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Military surplus ammo

Ammunition reloading for centerfire or shotgun
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Military surplus ammo

Postby mathspete » Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:00 pm

To go along with my recently acquired Lee Enfield and Mauser rifles, I got my hands on a job lot of old military ammo in both Calibres. I know that there are problems with reloading certain types of milsurp which have a certain type of primer. My question is how do I tell what sort of primer is present after I've fired it, or do I just try to reload and if it's difficult to remove then give up and put the brass in the scrap bin. Many thanks for any help.
BSA Super meteor and tornado gas ram
AA S410 TDR, Weirauch 100, Rapid 12 FAC, 5 shotguns
Anschutz 1517 &1417, Ruger 10-22 22LR
CZ 550 22-250, CZ 452 17HMR
Sako L61 270, CZ 527 .204
Lee Enfield No 4, Mauser 7.92
Parker Hale 30-06
Ruger PR 338LM
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Re: Military surplus ammo

Postby Deallad » Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:54 pm

There are normally 2 types of brass case BERDAN primed and BOXER primed.

The berdan is non reloadable, shine a torch into the fired case and if you see two holes its not normally reloadable.

The boxer primed case has a single hole and your normal dies will remove the used primer, however you will need to de-crimp the primer pocket.


It is also worth mentioning military brass is often thicker than sporting brass so check case volume and work up loads.


A recent study of 308rem revelled that 7.62 x 51 NATO holds 4 grains less powder and reloading it to 308Rem sammi spec could cause serious pressure issues or catastrophic failure in an older or weak gun.

A friend caused severe damage in a Rem 700 to the bolt.

Mike
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Re: Military surplus ammo

Postby mathspete » Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:31 pm

Deallad wrote:There are normally 2 types of brass case BERDAN primed and BOXER primed.

The berdan is non reloadable, shine a torch into the fired case and if you see two holes its not normally reloadable.

The boxer primed case has a single hole and your normal dies will remove the used primer, however you will need to de-crimp the primer pocket.Mike

Great, thanks, how do I decrimp the primer pocket? Do I just use the pocket cleaner tool?
BSA Super meteor and tornado gas ram
AA S410 TDR, Weirauch 100, Rapid 12 FAC, 5 shotguns
Anschutz 1517 &1417, Ruger 10-22 22LR
CZ 550 22-250, CZ 452 17HMR
Sako L61 270, CZ 527 .204
Lee Enfield No 4, Mauser 7.92
Parker Hale 30-06
Ruger PR 338LM
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Re: Military surplus ammo

Postby Deallad » Mon Jul 17, 2017 10:13 pm

I use a Hornaday pocket reamer

Mike
CZ 455.22LR 17HMR 22WMR
Marlin 39a 22 & 336 in 30-30win
RUGER 1022
Henry 22wmr & 45/70gov
Remington 700 Police LTR 223 S&B 5-25X56 PM11 P3 FFP
Accuracy Int AXMC 300 Win Mag S&B 5-25x56 PM!! P4F FFP
Benelli M2
NRA QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR
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