Guys,

I was getting my Garand back into service ... hasn't been fired in maybe 30 years.

Found some old military brass fired x1 from this very rifle. Not in bad shape ... tumble cleaned up fine.

Some of the ammo was obviously corrosive as the primer cups were corroded.

(Have reloaded older 45 ACP but not 30-06 this old.) Anyone see any problems in reloading this brass?

There is at least one problem using brass that was fired (and not promptly cleaned) with mercuric primers...the mercury in the primer changes the chemical structure of the brass. I believe it effects the zinc in the brass, and makes it brittle. If I were you, I would save the brass for a memento, and buy new or modern once fired.

flutedchamber

US military brass? If it is WW-II or later it should be fine. Our arsenals did not use mecuric priming for 30-06, as far as I know. It was chlorate priming mix. FA-70 was a common primer. In fact I just used the last of my FA-70 primers in some black powder loads last week. They worked great. I don't think they ever did use mecuric priming but, the 40s or later stuff is fine brass. In fact, I have fired WW-1 vintage 30-06. It worked OK but the necks did split on some. I have used pleanty of DEN 42, and reloaded it many times. It is tough stuff.

The primer pocket will need to be swaged or reamed. That alone would cause me to buy some new manufacture bulk cases from a reloading supply company. 100 will cost you about 30 bucks and be well worth it in saved frustration.

Thanks! It was my vague memory that the corrosive primer used by the US arsonals during and after WW II was the chlorate variety ... just could not be sure after all these years.

Will remove the crimps. Have done that with a boat load of 30-06 and 308.

Must admit that I was surprised to find this box of spents after all of these years.

If I remember the rules of good loading practice for the M1, medium burn rate powders are recommended as moderate pressures at the gas port is desirable.

One of the major components of early "corrosive" primers was fulminate of mercury and according to "Hatcher's Notebook" the mercury deposited in brass cases caused premature cracking of the brass.

Also noted in "HN" was: "At present writing, March, 1947, we are changing over slowly to a non-corrosive primer in the service cartridge, and a portion of this year's manufacture will have this type of primer."

We were told that, while some arsenals changed over sooner than others, M2 ball ammo manufactured prior to 1952-1953 was corrosive, and cleaned our M1's accordingly.

Always a good idea to check your bore a couple of times after firing ammo not known to be non-corrosive.

Regards,
hm

PS

quote:

If I remember the rules of good loading practice for the M1, medium burn rate powders are recommended as moderate pressures at the gas port is desirable.

45 to 47 gr. H4895 behind a 150 gr. Sierra match king and a CCI 34 primer (hard cup to help prevent slam-fire) will closely duplicate M2 ball ammo and produce proper port pressures in an M1.

Load 147-168gr bullets w/ IMR4895 or W748 to pretty much duplicate original military loading. Hornady manual has loads specifically for the Garand/M1A.

There seems to be some confusion on mecuric and corrosive primers. They are not the same. ......And Hatcher speaks, P-353 Noncorosive primers:

"For many years after the first metallic cartridge came into use, all primers had as one of their principal constituents a very sensitive explosive called fulimate of mercury, and in addition, they had more or less potassium chlorate. This mixture worked all right for black powder...When smokeless powder came into use, this picture changed.

This was described to the Chief of Ordance(brass weakining from the mercury) in his report for the year 1897. The next year the the Ordance Department started loading the service Kraig cartridge with a non mecuric primer."

And that was the end of mecuric primers. They were never used again. Various chlorate primers were used until the end of WW-II. The 30-06 never used mecuric primers. They were corrosive, they will rust your barrel but are harmless to the brass.

Hope that helps.