.308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?

[YAOG]

Hi All,

I have had a ton (O.K. not a ton but maybe 2,000 pieces) of what looks like Indian made M80 brass sitting out in the garage for 20+ years. I bought it and shot it all over 20 years ago and then just stored it thinking I would get to reloading it sooner or later. Well later seems to be here as I'm all out of good brass. The headstamp is OFV 82 7.62 M80 with the little ball and cross NATO stamp. People have posted here and there saying later production Indian NATO ammo is junk. I have never had a single misfire or odd round and it was pretty accurate shooting coming out of my HK91 and Rem 700 VS bolt gun, at least as accurate as the commercial hunting rounds at the time.

So anyway I have a bunch of this brass just sitting out in the garage and wondered what with the .308 brass shortages if it was time to clean them up and reload them. I had done this with one batch of 100 pieces to see how they worked and the OFV brass seemed to work like any other 1X fired NATO spec. military brass.

What do you think?

 

[sobrbiker883]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?

Is Indian Boxer or Berdan primed?

You must be one of the lucky folks that got 2K of Indian good enough to shoot. I wouldn't press my luck and try to reload it.

 

[desertHK]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?

Shine a light into the casing. If there are two holes, then Berdain primed and not worth the time and effort to reload those. However, it can be done. If it is just one hole, then Boxer primed. You are now 2000 casings richer. I would inspect the casing very thoroughly to make sure they are okay to reload.

 

[buffybuster]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?

If boxer primed, clean, resize/deprime them. Then weigh them and check caselengths. If they weigh consistently within say 1gr and their lengths are also pretty consistent. Then I would trim them if necessary to min caslength and load up 50rds (not too hot) and see how they shoot.

I had a bunch of Cavim brass from years back and that stuff was quite inconsistent in weight and shot poorly. Was given some "GGG" headstamp (Lithuian?) brass which I did this to and they shoot great.

Won't know what you got until you try some.

 

[Switchblade]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?

Inspect them with care, then get a military decrimper to to do the primer pockets with, and go to town. I have some newer Indian stuff that is NATO spec and weighs about the same as the LC stuff, even a bit heavier by not so much, just a flick of the scale.

From 250 rounds so far, I have not had one misfire so it blasts just fine from the R1A1

 

[YAOG]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?


These were boxer primed and 100% non-corrosive according to the seller 20+ years ago. They did not shoot dirty and there was none of the reported black tar like stuff in the necks. They tumbled up nice and clean and the insides are clean. I used Sinclare flash hole and primer uniformer tools and the brass looks pretty good. I'm probably going to scale them and see how consistently they weight in. If they are reasonably consistent I'm thinking I'm going to full lenth resize, check for case length and load up 40 or 50 and see how they shoot.

What do you guys think?

Cheers!

 

[YAOG]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?



Ah, good idea! I have a bunch of Lake City brass and WCC military brass sitting around I should compare the case weights to the commercial RP and Win brass I also have sitting here.

Cheers!

 

[Switchblade]

Re: .308 brass, anybody reloading OFV headstamp?

LC is tighter than Win brass and makes smaller loads compress(which isn't a bad thing). I asssume the only issue my Indian brass will have is going to be inconsistant weights, but thats why we use scales and bag cases by weight, right?