I just got hold of 1000 308 military brass. Do I treat it like commercial brass or is there special info I need to know? I have always heard this LC brass is thicker. Any suggestions. Thanks, Wallacem in Ga
Question about reloading 308 military brass.
- Thread starter wallacem
- Start date
What he said
I've reloaded some for a M1A so used small base dies. Since most surplus has been fired thru full auto weapons with generous chambers Dillon Case Lube helped a lot. It's a mixture of lanolin and alcohol. As already mentioned you have to do more prep due to the crimped primers and allow for the thicker case walls with the loads. I also trimmed all the cases but that may not be necessary.
Follow the above suggestions and its good advice.
Don't forget to true the primer pockets, and the primer pocket flash hole up also...
Good luck take time and do it right the first and you will enjoy the results many times over.
Don't forget to true the primer pockets, and the primer pocket flash hole up also...
Good luck take time and do it right the first and you will enjoy the results many times over.
I've reloaded a bunch of the LC 308 brass. The crimp as mentioned before has to go... I tried to hand "trim" the crimp out. This was slow and inconsistent for me.
I found a swage kit that works really well (fast and easy). It is made by CH4D. I bought the kit but have only used the large swager.
Here is the link:
https://www.ch4d.com/products/equipment/case-tools/psk
I found a swage kit that works really well (fast and easy). It is made by CH4D. I bought the kit but have only used the large swager.
Here is the link:
https://www.ch4d.com/products/equipment/case-tools/psk
I like the Dillon decrimper better, after having bent and broken the RCBS one a couple of times. Don't know about the CH4D, but any press mounted one can't be faster than the darned Dillon. It's expensive. It's also lightning fast, and works exceedingly well. When I did a thousand a year, I suffered through with the RCBS. But at several thousand a year-- I'm glad I ponied up the money for the Dillon. (It's faster to just decrimp them all than to try to sort them, if you have a batch of mixed brass.)
There's a clever mod with a rubber band that will speed up the Dillon by another 25% or so.
There's a clever mod with a rubber band that will speed up the Dillon by another 25% or so.
I too have come across milsup brass that was more than likely fired in automatic weapons. I've had a difficult time resizing. Removing the crimp was the easy part. I've used both Lee and RCBS SB & Full dies with limited success. All in all I would pass on future so called "once fired military brass". I have two M1A1's and LR-308 that are not particularly fond of the resized ammo. Mine seems to chamber better in a Encore 308 barrel that I have.
