Bad brass

[Rosebud]

Most of military brass and other brands that are shot in auto weapons and AR platforms will be dented at the shoulder or base from hitting the brass deflector. It can be used but prep time goes up.

 

[Wachsmann]

It's all the LC stuff which I have bought some lake city brass before and had to load down some, compared to some of the Remington and Winchester brass. It did produce pressure at lower charges. I think I also have 2 bags of Lake city brass new stuff for my 7mm-08. My mandrel are on there way for the 308; should be here middle of next week. I'll probably just pick out some of the most dinged one that have no issue with chambering and shoot those with a mid range to 3/4 range load and see how they come out. I will probably pick up some of those cheap blemish bullets also for fire forming.

 

[Teri Anne]

So I have some "Top Brass" that I pulled out last night and started processing. I got it during when it was about the only thing I could find. After just putting it through the works and seeing the small somewhat hard dings in a lot of it I have to ask myself is it even worth the initial fire forming. I'm really on the fence about this stuff. Cause it may take 2 firings to really get some of the dings out. Some are really close at the shoulder or on the shoulder. It's all 308 win brass. I thought about finishing processing it all and just put it on the shelf for a really rainy day if needed. I kind of think in todays times with powder, primers, and bullets, being not as available and time and cost, when especially trying to make items as consistent as possible for longer ranges my gut is telling its not worth the trouble. You can put your best suit on a turd but it still stinks. What are some of y'all's thoughts? I can get some better brass pretty easy now it seem like Scheels carries a few good brands. I think Hornady would even be much better.

A few years ago I was teaching someone how to reload. He was using a RCBS lube pad and managed to get lube on the shoulders which caused the expected dings. He was loading target loads and we went to the range and fired the dinged ammo. There was no difference in the accuracy between dings and non dinged and all the dings fire formed back to the chamber. We were able to reload the cases 3 more times before any of the necks started to split during resizing. Dings are not an issue as long as the cases chamber easily.

 

[Wachsmann]

Sounds good. So I now have processed the rest of the 150 or so pieces of brass. Did the full work up on them even using a primer pocket hole reamer to take out any of he little brass flakes that are left behind from initial primer hole punching. When my mandrels come in I will take about 20 of them and do this last process of expanding the necks with a .306 mandrel. I may do 10 with the 306 and 10 with a 305 since I ordered both and the die. I also have some dry lube that I was going to try with these. I went with the stainless Sinclair setup. Hopefully the dry lubricant will work with the stainless. Never used the dry stuff before but some say it works great.