Australian source of fired .303 brass

[Bearclaw]

G'day guys does anyone here in OZ know of a location to source for fired brass.

Myles

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[Maxwell Smart]

Good question; the military don't use it any more, so none from them I'd think

Perhaps drop a line to the good Doctor at AV Ballistics.

Someimes I have some good luck at the range and find someone shooting Mk7 surplus - since it is Berdan primed often they are happy to give it away. (Have not yet struck anyone who will do the same with boxer primed brass though!)

[Bruce_in_Oz]

There is no ex-mil stuff around.

Any that used to be around was generally mercuric primed. This is easily identified by the copper primer cup. When fired, a fair whack of the mercury in the priming compound instantly migrates into the brass of the case proper.

This is not a good thing, as it interferes with the copper/zinc bond which makes brass what it is.

Thus, brass fired ONCE with mercuric primers will crack eventually; often on the next firing. This next firing also depends on whether you have a stash or RWS 6000 .250" diameter Berdan primers or not.

Our North American cousins seem to be reasonably well endowed with both ex-mil boxer-primed brass or stuff loaded with corrosive, but non-mercuric "small" Berdan primers; not to mention reasonably priced Boxer-primed brass.

I still have a small stash of 1950's vintage FN .303 brass that uses the smaller primer; excellent brass, all you need it a goodly stash of RWS 5627 or 5608 primers, a good de-priming tool and patience. The RWS primers are non-mercuric and "non-corrosive".

Much easier to start with new, commercial, Boxer-primed brass.

Unless you have a major herd of Lee Enfields to feed, keep a separate allocation of cases for each rifle and keep track of load data etc.

[tbonesmith]

Do like the rest of us and get new brass and save the hassle. Remington brass gives me up to 20 reloads.

[Bearclaw]

Tom, yeah I am slowly building my rems up after your previous advice.

Myles

[Son]

How many are you after?

[Bearclaw]

Brad, As many as I can get my hands on. Just missed out on a some.

Myles

[Demo]

Drop me a line Myles. I'll put you onto someone in Brisbane who may be able to help.

ahdemos@bigpond.com

[pedro243]

While someone has brought it up, what are the prices like for ex-mil and factory ammo over east?

Im from WA and can get factory ammo for $21/20 or $19/32 for ex-mil ammo

[Son]

I don't have to buy ammo, but I keep an eye on prices... Your factory stuff at $1.05 each is a pretty good buy.... The milsurp at $19 for 32 (32 round boxes I think will only be POF) is probably ok as long as it all goes bang. That stuff is infamous for hangfires as well as being very dirty. So dirty that personally I wouldn't use it for the amount of cleaning needed after it. But then, I don't HAVE to use it.