Repurposing old 30-06 blank brass?

[Rick Alexander]

I inherited quite a bit of blank brass in 30-06 when my dad passed. I don't currently reload so this might have been covered in the past but is there a better use for this other than trying to resize it back into usable 30-06 ammo - or even is that possible? Can the brass be shortened past the crimp and used as a different caliber? Not sure I want to mess with it but it's quite a bit of brass and don't want to toss it if it's useful.

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

Very useful as 30/06 or 308. Then several other calibers too.
Of course no changing headstamp though.
Common but not garbage either. If you using it make it very different so the headstamp doesn’t fool ya.

 

[baddave]

30-06 or .308?????

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

Yes

30-06 or .308?????

Today some cases are common but if you want thick brass in a .308 go for it.
Of course you must form it and cut it down but you’ll have some .308 cases that stand up to many reloads.


30/06 cases can be reformed to many calibers and reloaded many times.
If you don’t want them, I do.
Look up parent case caliber.
Some wildcats have never been factory loaded.

 

[pavogrande]

Regarding 06 brass -- there must be at least 40-50 other cases that can be made from it --
In the 50's to 70's when a lot of brass was not avaiabel I made 7,7jap, 7,5 swiss, 7x57, 8x57 and a peck of others from it.
When making short case like 250 savage the reformed case will likely need to be neck turned or reamed as the neck area gets pretty thick.

A caveat about blenk cases, in the 50's - 60's when a lot was availble it was rumoured that gi blanks were made from i fired and "facory seconds". Perhaps so, but it was never a problem for me -
Biggest issue with pre '53 ammo was corrosive primers -- bit of bother to clean weapon after firing.
my ha-penny