Reloading USGI Blank Brass For Regular Bullets

[724wd]

my dad has several thousand rounds of spent blank 30/06 cases. they date prior to 1980. they are standard length cases with a heavy crimp at the case mouth, not the extra length star crimp. i have read conflicting reports online about the suitability of such brass for use with normal bullets (we're not up to casting yet...). some say blank brass was rejected by the manufacture for various reasons, and others say it's just like the real stuff and go for it! if it's viable brass, we're thinking about using it, but i wanted to get a few more opinions before doing so.

cases look just like the one on the far right

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a14/724wd/30-0he12.jpg

[ANeat]

If you decide not to reload them they would be a good canidate for jackets on swaged bullets.

I couldnt tell if they are suitable for regular reloads or not

[ETG]

Cut one in half and a regular mill brass case and compare them. That should show irregularities in the case forming.

[Mk42gunner]

I have heard that blanks are made from reject brass for a lot of years, even while going to Gun School at Great Lakes, all one week of small arms training. Frankly it doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it; the military contracts ammunitionin unbeleivably large lots. Quality inspectors aren't going to go through piece by piece and say "This is good, put a bullet in it." or "this is bad use it for a blank."

What may happen is a lot of brass gets rejected and is used for blanks instead of regular ball rounds.

On the other hand, brass is pretty cheap compared to a hospital stay; I would buy different brass, rather than take a chance.


Robert

[Hardcast416taylor]

There are too many cases of these cases failing dramaticly and destructively in a chamber when loaded with a projectile and fired. I have heard all sorts of arguments about how they are the same as normally loaded rounds are. The question is the same as Dirty Harry asks, "Do you feel LUCKY TODAY"?Robert

[NickSS]

Way back in the days when I was stupid and poor, I reloaded some brass that looked like yours. I did not get any massive distruction but the brass did not last long and I did get one that cracked across the head. Most failed by cracking longitudinally. I would not recommend reloading that brass. You could take it to metal salvage as they are paying nice prices for brass these days.

[Dakoma]

All my scrap aluminum cans and brass (Berdan primed) gets traded for wheelweights and that is what I would use them for.There may be brass that could be reloaded,the kind for launching grenades seems to me would have to be good stuff but I would not take the chance there is cheap brass out there and plenty of it alot of once fired range brass and that is what I buy sometimes.:-D

[724wd]

thanks for your input!

[ANeat]

If you guys get a good ammount of scrap brass, stuff like rimfire, berdan, blanks, or anything unloadable that can be turned into jackets, just let me know or or post something in the swaging forum.

Someone may be able to get some use out of it

[Bob S]

Some correspondence with Chuck Suydam from 1972. See last paragraph:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/BobS1/Suydamletterblanks.jpg

I am still loading and shooting that same bunch of blank brass; nearly 40 years later and probably 50 reload/firing cycles later, you can still see the mark on the neck where the roll crimp was. I have confined these cases to my own personal "universal load" of 311291 with 15 grains of 2400, and aneal the necks every 5 firings.

Resp'y,
Bob S.