New brass is best but has become expensive and hard to find. I have an opportunity to purchase some 9 mm and 5.56 once fired military brass. I think it can be aquired for about $2/lb or less. I understand that it requires swaging, or one additional step one time. I also know that these lots are Winchester and Lake City mostly which has been reported to be very good brass. If you are using military brass what is your opinion of it? Jim

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That's just somebody talkin.

My friend has used 7.62 NATO once fired and has no problems with it

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I use 5.56 military brass a lot, it only has to be swaged the first time (or one of the other methods for removing the crimp, I prefer a Dillon swager) Haven't come across any 9mm for sale (at a price I want to pay), so I haven't crossed that bridge yet but suspect it would be the same.

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Minimize the variables

I have used a buttload of govt surplus .45 acp. It is a minor pain to take the crimp out, but after that its all good.

LC 5.56 is considered superior brass by the high power target crowd.

Superb brass, and as you noted, it only has to be reamed once.

Mil brass is usually a little heavier than standard brass and
with Rifle brass they say to drop one to 1.5 grains of powder
to keep pressures down when developing loads, just to be on
the safe side.
My old Radom liked 9mm GI brass but it was a military weapon, along with 124gr Ball and Bullseye or Unique.

All I've ever used in my .223 is mil brass. I used a pocket reamer (Lyman) and chamfered the pocket edges and never had a problem. No such luck with 9mm cases. Crunched a few primers using the same technique. I plan on getting a pocket swager and reworking the 9mm pockets.

My rifle is the Ruger Gunsite in 308 W and I have a fairly good mix of once fired cases, some already loaded and some waiting to be loaded. What is interesting is how much variation there is in both the weight and capacity of the cases. Winchester brass is the lightest and has the most capacity. Next down the list is Remington. Finally there is Federal and Lake City, which IMO is all made by Federal because the weights and volumes are identical. Following is the breakdown.

BTW, Nevada Ed's advice about backing loads down is quite sound. There is enough difference in volume that a load that is compressed in a Lake City case will rattle slightly in a Winchester Case.

I have about 100 once fired Lake City cases in 308 Winchester. Also have 12 Lake City Match cases. The standard LC runs 178.4 grains +/- about 0.7 grains with a strong tendency to cluster at 178.4 grains. Meaning the Standard Deviation of the weight is quite low. As for LC Match, every single one of those casings weigh 178.5 grains. There is no variation in weight at all that I could detect. BTW, all of these casings have been trimmed.

Now where it gets interesting is that I also have 60 or 70 Federal cases and they are IDENTICAL to the Lake City Cases in weight. Based on this I believe that it's safe to assume that the Lake City cases are made by Federal.

Also have some R-P cases, which weigh in in the range of 163 grains and Winchester cases run around 154 grains as I recall. Unfortunately all of my Winchester cases are loaded so I can't get a more exact weight until I shoot some off.

Personally I haven't had any issues or concerns about using once fired brass. In my case it's all come from Police ranges instead of military bases, thus the variation in headstamps. However, if you sort the brass by headstamp and use a bit of common sense when loading it all works just fine.

Military brass tends to run heavier for .308 but not .223. Never wrong to start low and work your way up.

I've used Milsurp brass in 9mmP, .38 Spl, .45 ACP, .30 Carbine, .303 British, 8x57 and .30-06. Never had a problem after removing primer crimp.

Larry

Mil 223 brass was most likely fired in a full auto weapon. RCBS small base sizer die improves your chances of eliminating chambering issues the first time the brass is fired in your weapon. After you fire the rounds, a standard sizing die works just fine -- in my experience with my ARs and bolt guns.

Make sure you check case length after resizing. I have found that unsized cases are easier to trim, and can be resized to minimum case length successfully. A case that is 0.005" too short is better than a case 0.015" too long.

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S&WHF 366

I got curious recently & did come water wgt/vol comparisons on some of my brass. One was for my 30-06. The WW & FC brass held 69.2grs/4.48cc & my old military brass SL-54 only held 67.0grs/4.34cc.

I did the same with LC and R-P brass. They held the exact same amount of water. This is why you can only speak in generalities when it come to loading mil-surp vs. commercial brass.

With medium target loads the Mil. brass last a long time for me in the 06 but I did notice that the Rem. brass did tend to split at the neck before the Win. and GI brass.. but it might of just been the lot of that ammo that I had.

I like it all, just hate to have to chuck cases early in their life after only 4 Factory Dup. hunting reloads but I guess four max loadings it is ok?
Norma brass is out of my reach now but it took eight reloads!

I have bought a lot of military 5.56 and 308. They are right that you only swage the first time. The way I do it is resize and deprime then I use a primer pocket reamer that I chuck into my battery drill. I ream all of the cases then I clean them in my ultra-sonic cleaner. Since I had to lube the cases before I could resize and now I cleaned them, I need to reprime. "Is that a word"? I have a Lee turret press so it is easy to just remove the resize die and I can now prime the cases without lubing them again. Now load as normal.

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Tom
NRA Pistol Inst

I've used 100's of 06 mil brass over the years and still use it for my hunting loads out to 300 yards. Beyond 300 yds, it's nothing but 06 mil match brass.

In 308 (7.62x51), the brass is not exactly the same. 7.62x51 is .005 inch longer than the 308 as is the chambers. Almost all reloading dies available are for the 308, so with that said, reloads are all basicly 308 specs once you trim the brass. I use LC 73 or 74 mil brass in all my 308 guns for steel shooting, LC match brass from the 60's for my hunting brass and LC M118LR brass for matches. Unfortunately, where we live now, the longest range is 600yds and most matches are shot at 100 yards reduced targets.

I've tried commercial brass in my semis mil guns and they just eat the brass up, especially the rims.

I've been loading military brass for 30 years. It is no big deal. Swagging is not an absolute necessity. You simply have to remove the crimp which can either be a star crimp, typical of foreign brass, or a ring crimp which is the norm for U.S.G.I. brass. This is easily done with nothing more than a sharp knife or a chamfering tool such as one commonly uses to prepare the mouth of a brass case for reloading. This operation must only be done once. All further loading will require no further such work.

Be aware that military brass typically has a smaller internal capacity than common found with domestic brass. In loading, do not use any load you have worked up using commercial brass. Begin w/ a starting load and work up keeping a close watch for any warning signs of problems, etc.

Just another thought... if you have a large quantity of brass to process, first clean it. Then resize and deprime it, remove the crimp and trim/chamfer the necks. Then... weigh the brass. Pick ten cases and weigh them. Take the average and sort brass into two piles... heavy and light. Then sort each pile using the same process. Repeat. You will wind up with a number of lots of brass are very close in weight... say .5 gr. difference. This will minimize internal variations of capacity. You may find the brass is very uniform. Cool. Load and have fun. If there are variations, this method will eliminate that as a variable in developing a load for accuracy, velocity, etc.

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I use military brass for 45acp, 9mm and 38 spl. The brass is a bit heavier/thicker I think.
I find that if I use hard cast bullets, the case will swell/bulge and the round may not chamber. For some reason, FMJ bullets do not do this. Maybe this is due to the .001" smaller, nominal size, for FMJ. With swaged bullets, the lead "gives" (resizes) a little and the case does not bulge. This does not seem to affect my accuracy.
I separate my military brass only to keep them for swaged bullets. And I sometimes use them to load slightly hotter loads too (with FMJ bullets).