.308 brass

[Kram]

Happy Friday to all, I purchased a bunch of once fired brass. There's 30+ pounds of .308 brass, 95% is Boxer primers. ( there is no 7.62x51 )

I plan to reload these just plinking with my AR308. I'm wondering if you guys sort your case per head stamp for plinking ?

Thank you
Stay safe

fish

 

[44 AMP]

I sort by maker, even for plinking.

 

[Unclenick]

Usually, what matters most is matching the case water capacity and the neck thickness. When those match you tend to get pretty good consistency. But if you are trying to get under ½moa, then you want to match headstamps, too, because the slight differences in alloy could alter start pressure a little.

 

[bacardisteve]

308 brass varies wildly in capacity I always sort by headstamp first then go from there.

 

[2wheelwander]

Following

 

[Marco Califo]

Why are you certain there are no 7.62?
Mixed 308 brass varies quite a bit. Even if it is all commercial, you cannot make it homogenous. Thus you must sort.
I would Deprime and clean it all before you do anything else. Then sort into to like headstamps groups.

 

[Kram]

Everything that I've sorted has .308 on the headstamp except for what I'm guessing is Lake City, these don't have either 308 or 762.. it looks like most of this brass is Winchester 308 and Federal 308. I still have a lot to go..

 

[Marco Califo]

LC YY NATO Cross is indeed Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. It is US military. It is fine brass, lower capacity, and much more work to prep.
Winchester is good. Federal uses a softer brass. Remington also uses softer brass. They are usable, and good practice loading and fun shooting. I bought some new Remington 308 brass about 10 years ago. They have worked fine in bolt rifles. I also shoot a 7.62x51 auto loader, and use military brass in it. The reason for that is because it is rough on the brass, violently extracting, and throwing far enough that I lose some.

 

[brasscollector]

That is what I have found also. Commercial brass in an AR10 gets beat up rather quick. The Lake City stuff holds up much better but it is more work to prep, always a trade-off. I run Win brass in my bolt gun and LC in my semi autos.

 

[Unclenick]

Lake City brass is 7.62 NATO, even though it doesn't say so. But look at the NATO STANAG drawings and you see the external dimensions are the same as .308 Winchester. Some of it, historically, has had a bit less internal capacity than some brands of commercial brass, but that's not so for all of it and the difference seems to have diminished in recent years. You just have to measure water capacity to find out exactly what you've got.

Among commercial brass makers, Atlas Development Group (ADG) is one that makes their brass with lower capacity (thicker brass to extend case life) and double-struck heads that are hard like military case heads, if you need an alternative to military sources.

 

[Kram]

So I sorted out what looked like the top 4 amounts
20# of Winchester .308
12# of Federal. 308
6# of PMC .308

The Lake City brass has "MATCH" on it so I assumed its .308. Or is it 7.62 ?

 

[Marco Califo]

LC match should be very good brass: Not likely fired in machine gun which puffs the brass. It should size OK. It is 7.62 and is 308. Dimensions are the same.

 

[Bart B.]

Reloaded M118 match cases from service rifles never shot as accurate as new cases. Such is life with out of square bolt faces. Don't expect pristine accuracy.

 

[zeke]

Excellent idea to sort 308 brass, especially for capacity difference/neck thickness between Win and Fed. Win has less velocity than Fed with same loads, and noticeably thinner case necks. Even for plinkers, which does not mean the same to different people.