LC and WCC brass...

[41mag]

At this point I am not set up to cast, getting there, but not ready yet.

I am however in possession of a large quantity of 52 - 56 LC and WCC brass. For the most part it has simply been stored in coffee cans, since the early to mid 70's when my pop used to use it for target practice. He kept more than enough to last me probably forever.

I have been popping primers, swedging pockets and cleaning and sorting it. I know you folks at some point in time have used these type cases through the years. Being the state of things I want to put it back into a useful shootable condition. Most of the loads will be using standard "J" loads, and will not be run up to anywhere near top end. Simply duplicating the roughly 2800fps original loads will suffice.

My question is, since these have sat for quite some time, would it be better to anneal them before sizing and loading, or would they be fine to size and load as is?

I know that at times cases get brittle or hard from simply not being flexed. I just wanted you opinion on this before I sit down to do a couple thousand cases.

Thanks

[skeet1]

I don't think that you will find that they have gotten brittle. Some of the older brass, WWI age used a different primer with Mercuric compounds that tended to make the older stuff brittle. Others may tell you different but I have never found brass from the 50's or even WWII to be brittle.

Skeet1

[JSH]

With an unknown number of possible reloads on it and it's age. I would go ahead and anneal it and then not have to worry about it. I have some early 06 and 308 that I would not call brittle, but they are hard. I don't recall any of that brass splitting. But it was hard enough that it would smoke back to the neck/shoulder at times.
jeff

[madsenshooter]

If you have any SL55 in there, use it for cast loads, they have a soft head. I think that's the right year, 55 or 56.

[Char-Gar]

clean, load and fire those cases..you will have no problems.

[JIMinPHX]

I've found that LC & WCC .223 brass are virtually identical when used on my rifle. LC .308 brass, on the other hand, tends to be a bit on the thick side & therefore has reduced case capacity. This raises chamber pressures. You need to load smaller powder charges in smaller capacity brass to avoid problems.

My LC brass only goes back to the 70's though. I haven't used any of your vintage.

[shooterg]

If it's once fired with non-corrosive primers (I'm presuming once fired since you were working the crimp out of primer pockets), treat 'em like any other once fired. Pretty sure LC and WCC from 1952 on used non-corrosive primers. Probably weigh more and have less volume than most commercial cases. I've reloaded 50s, 60's, 70's LC brass with jacketed loads several times with no problems. FWIW - 1972 is latest year of LC .30-06 I've seen.

[41mag]

So far everything has been from 52 - 56 with a few oddball head stamps thrown in here and there. As of now I have had a 2500 pro tumbler with walnut, running full since last week, swapping them out every 4 - 5 hours, whether they need it or not. Then they go through the other tumbler with corn cob for a couple of hours. Most of them have come out looking brand spanking new, but a few have had some tarnish stains.

Yes these are all once fired with the crimped primer still in for the most part. There have been some which were deprimed but never swedged. I have gone through two of the small ammo boxes with them stacked top to bottom as tightly as they would go, and three of the bigger boxes the same way and have a couple more cans and boxes to go. Right now I have three 3# plastic coffee cans of deprimed and one that is swedged ready to size, trim and load.

I knew from the past, that some was seemingly harder than others, but it's been a while since I messed with any of it. I know about the capacities, as this was the ammo and cases I learned how to shoot and load back when I was a kid. About all my pop ever shot. He rebuilt several of the NRA purchased 03A3's, and several of the 303's and M1 Carbines back in '61-63. All my uncles had them and I still have three and several new barrels in the paper. His rifle will still group under an inch with good loads, but I seldom shoot it much anymore, more of a keepsake than anything. Couldn't say how many of those cans of ammo he went through, but I still have a couple full of live rounds as well.

Anyway I appreciate the help, I figured this would be the place to ask, as just about everyone here shoots some sort of mil-surp something or other.

Thanks again.

[R.C. Hatter]

:coffee:For what it's worth, I have a lot of LC and WCC brass in .30/06 and .30 Carbine
which I've reloaded with cast boolits, as well as J-words many, many times. They
work just fine after removing the crimp at the primer. You are lucky to have so much brass.