LC brass over sized

[ph4570]

I thought I had a good score of nice looking LC brass from a yard sale last fall. The nice, older gent was parting with a bunch of stuff. Among the items was a box of clean LC brass from the late 70's and early 80's. The brass had the primers punched but the crimp was still sharp. The fellow said he had cleaned the brass in corncob, punched the primers, re-sized and cleaned again in corncob to get off the sizing lube.

All seemed well at a reasonable price so I snagged it up. I did not do anything with it until I recently purchased an M1A. I already had about 500 cases of newer vintage LC brass that I was using in the M1A with good success. I had sized them to have a headspace of about 1.628-1.629. The tag that came with my M1A indicated a chamber headspace of 1.631.

I then checked out the yard sale brass and was disappointed to find that they fell into two groups, one with headspace of 1.620-1.622 and another with headspace of about 1.626-1.628 (as measured with the Hornady tool and a good caliper). Sadly the second group was low in count compared to the first group.

Sorry for the long story!

What to do with the brass with the excess headspace? I fear shooting it may result in case separation. I suppose I could fire form it but there are around 700-800 cases and that would seem not worth the effort. I intend to start shooting boolits in the gun soon. Maybe that brass be ok for reduced pressure boolit loads?

Any advice from those who have been in a similar situation would be appreciated.

[45 2.1]

Sorry to here your distress. I assume you don't have a good bolt gun either. OK, here is an option. You know you can turn the gas system off in your M!A and turn it into a straight pull. Load your cases with a good plinker load generating about 30K.........About 12.5 to 13 gr of Unique with a 155 to 170 gr. boolit will do fine. Lube the outside of the case body, shoulder and neck with case lube, very lightly. Fire one or two and see what you have. The purpose of the lube is to keep the case body from grabbing and stretching. After your done make sure to clean and degrease the chamber. Do not use lube on the case with anything close to upper to full power shells.

[frnkeore]

You can expand the necks with a expander out of a 338 or 358 and then resize the neck to just chamber in your rifle.

Frank

[ph4570]

45 2.1,
Thanks for that. I will ponder if it is worth the effort vs. buying a fresh box of LC (UN-SIZED).

Frank,
It is not the necks that are the issue it is that the shoulder is set back too far and thus creating a headspace issue in the chamber.

[Larry Gibson]

45 2.1,
Thanks for that. I will ponder if it is worth the effort vs. buying a fresh box of LC (UN-SIZED).

Frank,
It is not the necks that are the issue it is that the shoulder is set back too far and thus creating a headspace issue in the chamber.

45 2.1s method is a good one and will work well, especially if you also seat the bullets so the driving band is engraved about 1/2 by the Leade. This will hold the case back against the bolt face.

Franks idea also is a good one. Expanding the necks and then sizing back down creates a "false shoulder" for the case to headspace on. Size the false should so the case is a crush fit yet chambers completely. Use a medium powered load and the cases will fire form without strching the case at the web. It will make for some good practice shooting.

BTW; If you use a standard (the SB is not needed) X die to FL size you will get much longer case life in the M1A. You'll get 16+ firings per case and not have to trim.

Larry Gibson

[ph4570]

45 2.1s method is a good one and will work well, especially if you also seat the bullets so the driving band is engraved about 1/2 by the Leade. This will hold the case back against the bolt face.

Franks idea also is a good one. Expanding the necks and then sizing back down creates a "false shoulder" for the case to headspace on. Size the false should so the case is a crush fit yet chambers completely. Use a medium powered load and the cases will fire form without strching the case at the web. It will make for some good practice shooting.

BTW; If you use a standard (the SB is not needed) X die to FL size you will get much longer case life in the M1A. You'll get 16+ firings per case and not have to trim.

Larry Gibson

Thanks Larry. I do have the X-die. I acquired one based on your experimentation results presented in this forum. I did not grasp the implication of Frank's suggestion.

Thanks all. I will ponder the options you presented.