Military brass reloading

[Morgan321]

I have lots of lake city 30-06 and am going to start reloading. I have read that the military brass is excellent for reloading, is this true? I have both m2 and m72 match. It is all from the 60s and all non corrosive.

The ammo is very poor accuracy for me. It will group in 8 inch circles while hornady match ammo groups well under two inches. I have read that the ammo is good quality, but mine is obviously not. So I wonder if what I have read about the brass being good is true or not? I've wasted enough time thinking the ammo was decent, I don't want to waste more reloading crappy brass!

 

[Fuzzball]

Military cases are good but cases are cases, they vary slighty from batch to batch the same as any others so any blanket comments have no significant value.

The common "expert" comments about which GI year is better that others is silly; why would the arsenals raise or lower case "quality" each Janurary 1st? Ditto claims GI stuff is automatically thicker than commercial; it can be it's not always thicker than some batches of some commercial but it hardly matters unless you're foolisly loading on the ragged edge of a KABOOM anyway!

There's no accuracy magic in reloads or commercial ammo. If the ammo matches what your rifle likes it will shoot well; the biggest challenge in reloading is finding something your rig likes. That requires methodical expermentation, not hopefully/blindly jumping from one guy's "pet" load to another.

I still have a good bit of assorted aresenal .30-06 GI cases from WWII. A lot of it has been reformed to .22-250, .243, 6 mm International, .270, 7x57, etc. All was "corrosive", all works fine and lasts a long time if used correctly. Wish I had gotten more!

 

[M1Amen]

The military cases are definitely good for reloading. The poor accuracy you have with the military factory loaded ammo could simply arise because the factory spec did not jive with your particular rifle.

Regular military ball ammo and a rack grade rifle are only meant to shoot 4 MOA, which makes a competent marksman able to hit a 20" wide target out to 500 yards with the combination. LC Match is supposed to be better than that, but nothing says it will automatically be the magic round in your rifle.

I am also quite curious what range you were at when it grouped the 8 inch circles. Measuring groups only by their diameter without concern for the distance at which the data is gathered is sort of like me calling on the phone and saying "it shoots a group this big" while holding my hands a certain distance apart. At 100, the group would be 8MOA, which is very unhappy, but at 300 or 400 yards, not such a big deal. Remember that outside of shooter error barrel harmonics has to do with this than anything else.

 

[Morgan321]

It was 100 Yds. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why the rifle was shooting so poorly, I never thought ammo could be so bad. I reluctantly tried the hornady match ammo back to back with the GI ammo and the groups went from literally 8-10moa to well under 2. I don't know or care why, I just want to get a warm fuzzy that reloading the brass won't be a waste of my time.

Also what is the advantage of 30-06 over 308? Can you run out of volume in a 308? That sounds like a stupid question, but I've never reloaded before so I'm clueless!

 

[8AteEight]

From My limited experience/research/loading: The '06 starts to shine with the heavier bullets ie 178+ then the LR starts to come out, as they launch the heavies faster, resulting in better performance WAYYYYYY out there.
Anyone else welcome to explain it better.

 

[MarinePMI]

Military brass is excellent for reloading. It is also thicker (despite what someone previously posted), and therefore loads should be worked up, as having less case capacity can raise pressures. Someone can argue there isn't a difference, but you only have to look at any reloading manual and see the warning about military cases and the need to reduce loads and work up to know there's some truth to the statement...

From the factory, military ammunition is actually quite accurate. That being said, stuff made in the 60's leaves a lot of room/time for it to be stored improperly, degrading it over time.

WRT the comment about how some years are better than others, that is also true and has been proven out through actual use. The reason some years are better than others generally is down to who was running the plant. The government contracts out the manufacturing workforce, so QC can and does change periodically.

 

[Barry in IN]

I'm going to have to disagree with any blanket statements on the thickness of military brass. In my early Highpower days, I weighed samples of all the headstamps of .308 I had. This was time consuming with the beam balance scale I had at the time. While most of the military brass was heavier than commercial brass, one or two headstamps were actually in the ballpark of commercial brass or lighter. They were the clear exceptions, but they were exceptions. I can't recall the stamps offhand, but think they were early or mid 70s.

I'd go along with saying nearly all military brass was heavier, but that showed me we can't say all of it is. Naturally, if unable to weigh for some reason, going on the assumption it is heavier is the safest (and most likely correct) course.

 

[aloreman]

7.62 military brass is typicaly thicker as it is a higher pressure round than 308. Hxp and lc and wcc 06 brass isnt any heavier/ than rp

 

[former naval person]

If the Lake City ammo is "surplus" there may be a reason...it possibly didn't meet accuracy standards and was sold rather than break it down. You may have the rejects. JMHO

 

[waste_knot]

You should measure the water weight volume of a resized case and compare it to a Lapua or Winchester. If the LC is within a grain the loading tables will be accurate.

 

[wilecoyote]

lake city CASES in .308 and 30.06 are not crappy_ military ammos are generally engineered to give MILDER pressures than hunting ammos, because military ammos are generally employed on semi and full autos (and a military case in 7.62 nato is conceived to perform on military rifles/machine guns with reliability, not necessariliy with the highest performances related to power or accuracy_ a hunting or target .308 ammo can offer superior performances, more even if handloaded, when shooted in a bolt action rifle, but these superior performances can happen at pressures and costs not foreseen for military rifles/mg's)_ I think the same can be said about the 30.06, therefore you can reload your LC brass (without the same espectations as Lapua brass,of course) but nothwithstandig that "tailoring" a handmade ammo better suited to YOUR rifle than the average military surplus loads_ if the surplus LC ammos accuracy in your rifle has been poor, the reasons can be multiple, but for sure the main of them is NOT the quality of LC brass_

 

[mtrmn]

Military brass is excellent for reloading.

You will have to remove the crimp around the primer pocket by swaging or reaming, but this is a simple process. The fastest way to get through this drudgery is to use the CH4D priming/swaging tool, which is about 35 bucks and the fastest swager I've ever seen.

As you would be doing anyway, of course work up your loads using the type of brass you will use for your normal shooting.

I have found that LC brass is particularly prone to having a large burr inside around the flash hole. Use a flash hole deburring tool to remove this and you will improve consistency which translates into accuracy.

By reloading, you will be using YOUR rifle as a test platform and you will be tailoring ammo for YOUR gun. You will soon be loading ammo that's much more accurate in your gun, and more suited to your uses than factory ammo ever was.

 

[Unknown]

I use LC ball ammo cases, and LC match cases. Both get the same case prep:

polish first
deburr flash holes
uniform primer pockets
size
trim and deburr inside and outside

Both cases give the same accuracy, point of impact, and longevity. They are just as accurate as the Federal GMM cases that I do the same case prep on, but the LC cases last longer. For what it is worth, all three cases give the same velocity and POI when powder charges are the same. Different years of cases don't seem to matter either, but keeping them separated makes me feel better.