my dad has several thousand rounds of spent blank 30/06 cases. they date prior to 1980. they are standard length cases with a heavy crimp at the case mouth, not the extra length star crimp. i have read conflicting reports online about the suitability of such brass for use with normal bullets. some say blank brass was rejected by the manufacture for various reasons, and others say it's just like the real stuff and go for it! if it's viable brass, we're thinking about using it, but i wanted to get a few more opinions before doing so.

cases look just like the one on the far right

I tried to deprime and resize some of this brass a while back. Long story short, the heavy crimp was the problem. Very difficult to get the brass in and out of the FL die trying to resize and deprime the case, even with plenty of lube. After 2 or 3 unsuccessful attempts, (one of which bent the decapping rod) I came to the conclusion it wasn't worth the trouble. As far as the viability of the brass, I have no clue.

I have HEARD that it is not suitable for reloading.

In a word NO.
I don't doubt that with a lot of work one could convert the blank brass into a functional cartridge. But why go through all the work for something that may not work as well or may be dangerous?
There is plenty of standard 30-06 brass new and used on the market. And still relatively inexpensive.
Sell the blank brass for scrap and use the money for proper brass.

muck
PS
Why do I have the sudden urge to go swimming?

I think I have a box of about 300 empties around here, somewhere. I think they are all commercial. If I can find 'em, you can have them for the price of shipping them to you in a flat-rate box. Maximum it could be would be about fifteen bucks...

homebrewer, i'd gladly pay you for 300 30/06 empties. let me know if you find them.

heath

quote:

Originally posted by 724wd:
homebrewer, i'd gladly pay you for 300 30/06 empties. let me know if you find them.

heath

You can have 'em if I can find them. Just send me a check for $15 when I mail 'em. A friend of mine has a .30-06 and a miniscule reloading set-up for it. He might shoot a box a year. I hope I didn't give them to him. I might have. Don't remember. That would have been about a year ago. If I can tear myself away from the Forums, I'll look for them...

OK, I just spent about fifteen minutes rummaging through my storage room for them. I know in what box they are, and I don't see the box. I must have given them away. Damn! It's wearin' out a barrel for him if my friend shoots a box a year. Well, hell. We tried. We strode with giants. But we failed...

well, thanks for looking!

i see you don't mince words lawndart. i appreciate your candor.

I may be still able to go over there and ask him if he ever reloads any. Most likely he doesn't. He works through the night and sleeps away most of the day. When he goes to shoot, he usually calls me. He hasn't called me in many, many months. I'd feel like a Democrat (never sticking to a promise) if I went over to get them back, but it's worth a shot. What if I can only get 100, 150 or 200? Would that be OK, 724?

I wouldn't ask ANYONE to do something that made them feel like a democrat!

if your friend genuinely will never use them, and you happen to end up with them again, sure, i'd love to buy them from you. but i wouldnt ask you to make a trip to ask for them back.

quote:

Originally posted by 724wd:
I wouldn't ask ANYONE to do something that made them feel like a democrat!

if your friend genuinely will never use them, and you happen to end up with them again, sure, i'd love to buy them from you. but i wouldnt ask you to make a trip to ask for them back.

I'm gonna do it anyway. He's just a mile or so from where I live. Trouble is catching him. Cases are R-P, Win and Federal. Only fired once. Pretty clean-- no tarnishing or badly-discolored splotches like you'd find on brass that's been laying out in the mud for generations. You know, I don't even remember from where I got this brass. Completely escapes me...

724, I went over to my friend's house and got the original 300 brass. He also gave me maybe 200 more-- all commercial. He has no time to reload, so he gave me a trunkload of stuff-- powders, primers and bullets, too, for .30-caliber and .357Mag. I'm guessing, conservatively I have 400 to 500 brass for you. I didn't count them, but they weigh a ton. Would you like me to clean them, resize, trim, chamfer, scrape primer pocket and uniform flash hole? Sorry, but you will have to reload them yourself...

PM to me an address to where I can send the '06 brass. They will come to you in a Priority Mail flat-rate box. Shipping will be $14.50 with no insurance or delivery confirmation. I'll get them sent out as soon as I know where to send 'em. Pleasure doing business with you...