.38 special brass question

[Ohio Rusty]

This last week I acquired for free about 10 pounts of cast boolits in 158 gr. LSWC, 148 gr. button-nosed solid base wad cutters and 200 .38 special brass empties. (It's almost enough to make a grown man cry!!) Most of the .38 brass bottoms are marked with a L C 7 8 or a W C C I 8, with a few Winchester and R-P's thrown in. This brass appears to be once fired as there is still the red sealer around the dimpled primer. I kinda get the feeling this might be military brass. Can anyone shed some light as to these brass stamps on the case bottoms and if they will be plenty usable for reloading?
Thanx for your help !!
Ohio Rusty

[KB291]

Yes those are military brass. The LC is Lake City I believe and the WCC is (?)Winchester. I am still using some WCC and RP military I got in the late 60's. Good stuff.:Fire: :Fire:

[Ricochet]

WCC stands for Western Cartridge Company. WRA is Winchester Repeating Arms.

[Duckiller]

You may have crimped primers. Need to remove the crimp before repriming.
Either swage or ream out the crimp. RCBS and Dillion make swage tools. Hornady made a tool to ream the crimp. Large primer pocket reamer is part no. 041202. Have no idea what the part no. is for small primers. Cost $6.95 when I got mine 15-20 years ago. Duckiller

[gasboffer]

The G.I. brass is thicker than commercial brass, so you will have more tension on the bullet. Probably shoot to a little different point of impact than commercial with the same load. If you separate them from comm. they will do just fine. Primers are not crimped.

[Ohio Rusty]

Thanx for the info so far all. I found another bag of empties the guy gave me with maybe 500 to 600 cases. Most are brass, Some also say W P A, some FRONTIER, WINCHESTER and a bunch of nickel plated cases that say SPEER. They will definitely need cleaned before I shove them into the sizer. Some of the brass cases are turning green. The LEE primer pocket cleaner fits into the empty primer pocket with no resistance. I have a tumbler/rock polisher that harbor frieght sells that I'll use for the cases. Now I have to find some appropriate cleaning media .... either walnut stuff or corn cob stuff from the pet store. There is a good thread in the reloading section about cleaning brass cases so it's just a choice between which might work better in the rotary type tumblers.
Ohio Rusty

[9.3X62AL]

"Green" = corrosion = potentially weakened brass. Examine such cases carefully before having them contain 10K to 20K PSI.

[Ohio Rusty]

Thanx Deputy Al for the great tip !!! That is something I would have overlooked. I went to Wally World today and acquired a bag of finely ground walnut media in the bird section. Cleaned up the rock polisher/tumbler out in the garage I hadn't used in a couple of years of all the spiders, dust, etc. I mixed a bit of Finish 2001 car wax with about a cup of media and let that turn for a while. I looked thru about 100 empty 38 specials and threw away a small handful of cases that were green. The good ones went into the tumber and it is running as I speak ..... er .....type. The last time I cleaned cases was back in 1980 when I actually owned a reloading bench with a reloader attached. Ahhhh ....The sound of those cases turning in the tumbler is music to the reloaders ears. Almost as good as sex .... almost .....
It will be interesting to see if 100 cases and a cup of media is too much or just right for the size of the tumbler container. 50 might be better. I would have to say the inside of the tumbler container is almost the exact same size as a small 13 ounce can of coffee. Later tonight I'll check the cases.
Thanx again all ...
Ohio Rusty

[mingol]

Rusty, one of the better mild abrasives for tumbler use is Bon Ami Cleanser available at supermarket. It is a 'soft' abrasive and does not harm the brass. It works very well with walnut media, dunno about corn stuff as I don't use it. All other supermarket abrasive cleansers are "hard" and will abuse the brass.
mingol

[BAGTIC]

Bon Ami is no longer the only household cleanser that uses 'soft' abrasive though that was once true. Several others, including Comet, are also now 'soft' and non abrasive.

Most soft cleansers use feldspar while the 'hard' ones use pumice or volcanic ash.

[georgeld]

Rusty:

When they are real dirty it's easier and faster to use plain walnut til cleaned up.

Then plain corn to polish 'em with. Been running into this problem over the years with a vibratory type.

It'll hold about 5-700 and half gallon media. Don't get carried away with long time cleaning. You just might roughen up the surface. Just run it long enough nearly all are cleaned up. The worst can be thrown back in for another run or two.

DON"T throw that bad/rejected brass away. Toss it in a can/bucket til you get the container full. Then take it to the scrap buyer and sell it for a couple bucks a pound nowdays. Worth too much to toss in the trash.

Be sure to inspect every single case real well before loading.

Wish you well, enjoy,

[Wayne Smith]

I have some old 38 cases that have a slightly smaller primer hole in them, they grap the primer pin and pull it out of the die. Some of them take a large pistol primer and some the normal small pistol.

[DLCTEX]

Trade that old scrap brass for lead! Dale