6.5 Creedmoor brass observation.

[nf1e]

While priming 500 once fired 6.5 Creedmoor cases this morning, I found something interesting that other hand-loaders might appreciate. Using RCBS universal hand priming tool.

FC GMM brass had a cull rate of over 25% for loose primer pockets using 210M primers.

Hornady brass had a 0% cull rate using 210Ms

Lapua sp brass had a 0% failure with BR-4 primers

Starline sp brass had a 0% failure with BR-4 primers

[bruce]

Not surprised. Once upon a time I splurged on a nice batch of FGMM .308 brass. I loaded it with what was at that time my standard .308 Winchester load, a lost that by any respect was mild. Groups were excellent, as good as I'd gotten with R-P brass. But, after depriming and resizing the once fired case, about 1/3 of the cases were not useable due to primer pocket expansion. Only a very few were useable after the second reload. I pitched the brass. Don't know what was wrong, but I just figured I'd use R-P brass since it gave no such problems. Sincerely. bruce.

[nf1e]

Thanks Bruce. You have confirmed my suspicions.
Over the last number of decades I have shot a ton of Federal Gold Medal Match and then resized the cases and dumped them in a box. Never re-loaded any of it until recently.
The majority of my handloads for .308 have been Berdan primed brass which I never had any problems with.
Fast forward. I have been shooting 6.5 Creedmoor for a few years now and only loaded Hornady, Starline and Lapua. Well, bright boy thought, here is a few hundred nice shiny FC cases, why not load them. Just when you think you have it down , a surprise comes up on the scene.
I won't be saving any more of the FC single use brass.

[bruce]

Please understand that my experience is only my experience. I have used Federal brass from the old Hi Power series with complete success. The problem I had with the FGMM in .308 Winchester I thought was only a anomaly. Given that you have such a large quantity on hand, possibly might be worth contacting Federal w/ an inquiry. JMHO. Sincerely. bruce.

[nf1e]

Dumped something over 5K in the recycling bucket. Nice to have room on the shelves for good brass.

[lyman]

When I was a Service Rifle shooter, Federal brass, even FGGM, was not usually kept,

some of us tighwads would load it once, the toss the brass in the range brass bucket, (and left on the range, the club recycled)


did you by chance check lengths on the cartridge,
I seem to recall some would need to be trimmed as well,


Federal brass is known to be soft

[nf1e]

When I was a Service Rifle shooter, Federal brass, even FGGM, was not usually kept,

some of us tighwads would load it once, the toss the brass in the range brass bucket, (and left on the range, the club recycled)


did you by chance check lengths on the cartridge,
I seem to recall some would need to be trimmed as well,


Federal brass is known to be soft

Yes, length was all over the place. I trim all my brass using a Giraud trimmer. After sizing and before getting dumped in the Thumler with ss and dawn for it's second cleaning, it get's run over the Giraud as a precaution.

[fguffey]

Years ago I purchased cases from an iron and metal salvage yard. In all appearance the cases looked new/unfired. I sorted the cases into groups of 20 and then started to load them; I thought they were magnificent cases. By the time I had fired some of the groups 3 times I came across a warning about cases that were recalled because there 'could' have been a problem with annealing. I did not need the cases so I moved them to the collectable case drawer. In my travels I have found a few hundred cases that have passed through reloaders hands that have fired multiple times with no serious after effects.

The first time I fired the cases I used maximum loads; before loading I measure the diameter of the case heads, primer pockets and flash hole diameters. If the case heads were soft the case heads would have expanded, the primer pockets would have increased in diameter and the flash holes would have increased in diameter also.

Again, I did not need the cases but I did stop using them. I had to consider there was something about annealing that did not effect all of these cases. And then there was a chance the problem with annealing did not effect/soften the case heads, instead there is a chance the problem caused the case heads to harden. Failure of a case head by hardening would be catamorphic. And then there was another problem I had to consider; there was a chance someone quoted the year stamped on the case head incorrectly. So, I moved two years of cases from that one arsenal.

And if I thought Federal cases were soft I would measure the diameter of the case heads and then load them with MAX loads, fire and measure again. That was then but in the age of the Internet, who knows?

F. Guffey

[BlitzKrieg]

Same cull rate for Federal brass ...308 and 6.5 Creedmoor. Federal brass is purpose built not to be beneficial for reloaders.

[nf1e]

All makes total sense.