Using once fired brass in your rifle

Once fired in someone else's rifle, my favorite, then there is more favorite. To make the once fired case more favorite it has to have been fired in a trashy old chamber, that would be a chamber that is longer than my chambers from the datum to the bolt face and there is the bonus. A bonus case would be a chase that has been fired in a chamber that has a larger chamber body.

I do not want a case to fit my chambers, I want to size them to fit. I have chamber gages, I have case gages and I have cut off barrels for chamber gages. I measure cases before firing and again after sizing.

then there is measuring cases I did not fire. I measure them before sizing, I have to measure the case after sizing, how else am I going to determine if the case will chamber.

F. Guffey
 
I disagree. Primer color indicates who made the primer, nothing more.
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Primer color indicates nothing. ...Not even manufacturer.
All manufacturers that offer plated primers also regularly or occasionally sell unplated primers in the same component packaging or ammunition.


Primers tell you nothing about the cartridge's origin, unless they're marked. (Such as MagTech primers.)

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I use previously-fired .223 Rem / 5.56x45mm, .30-06, 7.62x54R, .444 Marlin, ...and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.
If the case looks good, it's just as usable as any other case. After sizing and firing it'll be fire-formed to the chamber just like anything else, just with one extra firing taken from its lifespan.

I do not, however, use previously-fired brass in my .270s or 6mm wildcat. Those rifles get very carefully prepped, sorted, and tracked brass that was purchased new, for that specific rifle. I want them to perform at their best, so I eliminate the variable of different lots of brass throwing flyers.


Short version:
I use only brand new, sorted brass for precision applications.
But, I'm willing to use range brass for less critical shooting situations, or when I find a really good lot of range brass.


The BEST lot of .30-06 brass that I use is actually some range-pickup LC 67. I found about 50 pieces of brass (a little worse for ~25 years in the desert), sorted out the scrap, fully prepped the lot, and ended up with 34 amazingly consistent and usable cases. It's even better than the Lapua .30-06 that I run in the same rifle. :D
 
When disagreeing with my post wogpotta, marco polo, write my entire quote and keep the information together,..its more helpfull.:rolleyes:

At my local range you will find more people that leave their brassvthere brought it in the commercial package that they purchased it in.
Also Remington, Winchester, Hornady, Federal is mostly left, all these manufactures produce ammunition with "Brass colored primers", right? You following me?
When these people shoot their commercial ammo, instead of taking it home to handload more ammo, they pitch it into a bucket, here come the hooligan 1 picking it all out and taking it home.,.,,,FREE...

Thats when the inspection starts, Im lookin for soot in the ne ks and sizing marks and primer color as well as sealer stains.....you still with me fellas, then they are measured for distance between head and shoulder datum, as well as entire length, and diameter readings from a few places on the cartridge....if it measures up, it goesvin the 1time fired bucket, if not it goes into the scrap bucket....
 
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When disagreeing with my post wogpotta, marco polo, write my entire quote and keep the information together,..its more helpfull.

At my local range you will find more people that leave their brassvthere brought it in the commercial package that they purchased it in.
Also Remington, Winchester, Hornady, Federal is mostly left, all these manufactures produce ammunition with "Brass colored primers", right? You following me?
When these people shoot their commercial ammo, instead of taking it home to handload more ammo, they pitch it into a bucket, here come the hooligan 1 picking it all out and taking it home.,.,,,FREE...

Thats when the inspection starts, Im lookin for soot in the ne ks and sizing marks and primer color as well as sealer stains.....you still with me fellas, then they are measured for distance between head and shoulder datum, as well as entire length, and diameter readings from a few places on the cartridge....if it measures up, it goesvin the 1time fired bucket, if not it goes into the scrap bucket....
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Pure old-wives-tale-myth-urban-legend-bovine-skat.
Specifically, the color of primers does not support any generalization about once fired or not. What brands may or may not be used at any particular range is not supportable or meaningful to this broad audience. All places I shoot at have rifle and pistol brass with a lot of it being military, thus not specifically commercial brass. H. objected to my targeted disagreement above, and reiterated unreliable or not universally applicable generalizations that cloud and drift whatever his intended message may have been. And then there are the spelling and typos. Yes, I disagreed, and included the en masse post per H.'s request to be more helpful. Indeed, I find H.'s posts in this thread to be disagreeable.
My point being that NO range pickup should be assumed to be once fired based on H.'s criteria, unless your buddy bought it new, shot it and handed it to you immediately.
There is a reasonable method to discern once fired military brass, specifically the presence of a crimped-in primer.
I do seek to actively discourage the propagation of falsehoods. I consider this primer color indicator to be one of those falsehoods.
 
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Pure old-wives-tale-myth-urban-legend-bovine-skat.
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I wouldn't say that you've chosen the best method of addressing his post.
...Nor provided any argument ...or even relevant commentary.

If you're going to label hooligan's statements as skat, at least have the decency to be specific about which part(s) you think deserve(s) the label.


If it's the brass...
Happens all the time. Last night, I actually came across two boxes of .45 Auto brass that had been nicely returned to the original boxes. ...And then unceremoniously dumped in a trash can with another 20-30 pieces of loose brass. (Yep, I was digging through the trash. It's 40% targets, 5% broken cheap gun accessories, 49% empty ammo boxes, 1% dead batteries, and 5% surprise. ...You never know what that mystery 5% will be. Sometimes it's brass. Sometimes it's black widows. Sometimes it's pieces of the shelter over the firing line. :rolleyes:)

I was a little disappointed, though. There were also several boxes from Hornady .50 BMG ammo, but a scrounger before me had taken the brass. :(
 
But each and every round I produce gets the case gauge.
If the final product fits in the case gauge, it will fit ANY standard chamber,
And a case gauge will find buckled shoulders from too aggressive a crimp, being off center in the powder die, missing resizing, etc..
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I have case gages, my case gages will check a fired case and a sized case. I also have chamber gages, if I need a chamber gage I think nothing of cutting one from a barrel or making with a reamer. And? It is not fair, your case gages doubles as a chamber gage.

F. Guff
 
Marco, you don't use range brass. Your invited to use my range. The brands of oncefired brass does have a meaningful generalization being that they are different. You give that a think and get back.

From now on, I will use all the range brass, and you can leave it to me....
What color are the primers you use in your loads? I dont want to know brand name or size, just tell me what color they may be.
Lastly I didn't say to the op that he should use it, I just gave my point of view, feel free to disagree with any of my post Marco...
 
I once had to laugh at a fellow confidently declaring a batch of cases left on the ground to be "from reloads" and walking off disdainfully. Why did I laugh? Because I saw the previous shooter pull them from factory boxes and run them through his pistol!

Here are some rifle cartridges I had lying around. The .308s were picked up from a police sniper class running at my range, I am 100% confident declaring those once-fired brass. The .30-30s are all factory ammo. Notice how the Hornady match .308s use silver primers while the Hornady .30-30s are brass. And all of the Federal are silver.



To really blow a hole in the "you can tell if they're reloads by the brass color" I have a few hundred .223 reloads lying around. Some have CCI #41 primers (brass), some have CCI #450 (silver), some have Remington 7 1/2 (brass) and yet others used CCI BR4s (silver). I've also reloaded lots of .30-30 with CCI-200s (silver) and Winchester WLPs (brass). Obviously if I slipped some of those CCI-200s into some FC cases and left them lying around, they look like factory ammo. Or I could put some WLPs in Winchester or Remington cases and they would match the factory condition as well!
 
My mistake, all Federal oncefired that found its way into my range box had silver primers that were sealed, no soot in mouth, no sizing marks....
 
It's really pretty simple. Buy a full length sizer and a neck sizer. Once range brass is full length sized and fired in your gun, just neck size after that.

I guess all kinds of theory's can be formulated as to why you shouldn't use it but, I look at it like this. Reloader's tend to pick up there brass. Even when discarding it. It is worth about $7/lb. I've never met a reloader that wasn't frugal. I truly believe that the theory that range brass is to risky because the last time it was fired the reloader left it laying is nothing but theory.

I have shot and reloaded a bunch of it. It probably makes up 50% of my brass. As long as it is full length sized the first time, it has done fine. Every now and then I find a piece that has been crushed or damaged beyond repair but, it cleans and trims up nice and some of them are on their 7th or 8th loading.

Range brass is no problem if you approach it properly. God Bless
 
WV, I'm with you, any brass in your caliber is a VERY good thing,
Any brass at all is good, almost $8 a pound here, and it adds up fast...

Once resized, it's back to SAAMI specifications, so what's the big deal?...
That little FACT never gets answered!

If you just neck size, Full length resize used brass,
Fire them ONCE and it's back to just neck sizing again.
No big deal...

I'm WAY PAST worrying about what package my ACCURATE rounds come in.
It's just the package to keep loose powder out of your chamber, and hold the primer in place.

All these guys have forgotten that Schuetzen rifles used flint locks, percussion caps, muzzle loading, breach loading with paper cartridges, ect.

LONG BEFORE brass cartridges,

And those guys shot 1,000 yards just as accurately WITHOUT magnification optics,

Use 500+ grain lead bullets,

And fired 120 rounds at the targets for an average group,
Instead of 5 or 10 times like the wimps do today...

Just the IDEA of launching a 500 to 600 grain chunk of lead pushed by 120+ grains of black powder makes my teeth rattle,
But doing it 120 times in a row makes me want to hide under the bed!

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Went to the gun range yesterday,
Fired about 103 rounds, 100 carefully aimed, 3 'Fliers' (not so carefully aimed).

Picked up brass, all brass laying around.
Ran them through the tumbler to clean them up,

Deprimed the 'Brass' sorted out the rest, aluminum, steel, handgun, .308, 7.62x39, ect.Just swept up what was on the concrete and dumped it into my 'Fired' can...

Shot I *Think* 103 rounds,
Cleaned, then deprimed/resized 216 .223/5.56 which got resized to .223...

Also came away with 2 dozen .243 brass, which I've been looking for and can't find a reasonable price on...

Couple of pounds of scrap brass, counting a crap load of .22 Rimfire/.17 Rimfire and bottle neck handgun brass I'm never going to load.

All in all, a good day!

If you don't load common brass, I'll pay shipping!
(ain't flat rate boxes great! :D)
.223/.22-250/.243/.308/.30-06/.300 Win Mag/.300 WSM/ 9mm/.38-.357/.45 ACP/.44 Mag
Get a box full and I'll be glad to pay shipping!
 
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Just a passing thought about "New manufacturers boxes" being an indication of "New, factory ammo".

You can put reloaded rounds back in the old boxes.:eek:
 
You can put reloaded rounds back in the old boxes.
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Wogpotter, my Gm pick up had a fuel pump failure in front of a do-nut shop. I had to get it home to fix so I called a reloader. Not a problem, he arrived with a tow rope, we made it home without incident. On the way over I ask him to stop at a recycling container belonging to a neighbor. He stopped, I did not have to make excuses, the boxes were small and heavily built. Everything I am involved in is heavy, I need small boxes. When we go to the range he knows I am going to recover all the discarded ammo boxes.

I gave him 400 cases of 38 Special, 200 were in boxes I recovered from the range. I do not pick up brass at the range unless a shooter gives it to me. The range ask members not to, it is a source of revenue for them.

F. Guffey
 
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