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I bought 5000 pieces of 5.56 LC brass that had "been prepaired", (i.e. primer pockets swaged, cleaned, resized, trimmed, etc...). The guy had like 30,000 of them so I assumed he knew what he was doing. I should have know better than to do this but thought I'd save myself a lot of work. Just like using someone else's reloads, it wasn't a good idea. They looked real nice but I didn't have any measuring tools with me when I picked them up. 20 percent or so have crimps that are still not swaged enough to accept primers. Then today, after I have primed 2500 pieces, I find out that the guy's FL die was set incorrectly and his expander might have been too large or he didn't size them at all.... Many of them don't go into the case guage fully and most of them have necks opened up too large, such that the bullets fall into the case. Lucky for me they were NOT trimmed even tough they were supposed to be, (i.e. they weren't ruined) but I get to resize and trim them all and had to swage a whole lot of them again. Thank God I have a Giraud power trimmer and Dillon swage tool. They were not from anyone on this forum and it's been several months since I "did the deal". Just needed to vent and thought I'd warn those that buy from unknown sellers. Do your own prep work or you could be paying for what isn't done or is done incorrectly. Live and learn, | ||
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Well at least you had a power trimmer! I use Little Crow Gunworks. Can't believe all those years I cranked old style case trimmer! Yikes! Rusty We Band of Brothers! DRSS, NRA & SCI Life Member "I am rejoiced at my fate. Do not be uneasy about me, for I am with my friends." ----- David Crockett in his last letter (to his children), January 9th, 1836 "I will never forsake Texas and her cause. I am her son." ----- Jose Antonio Navarro, from Mexican Prison in 1841 "for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Arbroath April 6, 1320-“. . .It is not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.” | |||
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I've done the same thing, but I didn't get so far into it before I figured out that something was wrong. I had some .257 Weatherby brass all loaded that I couldn't chamber. Out came the the puller... | |||
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I might be work, but rather size them all in you sizer die. Turn the decapper up in the die so that it does not decap, but only expand. After proper sizing, I would trim and debur them. Try getting a primer pocker reamer to take out the crimp before the next reloading. | |||
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Rusty, That Little Crow Gunworks trimmer looks like a less expensive version of the Giraud style. Good looking tool. Had I seen it first , I might have saved myself some money. However, the Giraud is a first rate trimmer/chamfering tool and I'm blessed to have one. Giraud trimmer I pulled the decapping pin and am resizing and trimming them all. Just not in the typical order. I used the Dillon swage tool on the crimps as needed when priming, it just made it a stop and go process. Nothing that can't be fixed. | |||
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I never use cases that are "prepared", once fired, or found on the gun range. With new brass they are measured and lightly trimmed, prepared, and fired. After cleaning they are trimmed to final size, sorted by weight, and added to my stock of available brass. | |||
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I don't use unknown brass for my custom guns but for my AR (minute of pop can), plinking gun, I do. I just spend time sorting them. Yes....I'm a high end custom gun guy who also likes black guns. I'm also a Fly fisherman who bait fishes and throws lures. I even use once fired/range brass. Shameless... | |||
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I also agree with your approach to brass as described in your later post. I have and use thouands of rounds of brass which has come from God-only-knows-where. Perhaps 5-10,000 or so were various military surplus when I got them. Maybe another 5-10,000 or more are all sorts of range pickups which I "rejuvenated" over many years of collecting the stuff out of our Roseburg range trash cans and/or discard cans...still other thousands are brass which non-reloading users of our range gave me during our annual "sight-in" days....and a whole bunch are brass I picked up back in the 1980s nd early 90s at Black Canyon Range (now called Ben Avery) when that was consisidered 100% kosher. Heck, I've even bought guns just to use some of the brass that I ended up having in large quantities from Black Canyon. My experience has been that if one is an experienced reloader and has the proper measuring and preparation tools, he can tell pretty quickly if each round of brass is useable and safe. Those that aren't don't require a lot of time to mash and discard (or sell to the local metals yard for some handy cash). I don't how many rifles I have put to work over the years using such brass as donor stock but it would be a very large heap if piled into a (necessarily big) room. I enjoy reloading a good deal as a sort of "sub-hobby", and I am guesing maybe you do too, seeing as you have a good trimmer and a Dillon crimp remover. My country gal's just a moonshiner's daughter, but I love her still. | |||
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Sorry to hear about your problem. About 10 years ago I bought a 1,000 rounds of Lake City once fired brass that had been cleaned, polished, re-sized, trimmed, and primed with CCI 41 primers for some ridiculous price of around $60. I tried them out in a couple of .223 and they chambered just fine. It was great to reload them as all I had to do was to pour in the powder and set the bullet and everything was rosy. On the second go around on reloading the same brass again, I found that I had to re reamed out the primer pocket to make the CCI400 primers fit without crushing them in the attempt. I wondered if there was something different about the size of the 41 primer compared to the 400 primer but couldn't see any. What was a great deal the first time around, was not so great the second, but I love that LC brass. | |||
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I just us an adapter to connect my drill to my Forrest Trimer. As usual just my $.02 Paul K | |||
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As mentioned, range pick-up brass is no bargain but everyone has to discover that for themselves. To each his own, what soured me on cheap surplus brass was getting a couple berdan primed cases which destroy the decappers on 223 dies. Some 308 decappers are strong enough to punch through if you find a 308/30-06 berdan case but not 223, or at least RCBS 223 dies. Anyway Trez, sorry for your misfortune and I feel your pain! Mark for every hour in front of the computer you should have 3 hours outside | |||
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