I have some 308 military brass that was sized for a tight chamber that I want to use in my hunting gun. I started working on a load and the primers (after firing) on a couple are backing out beyond the case .015 give or take. I stopped and am wondering how I might save this. Any ideas?
Thanks
David

Yeah, you can save it. The primers are backing out because the shoulder was pushed back and you have excessive head space.
One way that I have done this is to neck the brass up to say .323 or even to .338, then back off the .308 resizer die about .020 inches and slowly resize a case turning in the die a few thousanths at a time until the sized case will barely allow the bolt to close. Then expand all of the case necks and resize using the die position that sized the cases just enough to close the bolt.
Now you can prime and load them and in effect you will be fire forming them back to correct headspace and shape.
I have also seen primers backing out on old .30-30s that have a little headspace problems. After firing, I just set the sizer so that the case is sized just enough to allow the case to chamber.
Not correcting the problem with your cases can result in a case head separation or worse yet the forward part of the brass case remaining in the chamber and the head coming out with the bolt.
If this happens, it is probably better to get a competent gunsmith to remove the broken case.
The military actually has a broken case extractor for their rifles and machine guns to remove such a case rupture.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Great Shooting
The Bearman

Two things come to mind.

1. Your loads are considerably too hot. GI brass is quite thick and usually operates with less powder than say WW...so cut two or three grains of powder.

2. Otherwise you have excess headspace in your rifle and it is a dangerous situation.

3. Possibly that brass is bad, but I doubt this...

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com