Post by davidmiller on Mar 23, 2016 15:53:53 GMT -5
RUTCRY
I had an unlimited supply (as a range officer) of LC brass many years ago. We used up huge amounts of it in BAR's back in the early - late 1960's. We still used a lot of BAR's and M-1's through the 60's contrary to what the NRA says about military weapons and the dates that they went out of service. We still had a couple hundred M-14's in our armory when I retired in 1984. Anyway's I took hundreds of LC-69 brass (all fired from BAR's during training) and over time weighed them keeping one specific weight group. I kept a log on them in groups of 100 and originally annealed them after every 6 shots, with the thought that I would trash them when I encountered the first neck/case split or after 20 firings which ever came first. I even got to a point years latter where I was loading a bunch up "really hot" with 125 & 130 gr. bullets that I started using for woodchunk hunting instead of using varmint calibers just to get lots of practice with my primary big game rifles (two 30-06's). For what its worth - those Lake City cases gave me more useage than any common brass ever has. Treat them nice and they will give you great service. Just sort them out by weight and "always" remember that they are thicker than commercial rounds, so start with a lighter powder charge as you are working up loads.
Just for a side note:
Does anyone anneal brass using oil instead of water anymore?
That is what we used at one time as it seemed to "be more gental" to the brass.
We had thoughts that the oil cooled the brass slower & more evenly than water did - that was our thoughts on it, although we never did any hardness testing to see if there was a real difference. Of course you then had the additional steps to clean the cases of oil.
Pickle - Heres one for you. Although its a wee bit to big for trout.
We use to take empty 20mm cases, knock or drill out the primer, put a big treble hook on a piece of air craft cable crimp a brass nut on it so that the hook trailed out of the open end of the case a distance to ensure hook up and swedge on a double splice with a large swivel outside of the case and connect it to a coil of shot-line and troll behind the patrol or weapons boats. It is amazing what big fish out there will grab a nice shiney 20mm.
I had an unlimited supply (as a range officer) of LC brass many years ago. We used up huge amounts of it in BAR's back in the early - late 1960's. We still used a lot of BAR's and M-1's through the 60's contrary to what the NRA says about military weapons and the dates that they went out of service. We still had a couple hundred M-14's in our armory when I retired in 1984. Anyway's I took hundreds of LC-69 brass (all fired from BAR's during training) and over time weighed them keeping one specific weight group. I kept a log on them in groups of 100 and originally annealed them after every 6 shots, with the thought that I would trash them when I encountered the first neck/case split or after 20 firings which ever came first. I even got to a point years latter where I was loading a bunch up "really hot" with 125 & 130 gr. bullets that I started using for woodchunk hunting instead of using varmint calibers just to get lots of practice with my primary big game rifles (two 30-06's). For what its worth - those Lake City cases gave me more useage than any common brass ever has. Treat them nice and they will give you great service. Just sort them out by weight and "always" remember that they are thicker than commercial rounds, so start with a lighter powder charge as you are working up loads.
Just for a side note:
Does anyone anneal brass using oil instead of water anymore?
That is what we used at one time as it seemed to "be more gental" to the brass.
We had thoughts that the oil cooled the brass slower & more evenly than water did - that was our thoughts on it, although we never did any hardness testing to see if there was a real difference. Of course you then had the additional steps to clean the cases of oil.
Pickle - Heres one for you. Although its a wee bit to big for trout.
We use to take empty 20mm cases, knock or drill out the primer, put a big treble hook on a piece of air craft cable crimp a brass nut on it so that the hook trailed out of the open end of the case a distance to ensure hook up and swedge on a double splice with a large swivel outside of the case and connect it to a coil of shot-line and troll behind the patrol or weapons boats. It is amazing what big fish out there will grab a nice shiney 20mm.