Interesting old Western Ammo Box

[togor]

Yes some of those primers are quite old. Powder too. I recently pulled down about 400 rounds of brass-cased prewar SmK. Most of the powder was clumping and so I burned it off. Maybe 15% of the NZ flake powder was saved for reloading use. The bullets showed varying degrees of tarnish+ on the base and I sorted them into #2, #1 and #1+ grades (my own criteria). The K bullets are fun to shoot and for sure they are not making any more of them.

When reloading the powder and projectiles into resized US military cal .30 brass, it is one of those times when a 10% load reduction is necessary, due to the difference in web thickness between the German (thin) and US military (thick) brass.

The 8x57 has its strengths but it is an easy round to overlook given the other more convenient options that exist in this country.

[fguffey]

When reloading the powder and projectiles into resized US military cal .30 brass, it is one of those times when a 10% load reduction is necessary, due to the difference in web thickness between the German (thin) and US military (thick) brass.

And then the next reoladers claims the diameter of the powder column has nothing to do with it they also claim the powder column length has nothing to do with it; and then there is that very large group that claims the thickness of the case only means something when they say it does. I claim I have 30/06 cases with .260" thick case heads when measured from the cup above the web to the case head, at the very same time I claim I have cases with .200" cases heads from the cup above the web to the cas4e head.

And then there is that very large group that claims it is volume that counts, I would agree if I was getting low on ink.

F. Guffey

[AZshooter]

In the late 60's, Dad gave me his childhood Model 92 in .25-20 Win. Some of the old ammo had case neck splits.

Even back in the 60-s and 70's the ammo was considered as 'obsolete' and sold cheap from old inventory nobody wanted. I bought up all I could and shot it a lot. I saved all the un-split brass and reloaded with the old Lee-Loader. Years later I read about case annealing, and annealed all my brass - never had any split brass from that point on.

Since all my old ammo fired, I don't believe mercury migrating into brass was a factor, especially since my annealed cases are still in use today.

Turkish 8mm ammo dated 1747, I believe, was notorious for split brass & this was attributed to poor/no case neck annealing. I believe this was the same problem Winchester brass had.

[JimF]

. . . . .Turkish 8mm ammo dated 1747, I believe, was notorious for split brass & this was attributed to poor/no case neck annealing. . . . . . ..

Didn’t know there were brass cases back in 1747!

Bet it was scarce!

[butlersrangers]

"Craig from Kazoo" - Thanks for posting.

Be sure to save the Winchester cartridge box; IMHO - that is more valuable than the reloads it contains.
(It would be interesting to pull the bullets to see the actual projectiles, utilized by the re-loader)?

The original .30-06 target cartridges were too long to feed through a magazine, hence, the "single-load only" warning.

'Parashooter', thank you for posting the text, giving a relevant history about the continued specialized use of corrosive-mercuric priming by Winchester-Western.