Thread: Reloading Military fired blank brass for normal projectile use.

I got curious about this some time ago when I noticed GC selling bulk qty of 303B Blank ammo. Wondering what use it was to anyone I guessed folk might be firing it off then reforming it to use as normal brass. As I'm not short of 303B brass I didn't pursue it.

Fast forward and I recently acquired a bulk lot of stuff that included blanks in diff calibres (off to a new home shortly) plus nearly x40 308 fired cases with F.C. 308 Win headstamps. The case mouths were pretty well opened up from firing and the brass very clean.

I hate chucking stuff out. And I am not short of good 308 brass. Anyway I thought I'd have a play and see what I could do with it and if it worked out, gift it off to someone. So it got chucked in the tumbler with other stuff, separated out and tonight I had a go. I used a metal pen at the pointy end to force into the case mouth where needed to push the crimps out far enough to not jam entering the FL size die. There was no issue with resizing, lubed of course. In fact I was amazed at how the crimp disappeared with just a small kinda railway track line on each case extending about 8mm in one place back from the mouth edge.

Using a Lee Case Length Gauge in a cutter head and shell holder chucked up in my drill, I took them back to a uniform case length, removing about about 4mm. Lightly chamfered and polished with one of those green fibrous pot scrubs, they look mint.

Then I thought to do a bit of research on this. Nothing came up on this forum. Some old threads from the US were eventually found but with the typical opinionating about why you shouldn't do it but not a lot of firsthand experience or facts. Those that had done it, did so usually with 30-06 or 5.56. These folk invariably reported success but a lot of work and questioned the value of doing it unless desperate for brass. Opinions and other otherwise unsubstantiated offerings included military blanks being made from inferior or defective brass.

Anyway I made up a tray of 50 with some normal same headstamp F.C. brass, from the same source included. Tomorrow I'll anneal it all and then make a few loads up. Out of curiosity more than anything. My other 308 brass is all different headstamp so not hard to keep separate.

Even if I had concerns as to its potential integrity with normal pressure loads, it seems to me that using it for bush loads with heavy cast bullets at lower velocities (and pressures), or subsonics, would be worthwhile. And no great loss if you didn't get to pick it up.

I'm sure others of you have trodden this path. What were your findings?

Finally, my initial thought was to pass it on ready to load as a freebie. I've kinda rethought that as I would hate to think it got out there in the market being taken for standard factory brass. Or am I overthinking it? Maybe the scrap bin is its early destiny lol.

I've read the USA opinion pieces as well. Not much experience but a lot to say, mostly of the Chickalicken variety. So, I'm looking forward to stage two of your comparative experiment.

Love your work and looking forward to next update

Def anneal as the stress lines from the case mouth crimp will go further down the case neck than visible.

FC isn't bad brass all things considered, I am a little bit unsure of those cases will be Federal military contract or commercial as I really don't know with their production of blanks if they supply commercial as well as the military contracts. Usually the FC .308 Win headstamp is considered to be commercial production, but as I said I have no idea what the markets are like in the US for blanks. They might use commercial headstamped cases for everything?

I have had a few cases that were stamped F C and a number in the past and they were similar to the Lake City arsenal cases in both volume and quality if it's the same stuff that I had. The LC stuff is excellent, a lot more robust than most commercial sporting options.

As far as converting blanks to reloadable live ammo, it is doable but given the availability of cases in .308 It's a labour of love. I'd be interested to see what sort of lifespan you get out of them as well.

Well if anyone wants to participate in the experiment I'd be happy to share the love and post ya a handful. In return for a promise they won't go any further afield without warning.

“FC isn't bad brass all things considered, I am a little bit unsure of those cases will be Federal military contract or commercial as I really don't know”

Military brass produced under civilian contract. I’ve got a few hundred 5.56 cases and a smaller amount of 7.62 brass lurking about in shed somewhere. LC Lake City Arsenal is good brass, handles reloading quite a few times well.

Originally Posted by woods223

“FC isn't bad brass all things considered, I am a little bit unsure of those cases will be Federal military contract or commercial as I really don't know”

Military brass produced under civilian contract. I’ve got a few hundred 5.56 cases and a smaller amount of 7.62 brass lurking about in shed somewhere. LC Lake City Arsenal is good brass, handles reloading quite a few times well.

Just remember the blank case line is a completely different line to standard as the blanks required a different stock material dimension due to the extra length to allow the crimp to form in the neck. I don't know if they would have enough sales to allow two lines producing the cases so you might have all military contract brass having civilian headstamping. Live ammo lines are quite separate which is why you get completely different spec brass on military product to the commercial.