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Does it matter?

Invstr21

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 3, 2009
112
0
41
Does it matter if brass has been fired from a bolt action gun vs. a gas gun? I was looking into buying used brass and I seen that someone had asked this question...thanks for your knowledge.
 
Re: Does it matter?

In general, machine guns (M-60, etc) have more generous chambers to aid feeding and extraction when dirty, so fired brass will have expanded a bit more than if it had been fired from a tighter chamber, like most bolt guns have.

So most people avoid machine gun fired brass, as there is a greater chance of case head separation after several reloads.

Brass fired from something with tighter tolerances (but still more generous than most bolt gun chambers) like a SR-25 or other quality "gas gun" should not really be an issue.
 
Re: Does it matter?

semi autos and MGs also tend to knarl up extractor rims on the cases. With some it gets iffy even getting them in a shell holder to deprime/load them. M14 and M1 fired cases were the worst as some of their extractors would really do a number on rims.