military brass vs commercial brass

[beefyz]

for those reloading , does it matter to you which brass you prefer to use? i'm not talking about military brass suppossedly run through machine guns lolool. just plain old once fired military brass, lets say for the .30 carbine or '06, vs using commercial brass such as rems or wins. was told once that military was "stronger'" or better for reloading. your thoughts, thanks ?

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[jmoore]

Mostly just different.
MIGHT have differences in:

weight/ internal volume (which affects chamber pressure)
neck thickness
primer crimp
case neck annealling
age (may affect hardness/ brittleness)

Basically, most (US) military brass is of good quality, who knows w/ some of the oddball stuff.
Case volumes tend to be less w/ '06 and 7.62x51 military brass than commercial, 5.56 vs. .223- no telling! 30 carbine generally same-same. Iits only really important w/ max loads.
Crimped primers require more case prep the first time around.
Old brass often needs case neck annealing to avoid neck splits. Gotta be done uniformly, though or bullet tension can vary.
Etc., etc.

Just sort your brass, preferably by lots, for each mfg, and keep notes on any special "tweaks" needed whilst reloading each batch. For accuracy, you want things to be as close to identical as possible!!!

[Pelago]

Mostly just different.
MIGHT have differences in:

weight/ internal volume (which affects chamber pressure)
neck thickness
primer crimp
case neck annealling
age (may affect hardness/ brittleness)

Basically, most (US) military brass is of good quality, who knows w/ some of the oddball stuff.
Case volumes tend to be less w/ '06 and 7.62x51 military brass than commercial, 5.56 vs. .223- no telling! 30 carbine generally same-same. Iits only really important w/ max loads.
Crimped primers require more case prep the first time around.
Old brass often needs case neck annealing to avoid neck splits. Gotta be done uniformly, though or bullet tension can vary.
Etc., etc.

Just sort your brass, preferably by lots, for each mfg, and keep notes on any special "tweaks" needed whilst reloading each batch. For accuracy, you want things to be as close to identical as possible!!!

concur

i use a lot of GI, better and stronger, when i make match loads (a lot) i pick the brass out of same year and headstamp, and clean and prep brass and inspect brass...

load and go for it

shot a lot of cleans with M1A and AR15 using lake city gi brass

[stripper clip]

If you plan on running your loads over a chronograph, it would be a good idea to do it using military cases. Since military cases are generally thicker (as previously stated by the other members), you can determine a safe charge of powder that would be safe to load in either a military case or a commercial case.

[USSR]

Not much difference between commercial and milspec .30-06 and .30 Carbine. However, 7.62x51 and .308 is another matter, and reducing a load developed in .308 commercial brass by 1.5 grains when used in milsurp brass is recommended.

Don

[joem]

One of my older reloading books says to reduce you load by 2 gr. if using mil brass. That's all I reload is mil brass. Seems to hold up better.

[MR 8x57js]

I have plenty of Mil-Spec brass in .223 Remington & .308 Winchester. Both have provided me with real tight groups. It's thicker then commercial brass, but it has les volume the comerical brass, and then there's crimp in the primer pocket that must be removed. I keep my Max loads lower by 1-2 grains

[gandog56]

I really don't have any preferences. (Except I do not like S&B brass) I do try to separate the cases by headstamp when I reload them though and keep them separate.

[MR 8x57js]

[smellie]

I load a lot of .303 and I have been lucky enough to glom onto a huge whack of Defence Industries brass. This is the most consistent .303 brass I have ever encountered and there are NO problems associated with it.

Early in my reloading, I encountered all of this fuss about differences. Recently, I weighed several batches of .303 brass and found that DCCo military and commercial, Dominion commercial, pre-IVI Imperial commercial and Defence Industries (DI) brass ALL are so close that for any practical purpose there is ZERO difference.

I can't say for AMERICAN practices, but this is what CANADIAN brass shows.

There are, of course, normal manufacturing tolerances and differences in specifications, but the really remarkable thing is just how close they ALL were able to keep the stuff. Any differences are caused by tolerances in the punches, that's all. The MATERIAL is the same, the outside dimensions are the same, so.... any differences MUST be inside. This means the inner drawing punch. If the draw punches are made to the same specs, then the internals must be within spec also.

If you stay with relatively sane loads, I think any controversy is pretty much academic and almost in the same league as debating the number of angels which can dance on the head of a pin. If you absolutely MUST load right to the NUTS, then it's a different tale.