Not a very good picture, but you can see that the bottom cartridge (Remington) is shiny brass from stem to stern. The Privi cartridge at the top is brassy up to around the neck, and is then some sort of dullish silvery metal.
Question for you reloaders out there: should I use the Privi? It shot great new out of the box, but this looks somewhat odd to me.
17 comments:
I have several dozen PRVI .30-30s waiting to be tumbled and reloaded, so this is relevant to me! My initial impression from them was that they had more blow-by than some brass, but otherwise seemed fine. They may use a slightly harder alloy than Remington etc that doesn't obturate as well.
I'd suggest tumbling them clean and giving them a close examination, then reloading at the "start" load and seeing how they look after being fired. Depending on how much effort you want to put in them, they may need to be annealed.
I reload prvi brass, particularly .303, and I 've had no problems with it. Can't be sure from you pic but it might just be discoloration from the annealing process that you are seeing. But it is decent brass. Reload away and report back.
I've reloaded 7.62x54R Prvi. I didn't get the "match" ammo with the annealed case necks like Murphy mentioned. Mine all look fine after one batch of reloads; time will tell.
I've reloaded PRVI 7.62X54R brass with good success. It's good brass. The discoloration is from the annealing process of the case neck. Quite common with military brass and some commercial ammo.
OK, thanks guys.
The annealed case should polish out just fine, and is a pretty common remedy for work hardening as well. Shouldnt be a problem. One thing to note is that some SMLE chambers are sloppy, both by design and due to bolt swapping, so die adjustment is key to longetivity. I size mine just enough to chamber easily, which leaves the brass a little over spec in my gun. This cuts down on work hardening and the brass lasts a lot longer.
The Remington is 'Commercial' ammo, so they take great pains to make it 'look' shiny. That costs extra.
PP is loaded to military specs, which calls for annealed necks, but not the extra polishing step that commercial brass gets.
I Load PP all the time. To my consideration, it's fairly soft-ish brass, which I approve of. That means I will get more reloads per case before I begin seeing neck splits and such.
My favorite patch of 7.5x55 Swiss cases are all Privy Partisan, and have lasted a few years already.
For .303, neck sizing is very much your friend. Just saying...
If I remember correctly isn;t there something strange about PP's primer holes? I think they are more square than normal causing issues with getting the primer set properly. YMMV as it has been a long time and I do not remember what I was reloading at the time.
Carteach0 had an article on annealing your brass to make it last longer.
http://carteach0.blogspot.com/2009/06/annealing-case-necks-simple-and-safe.html
I shoot 30-30 Privi with my Marlin 336, and it's very good ammo. It groups nice and tight, shoots clean, and is relatively inexpensive.
+1 on the advice. I have reloaded Privi brass with no extra issues.
I think you are seeing the annealing on the case. You can see it on surplus military 30.06 both before and after tumbling.
I read somewhere that part of the U.S. mil spec is that the annealing colors be visible on the finished round. I suspect that the brass is annealed before the final neck forming, so this would likely be general practice.
+1 on the - Don't sweat it - Advice.
Discoloration not an issue. Check for cracks and stress marks near base, shoulder and neck each and every time you reload it.
Biggest advantage to me with polishing brass is that it keeps my die's cleaner. Also easier to lube clean brass.
My rifle brass gets polished twice. Once as-is from the range to save wear on my sizing dies, and once again after sizing to clean the lube off.
Of course, I am SOOO cheap I use spray canola oil as sizing lube. Same can for three years now.
I had some Prvi Partizan 303 British. At least, I think it was PP. It had what looked like Greek letters on the casehead; I decided much later that they were Cyrillic. I bought the box on impulse at a gun show during a long period in which I couldn't shoot at all.
Shot them up. Assumed they were corrosive, which gave me a chance to use my genuine hot-water funnel on my No. 4. I then kept the brass for a couple of years until I showed them to a handloading friend of mine. He shined a light into each casemouth, pronounced them "garbage" (I suppose they had Berdan primers?), and threw them away.
Anyway, it was a while back so I don't trust my recollection much.
I've loaded 100 rounds of Prvi 6.5x55 about 4 times (using a Lee Loader. Setting primers with a hammer is fun). I haven't had any problems with mine, but if I modernize to 20th century reloading technology who knows what I'll run into.
I've used their 7.62x54r, 7.5x55 and .303 brass with no problems. I did notice that the 7.62 and 7.5 brass seemed quite a bit stiffer in the neck; being milspec, possibly thicker? Whatever the cause, I annealed the necks and the stuff is working quite nicely; some has been reloaded five times now with no cracks
Hard to tell, are those hotdogs? Maybe try to focus next time, yes?
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