Reloading old .30-06 brass

[bdbrown66]

Question for you seasoned reloaders...

When my wife's grandfather passed away a couple years ago, I "inherited" a collection of miscellaneous ammo and brass from his workshop. Pappy had been a gun builder for decades, and the rifle he built for me is one of the last, if not the very last one that he built. Custom .30-06 built on an Oberndorf Mauser action.

Anyway, I've got about 60 pieces of miscellaneous .30-06 brass that he had loaded/fired. The loaded stuff, I just pulled the bullets, dumped the powder out, and fired off the primer. Then put them all in the tumbler for a good cleaning. It's a mix of LC '62, SL '52, WWRA '54, and a scattering of other headstamps. My question: Is there any problem with using brass this old? I've inspected it for any obvious signs of problems, and threw out any that looked suspect. Does brass get brittle with age, such that it would not be safe to use? No sense wasting it, unless there's a safety issue.

Thanks in advance,
Brian

 

[DrMike]

The brass does not get brittle with age; it grows brittle with working. I'd be inclined to anneal the brass and use it for fouling shots and/or load development.

 

[1Shot]

Most of what you listed is military cases and they are thicker and have less capacity. They take 1 to 2 grs LESS powder than Remington WW etc. to get the same pressure and velocity.

 

[bdbrown66]

Would it still be military brass if it was stamped "National Match?" At least some of it is.

 

[BretN]

Yep, the national match LC brass is the good military brass. It does not have crimped primers, so you can deprime and reprime like regular commercial brass. I got a bunch of the same vintage brass thrown in when I bought a bunch of my uncle's reloading gear. I use it in my 30-06. I haven't chronographed those loads, but they are as accurate as any other loads I have developed. No split necks or other problems, plus I like hunting with something that was once my uncle's.

 

[Polaris]

I would not hesitate to use any of this brass. Many of those headstamps are still found on the line at Garand matches. Until recently, I was running some FA43 brass in my rifle still. After 5 firings, I discarded it. No failures, just my rule of thumb for the M1. 5, then chuck it. Garands are hard on brass.

 

[joelkdouglas]

If you don't want it I'll take it! Just kidding, I would anneal it and shoot it!

 

[Guy Miner]

And a bag of 50 brand new .30-06 cases is easy to get and fairly inexpensive. Just a thought.

Guy

 

[CamoHunter]

One word of caution though. I started reloading mainly because I inherited my dad's 300 H&H.
Shells and brass were somewhat hard to find and I had around a hundred used brass of various head stamps. While shooting some of these a had a partial head case separation on a couple of pieces of brass. This was after checking them with a paper clip before I loaded them. I had no idea how many times these had been reloaded either so I decided to retire these and start over with fresh brass. I do think the super 30 is a little harder on brass though because of case design.

Camo

 

[PJGunner]

One word of caution though. I started reloading mainly because I inherited my dad's 300 H&H.
Shells and brass were somewhat hard to find and I had around a hundred used brass of various head stamps. While shooting some of these a had a partial head case separation on a couple of pieces of brass. This was after checking them with a paper clip before I loaded them. I had no idea how many times these had been reloaded either so I decided to retire these and start over with fresh brass. I do think the super 30 is a little harder on brass though because of case design.

Camo

You can get past that by proper sizing die set up. Take a new once fired case and blacken the neck and should (what little of it there is ) and then loosen the lock ring on the die and back it off about a turn and a half. Lube the case as usual, the run it through the die. Check the markings on the blacked portion. (Magic Marker or Sharpee Pen work great for this) You'll have to screw the die down a bit and try again. Make the adjustments small and when the just touch the shoulder or a hair before, clean off the lube and try it in the rifle. The shell should still be a bit of a tight fit. If so, just a very small adjustment of the die, lube and run the case though again, clean and try. As soon as you've reached the spot where very little or no resistance is felt, lock the ring tight and load away. The big difficulty with the .300 H&H is that long sloping shoulder but if you're careful, that should reduce the problem significantly.
Paul B.

 

[PJGunner]

On GI mislurp brass, around 1957 or 1958 I bought 600+ rounds of FA, LC and TW brass dated mostly 1942 and some 1943. I still have some of that brass deprived and unfired. Loads just fine and so far haven't even bothered to anneal the necks. These days I just use them mostly for cast bullet work which actually is harder on necks that jacketed bullets. Remove the crimp and ream the flash holes is all I did to them. Still have a couple hundred LC51 06 as well to recap and remove crimps. It's all good stuff.
Paul B.

ETA: I use commercial brass, mostly Winchester then Remington for serious hunting ammo but if that milsurp was all I had, I'd just work up a load and use it.
PB

 

[JD338]

The National Match LC, Lake City Armory brass is very good brass.
I'm with Guy, just get a bag of new Winchester brass and don't look back.

JD338

 

[preacher]

As a beginning reloader, back in '77 or so, I'd normally shoot a box of factory loads and then reload that brass several times. Later, when I wanted to build up some extra shooting/plinking ammo, I'd stop by a gunrange and buy range brass for pennies each. I'd stick with whatever head stamp was most available, usually it was Remington in the 30-06. I didn't have a tumbler/vibrator, I just brushed the inside well and used fine steel wool on the outside. I didn't see much military brass, so it was never an issue as I didn't mess with it, I don't do annealing either...as a shooter/hunter and not a competitor, I only worked on hunting related loads, not match or target. I enjoyed reading about it, and learned a lot from that, but it was not needed as it took me over 20yrs to get a shot on a deer past 90yds! ha. The Big Thicket of East Texas long ranges were on old roads or pipeline right of ways, but the deer leases were few and far between. someone had to die before a slot opened up! Texas is full of "JR Ewing" types....this mine, mine, mine, stay out, go away! ha

 

[Guy Miner]

Well ya, Texas is mostly private property.

 

[bdbrown66]

Hey, guys...thanks to all for taking the time to reply. Here's what I learned:

I should load it up and use it...or not.

I think what I'll do is FL resize and trim it back to the proper length. Check the water capacity vs. the new Remington brass that I have on hand. Load up a few samples and see how it shoots. If it seems to have issues, I'll throw it away. If not, I'll get a few loadings out of it, at least. Will keep an eye out for signs of deterioration, etc.

Cheers,
Brian

 

[CamoHunter]

Brian,
Sounds good. With my old brass I had no idea how many times that it had been reloaded or by whom. More than likely even identical head stamps were reloaded at different rates.
After shooting them once or twice I found two that had partial case head separations.
To me with all of the unknowns I just decided to not use them as I had a couple hundred of new brass already. So For the 300 H&H I threw out all of my old brass. I do have hundreds of old brass in 243, 270 & 30-06 that I am saving and will use for load development or plinking.
( or save for zombies )
I did recycle the used brass that I got with my 7mm-08 too, but that was because of loose primer pockets.

Camo

 

[preacher]

Guy- yeah, and "been" private since about 1840! ha