Have a Coke?!?

[DXman]

The bullet weight for those rifles was 150gr. According to our local reloading shop owner, who was a Marine Armourer ('Mike'), said that milspec brass is a thicker variety than commercial brass, so the he must use mil brass - or even use Remington brass - to keep pressure in the same range as the original rounds were. As most other commercially made brass is slightly thinner walled and will dissipate some pressure.

I agree with what Mike was saying about the milspec brass, Rem. brass in most calibers will weigh less than the other brands. It seems that Federal is about the heavest for commerical (USA made brass that is). I use to use Remington brass, but now I only use Winchester. Win. is generally heavier than Rem.

One more thing. Since your rifles are old and the orginal loads were made up of using different syle of bullets back several years ago, you probably have to do a lot of testing with different weights/styles/brands and velocitys to find what will work. Also remember this, your seating depth of the bullet is the most important part in obtaining good accuracy! Most rifles of today, will shoot there best when seated just a few thousands off the riflings!

If you are looking for more of them bullets or a different stye or brand, I have hundreds of 30 cal. here that I will probably never use. Hornady, Nosler, Sierra, Speer and Barnes. Also several thousands in 224 dia. and couple hundered in 284 dia.

 

[Robb]

Ahhh; so I misunderstood what he said. Winchester and Federal eh? Thanks!

Having a REAL tough time finding brass for the 250 Savage. Did find a box of rounds yesterday while shopping in town. Talk about rare as hen's teeth. Mike said it is possible to resize 22-250 by annealing the neck and running the neck die.

Am looking fo some .257 for the Savage and .284 for the 7mm Mauser. Not sure what would best aerodynamically and stable for the Savage. Am thinking staying with the boat tail/spitzer @ 110gr/Hornady InterBond.

http://www.runnings.com/shooting-re...ts-25-caliber-110-grain-bounded-boat-tail.htm

What would be effective in gr weight to take deer while maintaining stability and accuracy.
Thoughts?

EDIT:
Was also wondering why you put the shells in beakers before you put them in the sonic bath?

 

[mrgumby]

when i was a kid we use to use coke to take the rust off our bike chains

 

[DXman]

I fill my sonic cleaner with plain water to the fill line, then I insert the wire basket with two glass beakers filled with the cleaning solution, then turn on. This way I only use a small amount of solution instead of filling the whole thing and it saves on waste.

Here is link to check on how one guy does his - http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

Resizing the 22-250 case and annealing would be time consuming. Just keep looking around and you will find the cases.

 

[pinktorpedo]

Holy Moly that's a lot of work ,time ,and chemicals... just a bag of walnut shells in a tumbler for an hour or so , done. and you don't have to dry the brass out........

 

[Robb]

Thing is; it isn't a lot of money. Or time. Just use them as a pre-soak before the sonic bath. A gallon of vinegar for $4 and a 2 liter of coke is $1.50. Package of baking soda is $1. Dishwashing soap for $3. All of those ingredients are enough to do a lot of brass . . .

Buy Birchwood /Casey and it gets a bit more expensive. You can buy tile cleaner at Home Depot for $12/half gallon. Active ingredient in both: phosphoric acid. Coke is still waaaay cheaper.

Nice scale . . .

 

[pinktorpedo]

thanks it really works well for match grade rounds.......
however it really does help if you start with perfectly clean brass,,,

 

[DXman]

Pinktorpedo,
I have used a tumbler with the walnut hulls also and the corn cob media too, but in all them years of tumbling, not once did the tumbling ever clean the black carbon from inside the necks or body of the casing. Then I still had to clean the primer pockets too.

So with the method of using a cleaning solution, all the carbon is removed from the whole casing. As far as drying, I just set them in the sun and within about 20 minutes they are dry.....

This tool is what I use for them primer pockets, it really helps to make them clean easier, you probably have used this yourself if you load for competiton or precision reloading.

 

[pinktorpedo]

very good, I agree, too much brass in the tumbler does not clean the brass well, that is a nice pocket tool and does a terrific job. I use the Lyman case prep for all my Boxer Brass. and use the RCBS deprimer for all my Berdan Brass

 

[Robb]

A quick note on annealing brass. Marine 'Mike' says that it was/is the standard operating procedure to anneal ALL brass for reloading when he worked at the armory. He said it is done to stress relieve the neck/shoulder. It only takes a few seconds for each round - just enough to discolor the brass. A lot of brass to do . . .

 

[pinktorpedo]

he's right on that. annealing softens the brass for proper expansion and sealing of the chamber when fired. working the brass makes it brittle heating it up to only 700 degrees softens the neck and shoulders. all military brass must show proof of annealing. however commercial brass goes back in the polisher after annealing.
brass will last ten times longer with annealing and may tighten the groups............

 

[Cruzer Dood]

Not sure what rifle you have, but on the 7x57 I'm using 46gr H4350 w/160gr Speer Hot Core's in an older tang safety Rugar. Exellent shooting load, as anything lighter shot patterns. Try Powder Valley, or Graf and sons for components. HTH, Al

 

[Robb]

The 7x57 I have is a Chilean Mauser 95 of Berlin mfr origin. Plan on using RL-22 or 17 with a Hornady 162gr ELD-X bullet. Scope will likely be a Nikon Prostaff 5 4-16x40 1/8 MILDOT per click 1" tube dia; or a Primary Arms 4-14x40 w/30mm tube dia and Leupold mount/rings. Not sure yet; but I tend to lean towards Nikon optics, as I already have a couple of their scopes and like the optical clarity and accuracy.

It is at the Smithy's shop ATM. Getting a new stock/glass bedding/barrel float. The barrel is a 21" Midway USA 'special' Green Mountain barrel lapped/crowned/blued by the 'smith; it has a 1:9 1/2 twist rate. The receiver is also getting a couple of gas relief holes milled in the sides between the bolt face and the back of the chamber - as a safety measure. Like the '06 Springfield uses. Probably will put a lighter sear spring kit in it and clean it up with a china stone in order to get a ~3 lb trigger break.

Thanks for asking.

 

[HBW1412]

I’ve been reloading for just over 25 years now. Over that time I’ve gained a lot of experience thru trial and error and I want to caution you all on something I think might rear its ugly head in the future.

Over the years I’ve heard of many ways that folks have come up with to clean their brass – Coke, Hoppes 9, bleach – you name it I’ve probably either tried it or know of someone who has.

I would advise against using coke or any kind of “alternative” method to clean brass that you intend to store for a SHTF situation. Coke may be fine if it is washed out of the brass very well and that brass loaded and shot in a short period of time. Let’s say within a year or less.

The issue is if even a very tiny amount of coke remains even in one piece of brass and you load and store that brass for future use. The acid in the coke may weaken the brass or cause the powder in one round to degrade even in the slightest. If this occurred you could have a catastrophic failure of your firearm at a time when your life depended on it.

It is for this reason that I use a walnut/corncob tumbler for brass that I rotate on a regular basis. For anything that I load for more serious situations I only use stainless steel media with dawn dish detergent and Lemi Shine. I then rinse the brass repeatedly until the water in a 5 gallon bucket comes out crystal clear. I have well water – if you live in an area that has chlorine – get a filter and REMOVE the chlorine.
I then use a food dehydrator for 24 hours to completely dry the brass.

After this I run the dry brass back thru a clean corncob media with a brass polish – I use Frankfort Arsenal brand. I do this to add a layer of protection to the brass so it will not tarnish. This is important for ammo used in a semi-auto like 5.56 or .45 acp. The tarnish can cause the round to bind as it is being chambered and cause a jam or even worse, a slam fire.

Take no shortcuts. If cost is a concern look for alternatives for the media. I’ve been buying my walnut and corncob media at PetSmart for years. It’s sold as animal bedding.

The bottom line is this…. If you are prepping and you think your life may depend on it one day – Do everything you can to make sure that ammunition will have a 0% failure rate.

I’ve been complimented on my brass many times over the years. I refer to the brass I clean as “White” brass. It looks better than factory. Reloading is fun and becoming more important as time goes on, but it can be dangerous even though what you may do now will not affect you in the near term. I urge you to think long term and how what you do now can get you or your family killed in the future.

 

[DXman]

After this I run the dry brass back thru a clean corncob media with a brass polish – I use Frankfort Arsenal brand. I do this to add a layer of protection to the brass so it will not tarnish. This is important for ammo used in a semi-auto like 5.56 or .45 acp. The tarnish can cause the round to bind as it is being chambered and cause a jam or even worse, a slam fire.

Good info there HBW!

If I may point out one small thing on the brass polish. If one is loading for bolt action rifles, then it's not wise to have the casing with to much polish on them, in other words keep them dry if possible. If casings are to "slick" then there is good chance of "head seperation" because the casing can't grab the wall of the chamber and thus the stretching happens...not good news if using high pressure loads. I've been there and done that.....

I very rarely ever polish my brass now days for my bolt actions, just a good cleaning and I am good to go.