a few cases. Case length was at around trim length plus a couple thou. Flash holes look OK.

This is much better than I was expecting from previous posts.

We'll see how it shoots.

-J.

 

[Dthunter]

I recently purchased 300 winchester bulk, 280 Remington "Nickle Plated" brass.

I fully prepped the cases and sorted them out by wieghts as well. The weight varience was about the same.

The part that annoys me is nearly all of the cases are improperly formed as to shoulder position. The head clearance was bad enough to create an incipient case head seperation ring on the first firing!

So I double checked my rifles headspace by using my Go,No-Go guages. Tolerances were great! Actually on the tight side.

So now I did the following to eliminate any case head clearance and create a perfectly fire formed case. This is done by creating a false shoulder on a portion of the case neck. This proceedure I use is as follows:

First you need to expand the neck of a case to a diameter that is too big for the chamber to allow you to chamber it. In this situation, I sized the cases to .308 cal.

Then, by using your "full length die", start sizing just enough to "resise" 1/2 the neck length. Then try to chamber the empty case. It probably wont fit because the unsized portion of the neck is still interfering with the closure of the bolt.

Be sure your locking lugs have a "little" lubrication added here. The lubrication will help you get a better "feel" for the slight crush fit.

Continue to adjust the die down in small steps. Between each die asjustment, try chambering The case. As soon as the case can be chambered with "some resistance, not really tight" when lowering the bolt handle, stop there.

At this point the die is set properly. This allows the part of the neck of the "partially sized" case to support the front of the case and ensure the case head is firmly against the bolt face when the bolt is closed.

I hope This explaination is clear enough.

Quality control seems to be a little poor of late! Normally Winchester brass is one of my favorites!

 

[Dthunter]

Just a note: after the cases have been fire formed, resize the fired cases as you would normally do

 

[jr_roosa]

The part that annoys me is nearly all of the cases are improperly formed as to shoulder position. The head clearance was bad enough to create an incipient case head seperation ring on the first firing!

Yeah, these are mostly in spec, but right at the SAAMI minimum. Maybe 25% are about 0.005" shorter. These are about 0.005" to 0.010" shorter than my CMP Garand chambers, and 0.015" to even 0.020" shorter than new HXP rounds, which run way long.

My current chamber is right at SAAMI minimum so at most I'm 0.005" short, which shouldn't bother me at all.

Winchester brass doesn't last long for me. I started getting separation at the 4th firing, and by carefully culling, I was able to get to the end of the season on the 9th firing, but had tossed out 80% of the brass by then. Thank god that supplies are coming back.

HXP has gone 8 firings for me without any signs of separation at all.

This is in Garands, not bolt guns.

-J.

 

[splattergun]

It's pointless to worry about the weight of new brass before they've been FL sized and trimmed to length. Even then, 3 gr difference would cause me no worry. I would be most concerned about faults in the metal.

 

[Dthunter]

Splattergun:

What makes you think i havent

1. Full length sized
2. Trimmed all 300 to the same length
3. Deburred and chamfered the case mouths.
4. Uniformed the primer pockets
5. Uniformed and deburred the flash hole
6. Checked the neck wall thickness to see if its in spec?

Just because I didnt mention it, doesnt
Mean it Wasnt done. Lol!

 

[jr_roosa]

It's pointless to worry about the weight of new brass before they've been FL sized and trimmed to length.

The first batch kept the same spread after sizing, trimming, and deburring the flash hole, they just weighed a little less for me.

The mouths were a little off square, so I had to trim a little short to get an even bevel on the inside of the case mouths.

Neck thickness was pretty consistent at about 0.0125" checking them with the blades of regular calipers.

Surprisingly consistent given the rants I've seen about sloppy Winchester brass.

-J.

 

[splattergun]

Splattergun:

What makes you think i havent

1. Full length sized
2. Trimmed all 300 to the same length
3. Deburred and chamfered the case mouths.
4. Uniformed the primer pockets
5. Uniformed and deburred the flash hole
6. Checked the neck wall thickness to see if its in spec?

Just because I didnt mention it, doesnt
Mean it Wasnt done. Lol!

My comment was directed to the OP. What makes you think I was commenting to you, Dt?

 

[Dthunter]

Splattergun:

You got a point there! LOL!

I have been debating with a few posters on other blogs today and one guy really got my dander up!

It was along The exact same subject as well! Lol!

 

[splattergun]

Oh, I got splattered!
No blood, no foul.

 

[Doug b]

jr roosa just dug up some 15 yr.old unfired 30 06 Winchester brass, weighed and measured neck thickness as you did. Unprepped weights ran from 184.9 grains to 188.0 grains.Neck thickness was all over the place due to the burr.Prepped brass went from 186.3 to 187.9 with most falling between 186.6 to187.7gr.Neck thickness was 18 at .0120" and 2 at .0125".

 

[jr_roosa]

There's a big burr on all of mine too...I think they file it to length or something.

I measured the thickness of loaded rounds with a .308 match bullet in place and did the math. I spun them in the calipers and they didn't vary much.

-J.