I have scoured the forums for load data with these cases using Varget and IMR 4064. However, Im reading a few mixed emotions about what to do with the pulled brass and the existing primer. Some remove the primer and start over by full length sizing. Others neck size clean and use the primer. Im on the fence about what to do with these and have read that the primer could be one of two brands. Im interested in your thoughts. Using the brass for long range shooting wanting accuracy.
Lake City .308 LR Pulled Brass
- Thread starter M36
- Start date
Myself, I would prep them just as once fired brass.
De-cap, size, clean, etc., to me it would be peace of mind knowing
what went into making the round, especially if I was using them for
precision work.
If you work up a load before they are re-sized, you may have to adjust it after they
are once fired, and have been "worked".
Going through the entire process now will yield a consistent result once they are truly fired
brass.
JMHO
I bought 500 last year, and probably never again. First I thought I'd save the money over buying primers. I did, but I couldn't stand the thought if sending the tar down a premium barrel. So after 1000 q-tips and some lacquer thinner and more time than I care to admit, I ran then through the corn cob media to purdy them up a bit. Next I ran the through my Redding neck sizer, then powdered them, and seated a 175 gr SMK. I used a medium charge of imr 4895. In the end, buy Winchester new brass, you'll have more q-tips! J
It will depend on your particular rifle. In theory, prepping will yield the best results. In practice, especially if talking about a factory rifle and a novice shooter or hand loader, full prep will yield nothing. Case prep shrinks groups maybe 5%. That's important in bench rest competition, but not in normal use. Accuracy depends primarily on 1. The load itself and 2. The mechanical condition of the rifle.
1. There are certain bullet/powder/primer combinations that make your rifle happy. If you substitute components, your rifle may start to hate you. You may not be able to compensate by adjusting the powder charge or seating depth. For example, if you have a half-MOA load using 168 A-max and Varget, you may no longer have a half-MOA load if you substitute 748 even if you tweak it every which way. You can do all the case prep you want, even fire each shot from the same case with zero runout in the best conditions, and it will not shoot like the sloppy load with Varget.
2. Your rifle needs to be mechanically sound. If your rifle has mechanical issues, case prep will yield nothing. You'll be, in effect, fire forming cases. That's all. Make sure your rifle action has a good fit in the stock, free floated barrel (even when rested- some of these injection molded stocks have flimsy flexy forends ), consistent trigger pull, and a correctly mounted mechanically sound scope.
1. There are certain bullet/powder/primer combinations that make your rifle happy. If you substitute components, your rifle may start to hate you. You may not be able to compensate by adjusting the powder charge or seating depth. For example, if you have a half-MOA load using 168 A-max and Varget, you may no longer have a half-MOA load if you substitute 748 even if you tweak it every which way. You can do all the case prep you want, even fire each shot from the same case with zero runout in the best conditions, and it will not shoot like the sloppy load with Varget.
2. Your rifle needs to be mechanically sound. If your rifle has mechanical issues, case prep will yield nothing. You'll be, in effect, fire forming cases. That's all. Make sure your rifle action has a good fit in the stock, free floated barrel (even when rested- some of these injection molded stocks have flimsy flexy forends ), consistent trigger pull, and a correctly mounted mechanically sound scope.
OP,
AFAIK, the mil-spec M118 LR primer has no commercial counterpart. You may spend time working up a sweet load with the original mil-spec M118 LR primer that can not be exactly duplicated later using your commercial primer of choice. 02.
AFAIK, the mil-spec M118 LR primer has no commercial counterpart. You may spend time working up a sweet load with the original mil-spec M118 LR primer that can not be exactly duplicated later using your commercial primer of choice. 02.
It has been my experience that the M118LR primer is very inconsistent. Everything else of the round being measured equal or sorted into equal batches then tested, the rounds still exhibited standard deviations between 20 and 40 and even sometimes higher. I have tested this in both issue rifles as well as my own.
I buy the Lake City once-fired all the time.. Its not my favorite brass, but its cheap.. I would just full-length size them, decap them, and work them like you would normal brass. Primers are cheap.. I use the Lake City for my 150gr plinking loads. 150gr Hornady FMJ-BT over 45.0 gr IMR-4064. Gives me 2840fps.
I have gotten a couple of batches of pulled LC LR brass.
After looking and reading, I neck size and load them. They will be used in an M1A. So 41.5 grain of H4895 behind a Sierra 168 gr Match King.
I don't worry about the tar. MANY rounds of LC match ammo has gone down range with the tar sealant.
After looking and reading, I neck size and load them. They will be used in an M1A. So 41.5 grain of H4895 behind a Sierra 168 gr Match King.
I don't worry about the tar. MANY rounds of LC match ammo has gone down range with the tar sealant.
I buy them for use in my M1A using iron sights. For confidence in precision, I use Lapua for my 5R. The headstamps make it clear which rifle the loaded cartridge is for, or was fired in.
Pinecone,
I am one of the handloaders who assembled what is referred to as "Mexican Match" 7.62MM ammunition in the '70s & early '80s prior to the 168gr. Sierra based M852 cartridge. Some shooters had me seat the bullets in their M118 MATCH cartridges a couple 0.001" deeper just to break the old dried bullet sealer hoping to get better accuracy from some lots. I never saw it proven one way or the other on that. Most mil/former mil shooters were passing around verbal info on what worked/didn't work at AMU in those days. Our contact was Glenn "Nelly" Nelson because he built our rifles. What I did not like about leaving the asphaltum (tar) bullet sealer in the case mouth was that grains of powder would stick to it when I was swapping out the standard M118 FMJBT for the 168gr. Sierra INTERNATIONAL. I viewed the bullet sealer as a possible contaminant, a question mark. So I preferred to remove the bullet sealer after dumping the powder charge to verify weight. It was never proven one way or the other on that one either but it removed something I found questionable. I always try to remember that Murphy is looking over my shoulder hoping for a good laugh. And he has had a few at my expense. 02.
Edit: Just as a side note: After full length sizing/uniforming primer pockets/deburring flash hole/chamfering, I wanted to get a quick weight check on once-fired LC NATO, LC LR, & virgin LAPUA 308 brass (below). Admittedly, (5) casings is a very small sampling. Then again, most of the groups fired consist of (5) shots.
LC 87 NATO: 175.2/176.5/177.5/176.2/177.6= 176.6gr. AV with ES of 177.6-175.2=2.4gr.
LC 88 NATO: 178.7/175.3/177.6/176.7/177.1= 177.1gr. AV with ES of 178.7-175.3=3.4gr.
LC 04 LR::::: 177.3/177.0/177.3/176.9/177.2= 177.1gr. AV with ES of 177.3-176.9=0.4gr.
LAPUA 308::: 172.4/172.4/171.5/171.9/172.2= 172.1gr. AV with ES of 172.4-171.5=0.9gr.
I am one of the handloaders who assembled what is referred to as "Mexican Match" 7.62MM ammunition in the '70s & early '80s prior to the 168gr. Sierra based M852 cartridge. Some shooters had me seat the bullets in their M118 MATCH cartridges a couple 0.001" deeper just to break the old dried bullet sealer hoping to get better accuracy from some lots. I never saw it proven one way or the other on that. Most mil/former mil shooters were passing around verbal info on what worked/didn't work at AMU in those days. Our contact was Glenn "Nelly" Nelson because he built our rifles. What I did not like about leaving the asphaltum (tar) bullet sealer in the case mouth was that grains of powder would stick to it when I was swapping out the standard M118 FMJBT for the 168gr. Sierra INTERNATIONAL. I viewed the bullet sealer as a possible contaminant, a question mark. So I preferred to remove the bullet sealer after dumping the powder charge to verify weight. It was never proven one way or the other on that one either but it removed something I found questionable. I always try to remember that Murphy is looking over my shoulder hoping for a good laugh. And he has had a few at my expense. 02.
Edit: Just as a side note: After full length sizing/uniforming primer pockets/deburring flash hole/chamfering, I wanted to get a quick weight check on once-fired LC NATO, LC LR, & virgin LAPUA 308 brass (below). Admittedly, (5) casings is a very small sampling. Then again, most of the groups fired consist of (5) shots.
LC 87 NATO: 175.2/176.5/177.5/176.2/177.6= 176.6gr. AV with ES of 177.6-175.2=2.4gr.
LC 88 NATO: 178.7/175.3/177.6/176.7/177.1= 177.1gr. AV with ES of 178.7-175.3=3.4gr.
LC 04 LR::::: 177.3/177.0/177.3/176.9/177.2= 177.1gr. AV with ES of 177.3-176.9=0.4gr.
LAPUA 308::: 172.4/172.4/171.5/171.9/172.2= 172.1gr. AV with ES of 172.4-171.5=0.9gr.
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I just bought a Forster bump die just for this purpose. I can neck size without punching out the primer or using an expander ball, and the bump feature will set back any shoulders if they NEED to be set back. I will no longer try each one in a case guage, just size and trim in the Giraud. I love eliminating processes! Lol
I just loaded another 500 of these cases yesterday, I have extra pins for the lee FL sizing die and neck sizing die, I removed the decapper tit from both. I run them through and load as normal, then shoot em. I also run the case brush up in there to get any sticky powder and loose tar off. I keep 2000 rounds of these loaded with 175 smk and 41.8 4064 in ammo cans and in my at the ready zombie mags, its a great all around round that fires well under 1 moa in any of my 6 308's.
I just loaded 500 up using the Forster bump die. All tested rounds plunked perfectly into the case gauge, and measured up nicely. I left the tar in the necks, and it didn't impede the seating of the 168SMKs one bit. I'll be buying more of this brass!
You can reuse decapped primers on loads that are for plinking, so don't just throw them out!
Question, couldn't one soak the decapped cases in laquer thinner or WD40 to remove the tar, rather than having to individually wipe it out of each neck?
Question, couldn't one soak the decapped cases in laquer thinner or WD40 to remove the tar, rather than having to individually wipe it out of each neck?
I picked some of this pulled 308 LC brass with primers and noticed that they all needed to be neck trimmed. Did this occur from them pulling the bullet?
I posted the question on the M14 forum of how to remove the tar, and I was contacted by a gentleman that suggested using a used bore brush wrapped with fine steel wool, driven by an electric drill. He said he had been doing it for 30 years. So, I got some steel wool, and peeled out a strip of it around 1/16 inch in diameter or a bit larger, and then wrapped the wool around the brush from the tip towards the shank, clockwise looking from the cordless drill to the tip. I use a pair of plastic dipped pliers that are used for pulling spark plug boots off spark plugs to hold the cases, as the fingers get tired if you don't. I squeeze the trigger of the drill as it sits on the bench with my left hand, and feed the case over the brush/wool with my right.
If the wool is clean and new, it will clean the tar out and polish the inside of the neck. You will have to play around with how much wool to wrap around the brush, so the mass isn't too big to go in the case, but is large enough to really scrub the tar off.
The tar builds up on the steel wool, so you need to remove the wool now and then and rewrap. The brush/wool also removes a majority of the residual powder grains in the cases, but I use a small egg shaped carbide burr by hand to reach inside the cases and rub out any residual powder.
All in all, it goes fairly fast and leaves very clean military grade primed cases. By the way, the guys on the M14 forum said the primers are hot. I plan to run them over a mandrel next, and then all of them through the Giraud case trimmer for length tuning.
If the wool is clean and new, it will clean the tar out and polish the inside of the neck. You will have to play around with how much wool to wrap around the brush, so the mass isn't too big to go in the case, but is large enough to really scrub the tar off.
The tar builds up on the steel wool, so you need to remove the wool now and then and rewrap. The brush/wool also removes a majority of the residual powder grains in the cases, but I use a small egg shaped carbide burr by hand to reach inside the cases and rub out any residual powder.
All in all, it goes fairly fast and leaves very clean military grade primed cases. By the way, the guys on the M14 forum said the primers are hot. I plan to run them over a mandrel next, and then all of them through the Giraud case trimmer for length tuning.
Any chance you guys can post or PM me your source for this stuff? I would like to try some in my GAP-10 coming soon, I think it will eat lot's of ammo being semi-auto and all! 
Graf & Sons - LAKE CITY BRASS 308 M118 LR PULL DOWN,PRIMED 100bg
These come in all the time. Keep checking in with them.
These come in all the time. Keep checking in with them.
