I have been given several hundred 30-06 cartridges. I have only looked at a few so far with the following head stamps.

KA 70 - Pusan Government Arsenal, Pusan, Republic of Korea.* I assume the 70 is manf. year.

HXP 70 - Greek Powder & Cartridge Company, Athens, Greece*

Dimensions fall within the SAMI parameters.
Do you think these are OK to reload and use in my Winchester Model 54?

*Ref. Punnett, Chris, .30-06, CTG Publishing, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, 1997

Safe to use? I can't think of any reason why not. Althouh make sure it is boxer primed, foreign milsurps are sometimes berdan.

Too collectable to use? I haven't the foggiest.

Yes the hxp is safe in the 54 I use it in mine and it is
Reloadable.

Cal30

Hi from a "Brit" point of view. Have used HXP (Greek) .303 ammunition so NOT 30-06 as you have there.

It was quite safe but accuracy compared with proper military issue .303 was not good. That means 3" to 4" groups at 100 yards in a SMLE or No4 that would shoot 1" to 2" groups at 100 yards with South African PMP or even old Kynoch 1970s .303.

The reason, I suspect, is that this Greek stuff was made for cadet forces in schools. So for rifle usage and never with any thought of it ever being used in machine guns for overhead fire.

So I don't think that velocity spread control was that much on the agenda when the contract for it was given.

Also the cases stretch when re-loaded more so than, again, other maker's .303.

The Korean stuff, if stored well, will I suspect be more accurate as it was no doubt considered that it may be used in machine guns for overhead fire.

Me? Depends on how accurate you want to go but if it is 1" groups at 100 yards that HXP may disappoint.

enfieldspares,
Are you referring to factory loaded ammo? These that I have been given are cases only, which I will be reloading. My concern was usability (if that is a word) of the brass.

Thanks to all for your responses. I have ordered a Lee decapping die and an RCBS primer pocket swager. I hope these tools will take care of my case prepping.

The factory brass, HXP, isn't that bad in fact. Certainly better than some USA brass that would separate at the head quite quickly.

No HXP will be OK.

BUT!!!

Do try and set the dies to give a just adequate full length size and not a "back to factory spec" full length size if you want the cases to last longer.

In other words treat it as a cartridge that headspaces OFF THE SHOULDER (as you would to prolong a belted magnum case) rather than one that headspaces (as it was constructed being rimmed) off the rim.

I shot a lot of HXP in 30.06 and .45 (production for NATO at the end of the 50's.) Surprised by its quality and accuracy.

enfieldspares,

Thanks for the info. I always size my shouldered brass off of the shoulder. I use the Hornady head space measurer to set the dies.
I received my Lee Universal decappper and started to deprime. I am waiting for my RCBS primer pocket swager to finish the job.

Got the RCBS primer pocket swager. Works great. I did 50 of the HXP 70's and primed them in no time. Great product.