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Posted: 8/5/2015 2:45:04 PM EDT
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I was given a belt of -06 ammunition. No idea where it was stored, when it is from, or where. It is rough.
My thought was to pull the bullets and recycle. A couple of questions 1. Every 5th round has an orange tip. Are these tracers? Other than risking burning down the woods, any issues with firing these? 2. Assuming positive inspection after wet tumbling with stainless pins, any issue with recycling the brass as well? I broke one open and the internals were in better shape than I anticipated. Most of the gunk appears external. 
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You can use the powder if its in good condition but its best if you do a straight transfer that is out of one case and into the new one. The reason is that its possible to get different lots or even at times different powders from the same bunch of ammo.
Plus as the other reply stated, the powder in the tracers could be different too. BTW: How do you intend to remove the live crimped in primers? I have de-capped live primers before but not crimped ones. Motor |
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How bad is the brass? Old corroded brass is scary. This is one thing that scares me about wet tumbling. I saw brass that was basically un-earthed yes it was buried in the ground that looked perfect after wet tumbling but was actually very brittle and weak.
If you feel the brass is still in usable condition, maybe you can dry (vibratory tumble) the live ammo? Motor |
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What year are the headstamps on those rounds? If they're before the mid-50s, the primers are probably corrosive. That's not a problem, per se, but it's something to know about.
Those rounds sure do look nasty, but it is almost certain that most of it is external and only surface gunk. The links, on the other hand, are pretty much toast from the looks of them in your picture. I would first consider how old the rounds are (by year in the headstamp), and then how ugly they are. That would help me decide what to do with them. Here's a very useful article from a CMP forum that details when military ammunition transitioned from corrosive to non-corrosive priming. So if the stuff is headstamped FA 54 (non-corrosive) and a sample had powder in good condition, I would tumble the ball rounds until they were clean and shoot them. If the stuff is FA 49, I might do the same, but I'd keep in mind that the primers were corrosive. However, if ANY of them had deteriorated powder, I'd pull all of them. (I think the odds of that are relatively low, but it's a possibility.) If I pulled them, I'd tumble the cases to clean them, then fire each primer rather than trying to deprime any crimped primers live. If they're from a corrosive year, I'd do 'em all in one go (that may take a while!), and then clean the crap out of the rifle. (Soapy hot water and scrubbing the bore is the tried-and-true method for this, and it works in a Springfield or a Garand.) The tracers I would treat separately. I'd pull all of them, HAND clean the bullets, and "transfer" load the bullets (as someone else mentioned, transfer the powder as-is into a new or cleaned case, then seat the bullet). Keeping the tracers separate and hand cleaning the bullets will help you avoid issues with them if they actually do light, and hey, .30-'06 tracers!!!  This would be one of those situations where having a collet-type bullet puller is a very handy thing, because those rounds are going to be a royal pain to pull with an impact-type puller.
To say the least, while this is a challenge, it's the kind of problem I'd like to have! 
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Those bullets look pretty rough. I don't see them cleaning up with dry vibratory tumble. The brass don't look too bad. Does it still feel flexible?
If the brass looks ok you can do the final clean up of the bullets with Scotch Brite and not have to tear them down. It's much eaiser to judge these things in person. Motor |
Welcome to Arfcom and the Reloading Forum. Couple thoughts on pulling bullets, 1. Seat bullet a little bit lower to break the crimp and years of contact with case. 2. Collet puller would be a good investment if your doing 100 or so.  Get the Hornady puller, red handle, better tool than the RCBS. |
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I would first consider how old the rounds are (by year in the headstamp), and then how ugly they are. That would help me decide what to do with them. Here's a very useful article from a CMP forum that details when military ammunition transitioned from corrosive to non-corrosive priming. So if the stuff is headstamped FA 54 (non-corrosive) and a sample had powder in good condition, I would tumble the ball rounds until they were clean and shoot them. If the stuff is FA 49, I might do the same, but I'd keep in mind that the primers were corrosive. However, if ANY of them had deteriorated powder, I'd pull all of them. (I think the odds of that are relatively low, but it's a possibility.) Great article, thanks so much! After inspection they appear to be majority TW56, Twin Cities Arsenal 1956. The Tracers are all TW5, I went ahead and pulled four of the non tracers. They came apart with a little umph using a kinetic puller. They powder looks good but I then cautiously de-capped them using a Lee Universal Decap Die on my press. The primers came out without issue. They were brittle, and had signs of corrosion in and around them. I think I agree, I am going to treat the tracers separately in hopes of maintaining their ability. |
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I wouldn't prep up a huge pile of that brass without loading a half dozen to test for age hardening or otherwise brittle condition, it looks to be in pretty poor condition.
Annealing after a good cleaning wouldn't hurt, but that's a lot of work for brass that might be better scrapped. There's just no way to know how this will work out without loading and shooting a few cases. |
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