Lake City brass question

[cabezaverde]

Here is an unusual one.

I am working in the reloading room, and my mother in law (who has been living with us for over 8 years) comes in and says " I was going through some old stuff, and found this box, maybe you can use some of it".

Inside are some old Erma pistol boxes (empty), a 30 round M1 carbine clip, and hundreds of rounds of Lake City fired brass.

Now this stuff has been sitting around at least 30 years. Most of it is LC 54 through 56. My question is this - was this stuff corrosive primed?

Toss it in the scrap brass bin or polish it and use it?

[Scott_In_OKC]

I say polish and use.

[nicholst55]

USGI .30 Carbine ammo was never loaded with corrosive primers, according to Maj. Gen. Julian S. Hatcher, of Hatcher's Notebook fame. Even if it was, generations of shooters and reloaders have grown up reloading and wildcatting corrosive-primed GI brass.

[RBak]

I would also think that a good cleaning/polish would be all that's needed. Seems to me that if it passes a fairly good visual, it is good to go.

FWIW; The reason I say this is the fact that, like yourself, I came across several hundred pieces of LC 62 NM brass that I bought somewhere around 25plus years ago. It had never been cleaned and was fairly "cruddy" looking!

When I started shooting my Whelen back in 1998, I dug out the best looking 100 pieces I could find, deprimed it, cleaned up the primer pockets, ran it through some walnut media, then resized it to .35 cal for fire forming.....20 pieces of that same brass now has over 30 reloadings on it, and it still looks fine!
The remainder also has several loadings, but I only kept records on that one particular batch.

Sooo, it's obivously my recommendation to use it, not toss it!

Russ...

[cabezaverde]

It is 30-06 brass, sorry I confused things with the mention of the magazine.

[RBak]

Ooops! I'm sorry. Seems you are talking about .30 carbine brass...My bad.

Ooops again! I "think" my first post may have been more on subject.

Russ...

[cabezaverde]

Ooops! I'm sorry. Seems you are talking about .30 carbine brass...My bad.

Russ...

We posted at the same time when the confusion came up.

[mroliver77]

Some sources say after 1947 others 51 that it is all non corrosive. When young and dumb I shot some old 06 brass that had been fired with mercery primers I believe. Brass looked fine but I blew a couple cases before I pitched the rest. Glad it was a Rem 700 and not an 03.

[floodgate]

There was also one lot of FA National Match .30-'06 sometime in the '50's (sorry, but I don't recall which year) that was loaded with the old Western 8-1/2G mercuric primers (apparently they gave the best results of the lots tested). There were warnings about reloading these posted in the "Rifleman" and elsewhere.

Fg

[bobthewelder]

I used to live about 20 miles west of Lake City. Nice outdoor range BTW. My buddy had an extended Dodge window van and we would load up the brew and fill the van and go watch them shoot .50 cal tracers at night. Those were the days, so I remember. A van filled with HS kids, beer and cheech and chong like smoke, from what I remember!

[hydraulic]

The cut-off year for corrosive .06 is '53. Most of my brass is Saint Louis '43 corrosive. I bought several cans way back when it was cheap and still use it. Shoot it, clean with water, wash the empties and reload forever. I still have a few FA1938 brass that were fired in a BAR, about 10 years ago, and none have failed--just lost most of them.

[crowbeaner]

LC brass is good stuff. IIRC the ammo loaded prior to Korea was corrosive primed. I use a lot of LC from the mid 60s. I take great pains to prep it and uniform it when reloading some. I have a couple loads my 742 just loves, and if I lose a case in the grass or leaves I shrug it off. If I see a good deal on once fired, I buy it. No, it doesn't have the capacity of commercial brass, and you have to back your charge down at least 2 full grains with certain powders, but it shoots well and is definitely worth reloading. As an aside, you don't have to worry about it being Berdamn primed and breaking a decapping pin if you work patiently. CB.

[calsite]

If you have reloaded Mil. Spec brass before then you probaly already know about the crimped primer pocket, if not, you may either have alot of reaming to do or (recommended) invest in a primer pocket swager.