Reloading blank brass

[willy3]

I have a quantity of fired blank brass in 5.56 caliber. Head stamped WCC (Western Cartridge-Olin). The neck is sized properly and if not for the little crimp grooves you would never know it was blank ammo. Anybody had experience reloading these??5599655996

[rintinglen]

I've no experience reloading them, because I was warned emphatically not to do so. The military has stringent requirements for the ammunition they buy, but not for the blanks, the brass is supposedly not made or held to the same standard as bulleted ammunition, and can catastrophically fail if reloaded. That said, I've read numerous reports of individuals successfully reloading blank brass, especially 5.56 brass. I know that it was reported that during WWII rejected lots of brass were used for making 30-06 blanks as an economy measure.
Given how cheap military surplus brass is, I don't know that I'd bother with Trimming, chamfering and possibly reaming blank shell casings, but people have done it.

[I'll Make Mine]

You'd have to iron out those crimp creases before you could seat boolits; it looks to me as if you'd have to expand the neck significantly, then size it back down, to get it smooth (and that much work would probably require annealing the necks afterward). Given the general availability and low cost of once-fired 5.56/.223 brass, I'm not sure you'd gain anything by it. Reloading them as blanks might be practical -- if you have a blank fire adapter for your AR and want/need blank practice -- but I'd probably pass on them for loading live rounds.

[1Shirt]

Suggest you don't tempt fate!
1Shirt!

[Jim]

I make blanks for every bottleneck caliber I own. I adjust the powder charges to make reports that go from a pop to "Oh, Lord! What was THAT?"

Start with a few grains of the fastest pistol powder you can get your hands on. I use Bullseye. Charge the case and plug the mouth of the case with one half of a foam ear plug. Roll it up as you would to put it in your ear, stick it in the case mouth and allow it to expand. MAKE SURE the plug does NOT go down inside the case.

Test for volume and increase the charge as needed. Watch your primers. When they START to flatten, it's time to stop increasing the charge. By that time, though, the report will wake up the dead for three miles.

[willy3]

Thanks for the advice, guys... Much appreciated... I've been reloading for almost 40 years and never came across blank brass.. Go figger...[smilie=b:

[willy3]

You're crackin' me up Jim... I like the way you think...

[Mal Paso]

Hornady makes Universal Blank Dies. They crease and fold the cartridge to a point closing the neck.

[Shiloh]

Another gun board had a story about blank brass was used as it didn;t pass muster for loaded ammo.
I have no knowledge about if is true or not. My suggestion is to not load it.

Shiloh

[root]

I'd only load it back to a blank case.

With the stress on the neck even if it goes off once it will not be good.

case separation comes to mind and not from the neck but down the neck to the shoulder.

Loading them back to blanks is fine.
I have a friend that has a crimper and he reloads his blanks to launch golf balls on one of those ar golf ball launchers.

He does this with nothing more then the crimp no filler or such.

[TCFAN]

Probably 50 years ago I found a large bunch of 30-06 blanks some live and a lot of it shot.Also there was 100's of the clips for M-1 rifles.So I looked at all this blank brass and decided that I could make 6.5X55 out of them.They worked pretty good for that except that the head of the case would expand out some. Never had any problem but I read in one of the gun rags that the military blank brass was very dangerous to reload.Also found out that you should not make 6.5X55 brass out of 30-06. So I dumped it all and went on to other things.................Terry