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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - L.C. Brass & Primers

Posted: 1/13/2019 5:21:49 PM EDT

I picked up a bunch of range brass the other day and I scored a 130+ pieces of .223 brass. Upon initial inspection, all appear to be once fired.

About 30 of the pieces have silver colored primers. The remainder appear to be the usual L.C. brass color.

Questions:
Is all L.C. brass originally primed with the same color primers (usually brass color)?
Is the silver primered-brass, therefore, necessarily previously re-loaded?

My close-up vision sucks and I'm not certain that the silver-primered ones have been swaged or reamed before.

Thanks for any help.

Attached File

Posted: 1/13/2019 5:43:55 PM EDT

[#1]

I cant tell if its been swaged by the photo. I dont think ive seen any nickle plated primers in LC once fired brass before. Its sort of one way how I find my brass if I forget to put the brass catcher on among the others laying around. Not all reloadable primers are nickle plated also I believe. Any range brass I pick up is suspect and inspected well. I pretty much just swage everything I am given or pick up and keep that separate as plinking stuff from known verified lots ive purchased. You can pick up a 10x jewlers loupe pretty cheap or a magnifier to make it easier to spot issues or check for crimps/swaging. Annealing marks is another clue on factory once fired but I dont take that as gospel either since that can be done by a reloader.

Posted: 1/13/2019 5:50:55 PM EDT

[#2]

A less blurry photo might help, but those sort of look reamed to me. Silver primers are almost certainly reloads. Rem primers are gold colored. Others might be too so hard to say for sure just based on color. See if the primers pop out fairly easily. That might indicated they aren't crimped and therefore likely reloads.

Posted: 1/13/2019 6:20:46 PM EDT

[#3]

The brass on the right has been reamed. Too much in my opinion also. I toss those in the range brass bucket and will load them once and scrap them if they pass other visual inspections and the primer pockets are not loose.

Posted: 1/13/2019 6:55:25 PM EDT

[#4]

All of them have been reamed. The silver primered ones are reamed a bit more than Ideal, but not overdone in my opinion. The brass primered ones are barely reamed enough for my tastes.

Reaming primer pockets is a fine art that must be perfected with practice over time.

Posted: 1/13/2019 7:20:40 PM EDT

[#5]

All of its been reamed. LC brass is crimped in place and there clearly is no crimp left on any of that brass.

Once fired requires crimp removal. How many reloads on that brass is anyone's guess. The fact that the previous owner left it behind tells me that he thought it was toast.

Posted: 1/13/2019 7:34:41 PM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:
All of its been reamed. LC brass is crimped in place and there clearly is no crimp left on any of that brass.

Once fired requires crimp removal. How many reloads on that brass is anyone's guess. The fact that the previous owner left it behind tells me that he thought it was toast.

View Quote

Thanks for all of your input.

The toast hypothesis is what I was leaning towards. I just picked it all up as it was contributing to the messes that others left behind. My initial thought was to put it all in my recycle bucket and not worry about it further.

Posted: 1/13/2019 7:59:24 PM EDT

[#7]

After a close inspection I would reload them, but not to hot reloads.

Posted: 1/14/2019 12:36:57 AM EDT

[#8]

Quote History

Quoted:
All of them have been reamed. The silver primered ones are reamed a bit more than Ideal, but not overdone in my opinion. The brass primered ones are barely reamed enough for my tastes.

Reaming primer pockets is a fine art that must be perfected with practice over time.

View Quote

Correct and too deep.

Posted: 1/14/2019 11:02:36 AM EDT

[#9]

Reloaders don't normally leave 130+ pieces of brass behind unless they've shot it enough to believe it's close to scrap time.

I agree with the others that say it's been reemed, especially the 2 on the right.

Posted: 1/14/2019 4:30:53 PM EDT

[#10]

Based upon a quick review of a fuzzy picture;
armed with the knowledge that primers are available in both silver and brass colors and
because those case heads look very beaten up -

I'd say that brass is NOT once fired.

I'd even go so far as to say it has been fired many, many times.

Posted: 1/14/2019 9:02:36 PM EDT

[#11]

Sorry about the fuzzy picture. The original is 13+MB. Too big to post quickly.

I'm no expert in resizing photos and keeping resolution.

I'm convinced these are reloaded rounds. They will add to my total weight at the recycler!

Posted: 1/16/2019 10:32:35 PM EDT

[#12]

I picked up small and large primer go/no go gauges from Ballistic Tools to determine when to scrap brass that doesn't yet have other defects. If the no go gauge is insertable, the brass goes in the recycle box. If it is close, the brass is loaded for hunting scenarios where brass is irretrievable. " Fire and forget it".

Posted: 1/16/2019 11:24:59 PM EDT

[#13]

I picked up small and large primer go/no go gauges from Ballistic Tools to determine when to scrap brass that doesn't yet have other defects. If the no go gauge is insertable, the brass goes in the recycle box. If it is close, the brass is loaded for hunting scenarios where brass is irretrievable. " Fire and forget it".

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - L.C. Brass & Primers

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