Corrosive-primed brass?

[Ron H.]

Greetings, all:

I used to know this, but can't remember now. Is it OK to reload brass that was fired with corrosive primers?

I recently came into several hundred once-fired WWII-era .30 M2 (.30-'06) cases, which of course used corrosive primers. Does the corrosive primer residue weaken the brass? I'm pretty sure these cases were fired years ago and have just been sitting uncleaned since.

I have plenty of other .30 M2 brass, so don't have to use this stuff, but I hate to pitch it if its still usable.

Thanks, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[Ignatz]

Is it all one headstamp? Somewhere theres at list of ball ammo that confirms what primer was used. I bought some live 30/06 WWII ammo with the understanding it was corrosive. When I looked it up on this chart, I found out that the primers were not corrosive.

 

[Treeman]

The general answer is "It depends" Early corrosive priming compounds contained mercury which weakened brass......but during the blackpowder era the BP residue helped to shield the brass sufficiently that it was reloadable.
Specifically regarding your WWII era -06 brass....it was loaded with clorate primers-hygroscopic so that it was corrosive to steel but harmless to the brass. Reload away. If memory serves corrosive priming in US military ammo ended in 1952

 

[oldRoger]

I have reloaded lots of old, some from the thirties, Mil. brass. .45, 30-06, and a few .38spl. In most cases I suspect it was washed and reloaded, shot, washed and reloaded several times before I got it.
Other than the normal neck failures on the 30-06 after repeated firings I have never seen anything to indicate that there was a problem. I have sorted out the older stuff WWII and before, but only for sentimental reasons, it still works fine.

I pulled bullets from some unfired 30's 7mm Mauser (German) rounds and discovered that the entire contents were lovely green corrosion, the neck pulled off every round.