Commercial ammo out of SAAMI spec

[Paulbunyon]

Merry Christmas, all! Question to the broader community. I purchased some commercially reloaded .308 ammo with 168gn A-Max's through an online retailer (Ammo Valley) that seemed like a decent deal. When the order showed up, it was divided into two shipments, each with a different head stamped brass (pretty low quality, standard mil surplus stuff.) I separated the headlamps and took it all out to the range. One of the sets performed as expected. The other I started having trouble chambering rounds. The bolt just would not close, just like an no-go gauge. After 4-5 of these, I decided to stop trying that brass. When I got home, I tried some of the "bad" rounds in other 308 chambers. None would chamber and some literally stuck and had to be pushed back out with a cleaning rod. So, I decided to check the rest of that brass and found about a 40% failure rate (at least in a Tikka chamber). On an additional 20%, I was getting what looked like head swipes after a bolt close/open cycle (no firing). I haven't had a chance to measure them yet, but my expectation is that the shoulder is WAY far forward. I reached out to Ammo Valley and their response was essentially that they didn't warrantee their ammo and there was nothing they would do. I'm away from my bench for another few days, but will try to remember to post actual head stamp and shoulder measurements when I get back for the greater audience.

Before I start harvesting the Amax's and putting the brass through a full length sizer, I'm curious if any of you have other recommendations. Also, I have no clue what powder is currently in there, but I can weigh it out and redistribute it after the brass is correctly sized. Is there any issue with that? It's about 100 rounds, so I don't want to end up with a lot of unsafe, twice remanufactured rounds.

Thanks in advance for the input!

 

[waspocrew]

Bummer on the ammo, but that's the gamble with remanufactured ammo. At the very least, I would pull the projectiles. As you mentioned, you could size the cases, then charge with the pulled powder. It'd be a bit of work, but it's up to you to determine if it's worth your time.

 

[Paulbunyon]

Thanks, Was. I've had all sorts of issues with remanufactured ammo in the past, so my bar was low for accuracy and reliability, but this is the first time I've had issues simply chambering a round. I guess I'll have to move my bar a bit lower for next time . It's all range ammo anyway, so just time and money.