Reducing loads in military brass?

[retread]

I am loading some 30-06 hunting load for a friend. He likes 200 gr, Spitzer Boat Tails. No factory to be had. I am loading it in newer military brass. My question is, due to the heavier wall thickness and subsequent decrease in case volume, how much to I need to reduce the load from Load Data sources in order to avoid over pressures. I plan on range testing but I would like to get a feel for what is recommended.

[Outpost75]

Best is to weigh empty, unprimed cases of each type and reduce the powder charge 10% of the difference in case weight to compensate for the heavier brass. For instance if your commercial '06 cases average 175 grains and the GI brass 185, you would reduce the charge a full grain for the GI case. If the source of load data doesn't state what cases were used in developing the load data, reduce the charge a minimum.of 5% from that listed.

[frkelly74]

The Lyman book says to reduce 2 gr for military brass in 06 and 308. That applies to the Max load so that as you work up you stop at 2 gr lower than the listed max. I personally have never made a practice of running my loads up to the listed max. I don't like the extra recoil and it just uses up more expensive powder. And I can usually do what I want to well below max loads. Start low and work up is the key and stop well before you get into trouble.

I went looking for where this was written and could only find it in the 308 section. I would still apply it to 06 loads.

[Bad Water Bill]

I have a 20 Var Targ.

NO brass is available for this wildcat.

Everyone was using name brand brass and listing min and max loads.

Being a VERY conservative handloader with just a few LC-04 brass (range pickups OF COURSE) laying around I converted them to the wildcats.

Some of their minimum loads eventually resulted in a very hard bolt movement with 0 signs of excessive pressure other than the bolt but how many warnings do you need?

That was only after I had started about 15% below their minimum listings.

[retread]

Thanks for the replies. Consensus seems to be 10% reduction in load to be on the safe side. Some work out to 5-6% but I will error on the safe side at 10. Thanks for the input.

[uscra112]

Weigh your cases and do a water-fill test for capacity. i did this last year to compare a batch of LC Match .30-06 with FC commercial brass, and guess what? The FC brass is the heavier one ! 197 grains avg. for the FC, vs. 194 grains for the LC Match.

Did the same with LC 5.56 vs. Federal, R-P, and WW, and guess what? For a sample of 100 cases of each make, the variance within the samples was greater than the difference in the averages.

This idea that military brass is heavier than commercial is an old wives' tale, at least for brass made since the 1980s.

That said, I DID find a few 5.56 cases from some unidentified foreign maker in a batch of range brass that were a good 5 or 6 grains heavier on average than the LC or American commercial brass. So if anything, watch out for foreign stuff.

[WILCO]

I plan on range testing but I would like to get a feel for what is recommended.

Every reloading manual I own recommends not reloading ammunition for others.

[Artful]

i did this last year to compare a batch of LC Match .30-06 with FC commercial brass, and guess what? The FC brass is the heavier one ! 197 grains avg. for the FC, vs. 194 grains for the LC Match.

This idea that military brass is heavier than commercial is an old wives' tale, at least for brass made since the 1980s.


I found Lapua 308 is less volume than Remington or Winchester. You have to check them out.