Prep once fired LC brass like any other civilian brass

[waffentomas]

I did my research and bought my stuff for my first batch of once fired LC brass. Bought an RCBS swager and a Lee universal decapper. Brass arrives and I'm ready to rock. After 30 or so rounds, I'm thinking, this can't be this hard. It was taking kind of long.

Impatient, I just lubed up 50 and ran them through my regular deprimer/full length resizer. Pin didn't break, saved two steps, and was off to the races. Seems the crimp was disappearing after the primer was popped out as well, so no need to swage. Tested 15 or so and the primers went in fine without swaging.

I've done 150 shell casings now, treating them no different than a bag of Hornady once fired, without a hitch.

Have we all been duped by the component companies into thinking we need to buy all this extra stuff for military brass? ... or am I just a few shells away from busting my sizing/depriming die?

Tom

 

[rc109a]

I only reload LC military fired brass. All have crimped primers and have yet to break a pin. It has been over 4 years and a few thousand 308/223. Maybe I am just lucky? I tried the swaggin die I bought off a friend THR and used it a few times, but put it away and just use a hornady military crimp remover instead (put it in the drill press and go to town). I think you will be fine with what you have and just take your time...

 

[Hiaboo]

FYI.. some primers are small enough to fit in without removing the crimp.. They could be BLACK HILLS ammo which usese LC once fired shells which in acutality makes them twice fired...

 

[dmftoy1]

FWIW - I picked up some once fired LC brass w/o crimped primers from my neighbor . . it was in "American Eagle" boxes. I don't know if they just picked up some overruns from the LC plant as they're both "federal" or ??

All of the XM193 I've shot has had crimped in primers.

 

[762 shooter]

My problems with Mil Brass is not removing the primer but seating the primer.

 

[NuJudge]

You might want to see how easily the bolt on your rifle closes on the sized LC cases.

Most .308 LC brass on the market today was fired in machineguns, and headspace might have been large, resulting in a case that will take more to get it back to where you need it.

 

[Slamfire]

I don't know what LC caliber you purchased. But my LC 30-06 and 308 cases have to have the crimp removed. And the crimped in primers will bust a Bonanza spindle.

 

[snuffy]

Seems the crimp was disappearing after the primer was popped out as well, so no need to swage. Tested 15 or so and the primers went in fine without swaging.

Answer; Your "once fired" LC brass was never crimped to start with. Or it was NOT once fired, but had been processed, then loaded once before. If you were able to seat primer without difficulty, there was no crimp.

 

[goon]

My experience with LC brass -
1. I have always needed to remove the crimp.
2. It always takes a lot of effort to resize. I've broken sizing down to two steps because it was too hard on my loading bench trying to do it all at once.

If yours sized like commercial brass I think that it may have been processed by someone else. Either that, or maybe it was match brass. I've heard that the primers in match brass aren't crimped to begin with.

 

[rcmodel]

+1

I have deprimed about a gazillion crimped GI cases in 30-06, 308, .223, 9mm, & .45 ACP with a standard reloading die set.

Nothing hard about getting them out, and you do not need special equipment to do it.

As for your no-crimp LC cases, they didn't have a crimp to start with, or you could not possible have put primers back in them.

A lot of LC brass was used by Federal for commercial loads, and they were not all crimped in the first place.

There is very little to no variance in primer size between brands.
At least not enough to make any difference when trying to seat them in a case with the crimp still intact.

Anyway, I can assure you that there is no conspiracy by the reloading companies to sell you primer pocket reamers or swaging sets.

When you get hold of some real GI crimped brass, you will believe it too!

rcmodel

 

[Bitswap]

I just bought 2600 223 LC once-fired military brass. One of my steps in prepping this brass is reaming the primer pockets. If there is a crimp there, the reamer will take it out. The crimp on 223 is so slight I don't even notice it.

Now on 50 bmg, it's a different story. Even in it's worse case a deburr tool will take it out the crimp with a few turns.

Military brass could be a bit thicker which will increase your pressures. That's the only thing to be concrened about.

 

[BsChoy]

My dept uses LC that comes in factory boxes for patrol rifle practice. It ALWAYS has a crimp. I know cuz I take the cases home!

 

[ForneyRider]

I decapped some Federal bulk ammo (.223) from Wally world with LC stamped cases.

I tried to prime (CCI SR) a few and the primer set but was pretty mangled.
I popped them out and ran the brass through the RCBS swager. Prime great now.

 

[ForneyRider]

Mixed brass

double post.

 

[David Wile]

Hey folks,

I have bought bulk quantities of surplus Lake City brass in .223, .308, and 30-06 from a couple of different outfits advertising in "Shotgun News." In almost all of the thousands of cases I resized, I had no problem using a regular sizing die and primer remover. When the occasional "problem" case came along that was difficult to deprime, I stopped sizing it and set it aside to deprime with a punch. For all of the cases that were resized and deprimed with the regular sizing die, I found no problem seating new primers. I did the all the initial sizing, and repriming work on a Rock Chucker, and once that was completed, I found the Lake City brass to work just fine even with a progressive press. For the very small number of cases that did not size easily in the initial process, I used a reamer for the primer pocket and they also worked just fine in later use.

Were these Lake City cases crimped when I bought them, and were they fired in machine guns? I have no idea. They were simply bulk quantities of brass that was picked up by the military and sold to the surplus dealers. At one time I also bought a large quantity of Lake City match ammunition in 30-06. It was a long time ago, but it seems like it was about $1 per box of 20 when I purchased five or ten thousand rounds of it.

Lake City brass seems mighty fine to me.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile