Odd brass

[DLCTEX]

A friend brought me about 25# of range pickup brass and just a quick look so far turned up a couple of odd ones. The first that caught my eye was a case headstamped Norma 6 X C. I couldn't p;ace it in my memory so I googled it and found it is a round developed by David Tubbs (whose range the brass came from, I think). It is a 22-250 shortened and necked up to 6mm. Quiet an interesting round and a winner. The second was a 308 case with black streaks the length of the case spaced radially around it. My memory said there was a chamber that was fluted. Son, Blackrifleshooter, confirms that an HK and at least one other (don't remember the name) has fluted chamber. Some of the brass is well bronzed from being out in the elements, but I will be giving them a hot Leminshine bath soon. It will be interesting to see what else is in there. My newest employee asked if I wanted some 500 S&W brass. Sure! A friend of his just threw them on the ground. He has 10 pieces, but may be able to get more.

[DIRT Farmer]

I was told by the people who "know" things that the fluted brass can not be reloaded. I found about 100 rds at a range, alot of years ago. I left the marks on them to seperate them and loaded them with cast. Most of them lasted a long time. You know, 100 rds of RP 308 is a lot to a young guy.

[DLCTEX]

The cases are not ridged or irregular in any way, but these may be steel cases with copper wash, I will know more when I get them cleaned up.

[lwknight]

Check with a magnet to see if they are for sure steel.

[Mk42gunner]

I was told by the people who "know" things that the fluted brass can not be reloaded. I found about 100 rds at a range, alot of years ago. I left the marks on them to seperate them and loaded them with cast. Most of them lasted a long time. You know, 100 rds of RP 308 is a lot to a young guy.

Gotta love those people who know things. Thimgs like you can't reload brass that has been fired in a fluted chamber, lead bullets are bad for fill-in-the-blank, etc.


Even though I have several gallons of Lake City 7.62 brass, I wouldn't say no to your 100 rounds.


Robert

[Wayne Smith]

As long as they are brass fired in a fluted chamber you can reload them. They are likely to develop longitudinal cracks more quickly than brass not fired in a fluted chamber. Annealing is only partially helpful because you don't want to anneal all the way down the case.

[mroliver77]

Gotta love those people who know things. Thimgs like you can't reload brass that has been fired in a fluted chamber, lead bullets are bad for fill-in-the-blank, etc.

Ya and you cannot reload steel cases either. Will shoot your eye out!
Jay

[Harter66]

The fluted brass is most likely from an HK or a Fal . I have a couple hundred of them also. I've prolly shot some of them 4-5 times unannealed full lengthed once with full tilt j-loads and haven't split 1 that I recall. Too many 06's to play with , I haven't gotten around to cast in the 308 yet.

[DLCTEX]

I found 6 X C brass in Grafs catalog. $75 per 100 by Superior Shooting Systems called Tubb 6 X C. Edit:It may be an old price. but SSS quotes $32 C by calling them direct on Tubbs web page..

[DLCTEX]

Just thinking, reading about the 6XC makes me wonder if it may be a good cast boolit case. Its basically a 22-250 with a 30 * shoulder and necked to 6mm/243, and a .250" neck. The 7.5 twist would be too fast, probably, but at 1-12 may be cast friendly with the smaller case capacity than 243/6mm.

[flutedchamber]

I have reloaded brass from a HK91 up to 10 times with jacketed bullets before I got a bit leery of impending splits. The brass sealed the chamber just fine, but looked a bit odd. Accuracy was par with unfluted cases.

One nice thing on the HK anyway...I'm not familiar with the FAL...is that the cartridge is forced all the way in the chamber before the bolt locks up (providing the bolt is set up as it should be). This prevents the 'out of battery' fired cases that are swollen and usually useless.

[Randy in Arizona]

SIG-AMT & SIG 510-4 also have fluted chambers.
No problems with reloading, you might want to anneal the necks & shoulders before reloading.

I have even reloaded EC43 45ACP steel cases. Too darn much trouble, the reloads split about 25% on the first firing so the survivors were reloaded and were designated as 'Leverite' after the next firing.

44
:cbpour:

[MtGun44]

I have also reloaded .308 ammo fired in a HK fluted chamber without problems. Never saw
a FAL with a fluted chamber, I think this is bad info, I have shot FALs a fair bit, normal chambes.

Bill

[kywoodwrkr]

STG58 Kits had barrels with fluted chambers.
Had two on IMBEL receivers.

[MtGun44]

Interesting. I wonder why they would flute the chambers? Clearly it is not necessary
with the FAL design. The HK91/G3 and other 'roller locked' designs extract so early in the
cycle that they need to have gas pressure equal on a portion of the outside and inside
of the case to avoid locking the brass to the chamber so hard that the extractor rips the rim
or head off of the case. This is due to the very short inertial delay in the roller locked
designs, not the case with a gas operated rifle like the FAL.

[bruce drake]

Spanish CETME rifles (HK precurser to their G1) also have fluted chambers.