Salvaging & Reloading 30-06 Blanks

[CarlC]

I inherited several thousand rounds of cardboard wad roll crimped blanks with duties as our AL Post armorer. I have pulled the powder and popped the primers (via 03) on a couple hundred to sell as brass salvage but that is time consuming and boring. With the dearth of brass and primers these days I wondered about reloading the primed brass. I opened the crimp with a tapered punch then ran them through a die sans depriming pin. What you see is what I got. The brass is mixed headstamps of 53 & 54 vintage with no indication of neck/shoulder annealing. I assume the primers are corrosive so the cases would be reloaded with cast bullets for bolt guns.

Anybody have experience doing this? If nobody has any "OMG, never do that!" experiences or knowledge, I'll brew up a few rounds and see if the neck holds together.

Thanks for your input,

Carl

Information

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[Bruce McAskill]

Carl, Most of the time blanks are made from cases rejected during the loading process for normal ammunition and were not considered safe to use. Being that they were not subject to much if any pressure as blanks they were used for that. When rejected brass was not available the plants used fired brass to make blanks from but there is no way to tell what case is a flawed case and what case isn't. Might be best to just scrap the cases.

[CarlC]

Thanks for the info. I'll pop the primers and wait for brass prices to recover. There could be a couple of needed op rods in it for us.

[sigman2]

Carl,

I have reformed many 1909 Blanks into 6.5x55 and 7.65x43mm and have had no problems whatsoever.

In fact, my all time best group with my stock Arg. 1909, 7/8" 5 shot/100 yds, was fired with mixed headstamp reformed 1909s.

I have never has any case failures. I do aneal after forming.

[Bob S]

I have been reloading ex-blank cases since the late 60's; mostly for cast bullet loads, but not all. I pulled out the cardboard closure piece, dumped the flash powder, used a marlinspike made from an EMD diesel engine valve stem to partly remove the roll crimp, then ran the primed cases through a FL sizing die with the decapping pin removed. Instant primed cases. Most of those cases are still going strong today.

Sometime later, I came across a bunch of blanks with "MATCH" headstamps. I wrote off to Dope Bag about my "Match-grade blanks", and this is the response form Chuck Suydam:



Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Wink]

Live blanks? 1903? Might be interested in a bunch as they work VERY well with my golf ball launcher and can be used in my f/a 1919A4. Finds at gun shows are sparse and WAY too expensive to shoot. TIA

[musketshooter]

I don't understand why you are destroying them. They are non-corrosive and would be an asset to sell if you need money for other club stuff. Most blanks dated in that range were made up from regular fired ctgs. The primer pockets were heavily swaged to allow for insertion of the new primers. The pockets are usually to large to safely reload. If the crimp looks a little wider than normal, that is what you have.

[seabee73]

I've removed the crimp with a screwdriver blade, resized with the decap pin removed, loaded with 47g of 4895, 150g surplus bullets, retaining the original GI primer. Used them for plinking, fun rounds with no problems. Shot hundreds of them. Don't waste those primers!

[Wink]

1903! I meant to type M1909! Seriously, I could use some if the price isn't too bad. Last good batch I found at a gun show a couple years ago I grabbed 400 for $60-70 w/a can. Early opening morning and I snagged 'em quick! Use the money to get pull-downs from Bartletts, he still shows LC as available.

[CarlC]

I've loaded up a small assortment of cast loads as well as 20 rounds of M2 Ball spec loads. I'll give them a try over the week.