Some reloaders have been using military brass for years. Even though military brass was never intended to be reloaded, it's very good brass. Here is some helpful information for any reloader who is considering its use...
Very relevant especially to a beginner like me. I started in 2013 when my brother who served in Vietnam started to mentor me. He's forgotten more than I'll ever know. I appreciate how you teach and your willingness to share your education. I will learn and pass it on as well thanks to you.
Sand Hollow Homestead I've watched many vids by Mr. Fortune Cookie. You can't go wrong following his advice. I've handloaded for over 30 years and I know B.S. when I hear it.
The US Military made the switch to non corrosive powder and primers after WWII. The goal was to make the switch by 1950, but it took longer than expected to fully implement. Most military cartridges made after 1950 are non corrosive. All cartridges made after 1954 are non corrosive.
Evansville Cartridge is WW2 anmo made by Chrysler on contract. I picked up a can of 45 steel case EC43 repacked in 44, because I had a great aunt that worked there during the war. Stuff is still mostly serviceable. Ammo guys at Cp Atterbury said it was safe as long as it wasn't corroded.
Learned: 1) No caliber stamp on military brass. 2) The US used corrosive primers and or powder in the past. 3) Never assume anything in reloading! Excellent video FC45LC as usual!
If you scrounged military brass from the range or elsewhere and discovered the primer crimp has already been removed, assume it has already been reloaded several times and discarded. So dump it.
Excellent video. Very informative and easy to understand. It’s funny how you overlook so many things when your ammo is free and you’re paid to shoot it! I’m just beginning to reload and I had no idea until yesterday about the “military crimp”. Thank you for the knowledge and advice
I use the RCBS military crimp remover bit chucked in a drill and it works well for removing the crimp.Great tutorial on rifle reloading FC! Thanks again for sharing your knowlege.
Tony R - early on, I bought 2000 military 5.56 cases. By the time I sorted all the different headstamps and sorted by weight, I had about a 20 different piles of brass. I still have some containers of that brass that I really can’t use today because there isn’t a big enough quantity of any one. And there isn’t more of that to be had in the event I get a good shooting pile. Nick, my benchrest shooting friend, told me to start with 200 matched brass for working up precision ammo. Hard to get 200 matched military casings. So I did all my High power competition with matched Winchester. Now I like Lapua brass - real consistent brass. Have a fine 4th, FC Steve
I have a bunch of .223 range brass , all with crimped primers. I reamed them with the Lyman tool, but still couldnt reliably seat primers in many of them. I bought a Hornady primer pocket swaging die, and ran them through it. No more problems, even if I didnt ream the cases first. I decap using the Lee decapping tool and a hammer. Even at that I find many of these cases quite hard to decap, and Ive broken a couple of the decapping punches, which is really no fault of the tool, just really tightly crimped primers.
Great video and great info on military brass. .308 / 7.62 x 51 NATO is one of the calibers I'm going to be reloading a lot of. I have a FAL STG-58 & a CETME that I'm going to do custom reloads for. That case prep center is really nice. Thanks for sharing.
metaltrooper62 - I shot some FAL 7.62 in the past that had Berdan primers - had to throw them in the trash - nowadays we can turn it in for brass scrap. I'm not sure how much of that is Boxer primed circulating around, hopefully, you don't have any of that Berdan stuff... Best to ya...
I've been collecting 223 and 5.6 brass at the range and processing it- in case I buy a rifle that it fits. I have several hundred cases on hand. What better reason to buy a new rifle. Next I think I might be in the market for an RCBS case prepping machine. Nothing like putting the cart before the horse. PS, great video.
One brand of NATO surplus ammo that I am seeing available now to the public is MEN (Metalwerk Elisenhutte Gmbh). It is really good ammo and great brass for reloading. Pretty economical as well.
Prepping military brass is one of my winter sitting in front of the tv projects. I usually lube, size, decap and tumble the lube away downstairs but then the rest is in the den watching tv and trimming, decrimping, brushing the case neck and beveling the case mouth inside and out. I will then hand prime everything I've prepped. I've done thousands of cases every winter. I store them, sorted by brand, in water tight ammo cans. I have a Frankfort case prep center. I get a lot of 5.56 PPU and CBC brass besides the Lake City and FC. The rest come in smaller numbers so I use them as a miscellaneous lot. I finally filled my 6 gallon bucket with military and other crimped 9mm cases...about 10-12K I figure. I'm depriming them on a press but I'll decrimp in front of the tv. It is simple stuff to pass the time while avoiding bad weather. I haven't had time to do the 7.62 stuff.
I have had really good luck with USA brass. I always sort my military brass according to maker and year. Then I weight them and keep them together. I really want to get a case prep center like yours. I have always used the hand tools that do them. As usual another great video. Thanks and happy shooting.
Bigger behind the trigger Atkinson - Hope I don't put the jinx on it, but my RCBS Case Prep Center has been working and working and working for over 20 years - amazing unit - no servicing and no way to oil the innards - just keeps going and going. Best time to buy is when they are doing a sale on the unit...You have to be ready to pounce. Best of the Christmas and Holiday Season to ya, FC Steve
Something else noteworthy, is that some brands have a smaller flash hole. Lyman makes a flash hole deburring tool that reams the flash holes out to normal size. Otherwise, your decapping pin can get hung up in them. Flash holes are stamped so deburring them makes for a more uniform and predictable ignition... so I’ve read... my shooting isn’t precise enough for me to have ever noticed
Shaun - Great point you make, seems that there are certain Lapua brass that also have smaller flash holes...But the 308, 223 and 30/06 Lapua that I've purchased have none of that... Good reloadin' to ya, FC Steve
Another excellent video. I learn so much from you. I look forward to your videos I check every day to see if you put one out. Thanks for all your knowledge.
dave althoff - and thank you Dave. I thought this would be interesting video as we all run into military brass occasionally if not often…Best Regards...
This video shows that no matter what, we'll never know everything; I had no idea about the primer pocket crimping and the need to remove them until this video. Granted I never have reloaded military brass before. I have a case deburr tool which in one of your comments on this video said this would work to get rid of the primer pocket crimp. That's good to know that if I ever *did* run into this problem that I'd be able to take care of it. There was a Ruger M77 7mm rifle, left handed bolt, for sale for a few months I really wanted but I don't got the money. Yesterday I found out it was already sold. Kinda unfortunate, as a quick search doesn't find me very many of them. But, over time I'll be able to save up money and then when I have enough I'll be able to vigorously look around and find another one. Just makes my gun collection feel incomplete without that Ruger M77 7mm, as I like the 7mm cartridge and to reload it. I know you have years of gun collecting, how many moments have you had where your gun collection felt so incomplete without a certain gun? And of course, after we get that gun, a few months later down the road we find others which we really decide we need as well. Has happened to me many times...
Can you do a video reloading 762x51 ? I have an fn fall rife to reload for and I don't see any videos for loading 762x51. I'm a rookie reloaded. Thanks, James.
Good info FC45. I am new to reloading and was wondering about the ring inside the primer pocket and how to swage and what swage is and do I need to do it to every case. This video really helped. Thank you very much for the crimp explanation.
Great info. There is also one point you did not mention or I missed it. Military brass is thicker then nonmilitary brass. You mention this in another video. I would also like to Thank You for the info. on my Lee Factory Crimp Die. As Always, Hank
According to my Sierra manual, there isn't a significant difference with 5.56. There is with .308/7.62 so lower your starting charge weight. Sierra also lists separate load data for AR type rifles considering port pressures.
I prefer the superswager from Dillon to take out the primer pocket crimps. Have found that some of my pockets that were trimmed w/ the RCBS were over trimed to the point that the primers were loose in the pocket. This had lead to slam fires in the past for me. Good info for the new reloaders FC. Always thought that FC on head stamps Fortune Cookie. LOL
pr4runner- We all know Dillon - when you want to fire for effect - swage 'em with Dillon and then go load up a storm!! Haven't had any primer issues with the pocket uniforming, but I see your point - my out is that I'm bolt gunning with that brass, and it's hard to get slam fires with a Ruger Scout Rifle…Thanks for the good word, and in my channel mission statement (personal info) is to help the new reloaders and casters coming on the line while letting the more experienced like yourself chime in with additional info or VRs to help cross pollinate everyone…Have a great day...
I feel Dillon should give out discount coupons for flash hole de burring tools with their swage. Can't tell ya how many times the ragged burs from punched flash holes have folded over and obscured the flash hole inside the case.
Would you be able to give aome help on Hirtenberger 308 Winchester brass. The brass has small holes and somehwat difficult to deprime. Owuld you be bale to help with this.
I've got a question. I purchased once fired .223 brass from the internet and found that many shells are 1.734 or so. My book says that the Max. shell length is 1.760 and that would (as I understand it) make the minimum shell length 1.750. If I'm right then all those below minimum length is not to be reloaded. Am I right? Seems there's a lot of them which says to me that whoever previously loaded these were way out of compliance and the company that sold these actually sold them as brass metal and not reloadable brass. I've even received other caliber brass in the same bag! I don't think there is any regulations on reselling used brass? So, am I right about the min. max shell length and am I doing this right? Thanks!
DON C - And thanks for your humorous comment. Halloween was nice - all the celebrators were out at the mall this year so we did that in Seattle...was fun...Hope your Halloween was fine... Best to ya, FC
Logan Barnette - Thanks for your comment and question. First of all, military brass is good brass, but only if it is matched. Mixed is a different story. Depends on your use. When I started reloading, I used military brass because it was cheap. But when you match it up, you don't get enough of any one headstamp to do any good - so you wind up with lots of different headstamps and not enough of any one. This was in 38 Spl, 45 ACP and 223 / 5.56 and it was random brass. The ammo was best used for blasting and recreational shooting. For best application, I'd always recommend getting 200 rounds of good matched brass. When I started competition, I only used commercial brass - 6000 rounds of same lot Win brass for PPC, Win brass for High Power. For IPSC and steel, I used mixed brass. If I was doing cowboy action today, I'd be using mixed brass. For range shooting, I use mixed brass for handgun and matched brass for rifle - For precision rifle, I use 200 Lapua or Hornady brass or matched Winchester, Norma. Best to ya, FC
any suggestions on depriming DEN 43 berdan 30.06? i've used the "hydraulic method" which belled the neck of the case severely, making it unusable, i've tried drilling them out, sharpened a punch but could not find the small primer hole (has 2) so i'm about out of ideas. i've watched your video "military brass, ins & outs. i really enjoy your presentations & have reloaded for many years but these DEN 43 have me stumped. your help would be appreciated thank you, pat
gman77gas - If you shoot a lot of rifle (and I did when I was competing in High Power - no so much now esp since I am out of rifle powders until just recently), the green Case Prep Center is VERY handy - durable also…plus RCBS gives you a nice rebate. I see your point on the 100 years!! lol Best Regards
I built my own motorized brass prep machine. A variable speed industrial motor. Set on a heavy plate isolated on rubber feet. Quick and easy. Can do 45 cases a minute.
don stromberg-No, don't have that in my reference library…heard of it though, but I've never really considered myself as a cartridge collector (although I do some of that when an interesting cartridge comes along), enough to get that book. Sounds interesting though - might just take you up on that one…Have a great day...
Hi Steve. Fun fact; .30 carbine was the first military rifle cartridge to be used with a non-corrosive primer. This was due to concerns that the gas piston would be corroded and malfunction as it was not intended to be field serviceable. Do you hand load for your Carbine? I have been for a year or so with fmj and am currently experimenting with some 120gr GC'd cast boolits out of an NOE mold.
30ROUNDCLIPAZINE - Did not know that factoid on the 30 Carbine with non-corrosive primer...interesting. I do believe that when I get my 30 Carbine Ruger Blackhawk, I'll be reloading that caliber. It was said in the early days that carbide dies would be problematic for the 30 carbine because of its long and tapered case hard to get the carbide ring to work well. Somehow that problem was solved so we can reload with carbide die sets nicely...will find out when I get that Blackhawk, but it's nice to know that others such as yourself have had good success. Best to ya, FC Steve
FortuneCookie45LC Yea although the Lee die set that I bought has the carbide sizer ring, they make note in the instructions to lubricate every fifth case or so. I simply spray all of mine with the iso-lanolin concoction. Sizing effort is minimal. I'm sure that one could size without lube but I'd like to prolong the life of my dies. I've had great luck with the 110 brass jacketed bullets from Missouri bullet co under 15gr of H110 out of 1952 lake City brass that I was given by my grandpa. Better than factory accuracy forsure. We'll see how the lead goes as I'm waiting for a bit of warm weather to test those loads. I too feel the need to get a Blackhawk .30carbine😁. Side note, trimming the brass is tedious and necessary as they stretch unevenly case to case and the Rnd. Headspace's on the mouth.
Great to know. I just bought a Rock River Arms Lar -15 from Fostech, and a 1000 rounds of green tip 5.56 from Bud's Gun Shop. It's going to be a lot of fun, when the rifle arrives at my local gun shop this week. Maintence of the AR as I am learning on youtube is a little more work for a guy who is used to AK platforms.
Vengenace Early - Great to hear from Vengenace Early - Yep, that AR platform with the direct gas impingement system results in fouling and heat in the action - so, as you say, maintenance by Vengenace will be a prominence. :) Best Regards...
It's great to be back. Thanks FC45LC ! I think I will be in and out of shooting for a few months, as I am trying to settle my Mom's estate and sell her house. And now I will have to spend time cleaning my New AR . :) But I will be here as often as possible.
Yes. Differences between AR and AK maintenance summed up: An AR should be cleaned after dropping it in muddy water. It is perfectly acceptable to clean an AK WITH muddy water. =)
JunkfoodZombie Thanks JFZ, I kinda like that one…I recall an article in a gun magazine on the AK that I would never forget - It showed an AK that had been shot through the receiver by a 7.62 round from an M60. The AK still fired full auto…amazing!! Wish I saved that issue… Best to ya...
I just watched another video showing that you're supposed to uniform the primer pocket first, then use a crimp remover as a second step in the process. I'm new to reloading but I'm fairly well read. I'm wanting to make sure I do this the correct way the first time so I've spent a lot of time reading watching and learning. I would prefer to have zero failures from my reloaded ammo. Of course I will discard a primer that doesn't fully seat. Do you know if it is absolutely necessary to uniform and decrimp or decrimp only? I'll be processing some 223 or 5.56 military brass that has been mixed in with some once fired brass. I appreciate your opinion.
My experience: I have a pocket uniformer, and it is very difficult to make it work unless the pocket has been previously de-crimped. I decrimp primarily 5.56/223 brass and the pocket uniformer rarely removes any material from the pocket base--rarely. I don't even use it anymore. At best it scrapes the pocket bottom clean. The best manner I've found to decrimp cases is the Lyman primer pocket reamer. It outperforms the RCBS bench swager hands down. I also recommend buying a primer pocket Go/NoGo gauge from Ballistic Tools, about $15 shipped. It will easily show when pockets have been properly decrimped or are too large/loose. Decrimping cases is a pain, but it's a onetime pain for cheap, quality brass.
not all military ammo is made by an arsenal. i think that's where our ammo is going now. to the military. creating one helluva shortage to the consumer.
I believe that is only one aspect of it whereby the government is actually telling the ammo manufactures and the powder and primer manufactures to reduce production for the American consumers
I bought some bulk m855 green tip awhile back before all this wuflu and prices soared through the roof. I was sorting through some fired cases and came across a head stamp that has the NATO designation, the year is 19, military crimped, but the manufacturer is FAME. It may be obvious which one it is but I'm unfamiliar. Federal American??? Any suggestions
Hey Big Cookie love your videos. Debating on reloading kit leaning towards the Redding what's your thoughts and would you mind giving me your expertise. Much appreciated have a wonderful year.
wildwilliams454 - Those kits are fine for those who want to just go with what one company suggests is needed. But I've found that most reloaders like to pick and choose the various equipment as some companies have features that others don't. For example - we would choose based on the main course - the press - and then take what else is along in the kit. But reloaders of lead bullets might want the Lyman die sets because of their fine M dies best for cast bullets - or the RCBS cowboy die sets for the same reason. Some rifle shooters may prefer the Lee Collet Neck Size dies because of their low run out. Some might want an upgraded powder measure such as the Reddings BRs instead what is in the kit. Or grab the Hornady electronic scale automatic powder dispenser. And when it comes to case trimmers, there are many alternatives there. But the quick and easy to get going would be the kits, of course... Good reloadin' to ya, FC Steve
FortuneCookie45LC I have a question. My friend gave me almost 1000 casings for 45 acp for me to load up. About 70% are military brass. Do I need to worry about the crimped primer pockets on these? They range in dates from the 60's through the 90's. They have kind of a ring crimp all the way around the primer pocket. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
Great question, and yes - you have to remove the primer crimps. It is possible to jam a primer into crimped primer pockets, but the result is a primer that has been badly treated - not recommended. You can grind the crimp out or swage it out. Simplest way to do it is with a hand primer pocket reamer. But if you intend to do a lot of military brass in the futuer, the swage by Dillon is a fine unit. If you plan on doing a lot of detailed case prepping, the RCBS Case Prep Center is the way to go - it will do all the crimp removal as well as uniforming the pockets, deburring, chamfering... Good reloadin' to ya
wayne daley - I'm assuming that you are not dealing with Berdan primed military brass - you will break decapping pins trying to deprime those (no flash holes). Otherwise, any of our depriming systems will defeat crimped primers with a bit of extra effort...I have had RCBS pins break though on the older die sets...Best Regards
Do you recommend a special die to remove the military primer or will a full length resizing die like the Lee work to deprime military brass? Thanks in advance!
RKBA - That's an interesting question - Yes, we can crimp our bullets using the Lee Factory Crimp Dies - works well. However, there is no current reloading tool that reloaders can use to create primer pocket crimps. We really don't need to do that as the military crimps primers in to prevent jams in mass fire full auto weapons. Best of the new year to ya, FC
JB - once the crimps are removed, the brass behaves like any other brass. If the primer pockets are also uniformed, then the new primers go in very nice and consistently. Case prep is the big chore in our reloading, but well worth the efforts... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ya..!! FC
varanidguy - Let's put it this way...when I was shooting High Power rifle competition, I bought a couple thousand 223 military brass because it was cheap...then sorted out all the same headstamps, then sorted by weight. By the time I did that, I had several piles of brass, but not that many of each one. So I then proceeded to prep those cases - I still have that brass today all stored sorted in used tennis ball cans. Problem was that I didn't have enough of any one pile to really use (we wear out some brass just doing load development - then were do you get more of such headstamp and same weight?) So forget that - I just ordered a thousand Winchester 223 new brass same lot and I was set...for load devlopment, practice and actual competition - used the 69 gr SMKs in my Colt Sporter H-Bar Comp model. Military brass is good brass, but only if you get a lot of the same lot...and military match brass is even better. Military brass case neck thickness varied by .001". I never turned any of my Winchester necks...Best to ya, FC
l've been shooting Federal and American eagle boxed and most of the brass looks old and dirty fresh out of the box, it mostly fired ok but l've had several case failures, some full length splits
Brandon Maloney - That sound quite disturbing…not commonly reported and unsafe events - you should immediately cease usage of that ammo and send an e-mail to Federal with pictures. If other brands split in your gun, you need to have the chamber headspace and dimensions checked and have the caliber verified. If not, the ammo in conversation is bad. Best to ya…hope the problem is cleared up soon...
Brandon Maloney AHA - commercial reloads. One of our shooters picked up 400 rounds of commercial reloads in the valley (big business at that time - no 223 anywhere). And the ammo was all overloaded, with gas blowing out around the primers. He took it all back to the store, and they gave him credit for it…Some of the factory reloads at that time were really problematic. This may have nothing to do with your situation, but sounds similar… Best to ya...
Sorry the cyclic rate of the minigun is just over half your stated 6000 rpm... in this age lets do our homework before looking like a California legislator.
William Kennison - No, I'm sorry for the error - I was quoting the cyclic rate of the M61A Vulcan 20mm rotating cannon that can be upwards to 6600 rounds per minute. I just assumed the Minigun was similar except for 7.62 caliber (Next time I assume, I need to put in the caveat, I should have learned by now - you RU-vidrs don't miss a thing). That's the beauty of RU-vid - It let's us, thru videos and then the comment sections afterwards, join in and grow in knowledge in like minds together (great job with your comment)…that's where we all differ from California legislators - they just say anything that will GET them more votes than they MIGHT lose. Caps are there for the fine meanings not to be missed - I'd laugh, but I'm not laughing. Best Regards to you, though :)
