i have been reloading for 22 years . recently an old friend who introduced me to reloading called and informed me he has cancer and asked me to stop by the next trip through his area as he had some things he wanted me to have . he supplied me with a whole bunch of components for various calibers . included was a whole tin of 30.06 ammo . i shot a bunch and was wondering if there was anithing i had to do busides deburring the primer crimp to reload this stuff . the headstamp is WRA 45 . thanks in advance

Rickin

Most reloading manuals call for the load to be dropped back by 10% if you are using military brass.Other then that and the primer crimp thats it as far as i know.
muskrat
live to shoot-shoot to live!!!!

You'll want to be sure you clean your rifle properly after shooting that 1945 ammo..its corrosive.

Personally, I wouldn't reload fired brass that was corrosive primed...but that is just me. My understanding is that the brass becomes brittle...

Corrosive primed--once it has been fired, salts tend to start breaking down the brass..In my opinion I would not use it..

cleaning after shooting corrosive is supposed to be done with water first. If you wash the cases in water, then tumble, wouldn't it be fine to use them as long as they didn't sit for a long time first? I have a pile of mil 06 brass and haven't had any problems with it. I think your supposed to reduce by 15% then work up for mil brass.

I asked a reloading friend that same question a couple of weeks ago. Like Lar45, he told me it could be washed and reused. He also suggested I load a "sample" of 10 or so, shoot them and keep reloading those same ten, to give you an idea of their lifespan and durability.

I agree with all of the above posts. Here is one observation, though:

Some of this surplus G.I. WWII stuff is clearly better than others. I've used cases with DEN 43 and LC43 headstamps through my Garand, and that stuff is PHENOMENAL, even after 11+ full power reloads. It has to be some of the most rugged and consistent .30-06 brass I've ever used in any rifle.

Then there's the WRA stuff. It gave me some excellent accuracy. However, the problem I found was that the WRA stuff from that vintage was giving me head separations after only about 2 or 3 reloads. Case life with that stuff was even worse than I experience when firing hot loads in my Lee-Enfield.

The lesson is if you use WW II-era cases by WRA, you should watch very carefully for case stretching and signs of head separation.