Reloading Military Ball 30-06 Cases

[psteinmayer]

I'm going to be loading 150 Gr FMJ with IMR 4064 (49 grains, I think). I think that will be ok as far as capacity goes. I don't really want to get into max velocities... so I'm going to stick to standard. I tried working one case with a small case reamer, but it's a lot of work and I'm not certain that the cup will properly support the primer at this point. I would much rather use the swager.

[psteinmayer]

Well, I ordered a RCBS Swager set, which should arrive tomorrow. I'll let everyone know how it turns out... I'm very excited to see how well it works out. Now, if I can find a couple pounds of IMR 4064, because I'm out! LOL

[NMC_EXP]

I'm going to be loading 150 Gr FMJ with IMR 4064 (49 grains, I think). I think that will be ok as far as capacity goes. I don't really want to get into max velocities... so I'm going to stick to standard. I tried working one case with a small case reamer, but it's a lot of work and I'm not certain that the cup will properly support the primer at this point. I would much rather use the swager.

Relative to bolt guns, the Garand & M14 have a fairly narrow powder burn rate window. You might want to verify that IMR 4064 is OK for the Garand. Way back when, most folks shooting the Garand in competition used IMR 4895.

If you have not reloaded for a gas gun before be sure to: (1) clean your primer pockets, (2) seat primers below flush, (3) full length resize brass back to zero on a cartridge headspace gage, (4) trim case length to at or below max, (5) clean the chamber.

Because of a heavy, floating firing pin failure to do these things can result in a slam fire. If it slam fires out of battery it will ruin your day.

Regards

Jim

[psteinmayer]

Thanks Jim. Appreciate the sage advice!

Yes, IMR-4064 is one of the recommended powders for Garand (the other being 4895). I also always clean the primer pockets and full length size when loading 30-06, as I think it's imperative (because of headspacing on the taper). I would switch to 4895, but I've been working with 4064 in both 30-06 and 30-40 for almost 30 years now... although I now load 4350 with my 220gr 30-40 competition loads.

Incidentally, I use a #405 nylon bristle tip in my Dremel to clean the primer pockets, which works amazingly well... much better than a small primer pocket cleaner... and no chance of damage to the primer pocket.

[Nick Marciano]

Hands down,the best tool I have is the Dillon swager. I found some 223 brass at the range which had the primer pockets ground out and I reloaded them. Upon firing one of the primers blew out and jamed up my AR by getting in the trigger mechanism. I've done countless thousands of 9,45,223,308 and 30/06 with the Dillon and it does a great job.

Nick10Ring

[joem]

In one of my older Lyman books they recommned reducing the max charge by 2 gr if you using military cases due to different case capacity.

[Former Cav]

one thing you might be overlooking if you are using a Dillon press.
Where you slide the brass into the 1st station (full length size, decap and prime) their is a little spring that looks sort of like a paper clip. Be sure that is adjusted to the base of the 30-06 brass . Otherwise, the brass is NOT centered over the primer cup.
I've forgotten about this when going from 45 ACP to 38 spcl and all of the sudden I was having troubles seating the primers in the 38 special.
Good luck.

[psteinmayer]

Well... I've received my RCBS Swager and I've now swaged 50 cases successfully. A couple needed to be swaged twice as there was still a little lip that was catching the primers and damaging them... but once I got the hang of it - no problems!

Thanks very much for everyone's help and advice!

[swede49]

The RCBS swager die works great--have done a couple of thousand 5.56 and 30-06 military cases. You'll get a consistent, quick removal of the crimp.

[mikld]

Good that you found something that works for you. As a lifelong machinist/mechanic/electrician when I first encountered crimped primer pockets, my first thought was a counter sink. For about 18 years I have been using a plain old, high speed steel 60 degree countersink (I had a half dozen in my tool box) to remove primer crimps, both round and staked. When I de-crimp by hand, a couple mebbe three twists is all that's needed (no more than a few thousandths, just enough to cut out the disrupted case metal)., and when I have a bunch to de-crimp, I can chuck the countersink in my drill and just a couple seconds with moderate pressure will do the job quite well. I've done a lot of 5.56, some 45 AC, some 9mm, and recently a few hundred 30-06. I think someone would have to try pretty hard to remove enough metal to make the case dangerous...

[hkp7fan]

I had a similar experience when I first started reloading. I had no concept of a crimped primer, and wondered why I had so much trouble seating primers in my once-fired military brass.

I used a Lyman hand tool for awhile, then got the Dillon Super Swage. It is a little tricky to get properly adjusted, but once you get it set properly it works really well, and is very fast.

[Hefights]

''Mike was a USN pilot stationed on the Big E & had to have extensive testing before he was returned to flight status."

Lucky, good lesson learned to relate that didnt have permanent consequences, but a very close call.