Case shoulder setback in LC 7.62 Match brass

[Adventurer_96]

I picked up a bunch of brass & FAL parts at a Phoenix gun show years ago, and a while back I started to load .308. At the same time, I picked up a case gauge, and figured I'd check out the 500 or so rounds of brass that I'd received at the show, since it had been sized & deprimed.

About 2/3rds of the brass has the shoulder set back to the point that the base of the case sits below the lower of the two marks in the case gauge. In some of the cases, it's as much as .009" below the inner rim of the case gauge.

Would this be OK to load and fire in a FAL with relatively tight headspace, or is this too much setback on the case shoulder?

[Survey Punk]

When you size it it will lengthen a bit and if your die is set properly you will be good to go. Your gauge is made to check sized cases or loaded rounds, not fired cases.

JB

[instr8]

What case gauge are you using that has two marks?

I use a Lyman case HS guage that has a slot cut through the top of it. I would be highly suspect of any cases that were .009 below proper length. I don't know if you could re-resize and add any length. Maybe worth a try. you're really working the brass though. It appears on it's face that .009 would be the Eq. of .009 too long in boltface headspace. It has to go somewhere.

Just thinking about this, I don't even think it would be possible to screw my RCBS die down in the press deep enough to shorten the case that much. The guy you got them from maybe used a roll sizer to resize them if he was a commercial reloader.

A possible solution might be a light first load to get them back to fired condition, then a proper resize. Might work, maybe. But .009 is quite a ways to go though.

[W.E.G.]

This is somebody's USED brass right?

Some that somebody ALREADY ran through a sizer?

And it measures 1.621?

I'm not liking the sound of this.

Running it through the sizing die again is not likely to make the shoulder of the case move toward the mouth of the case.

Load about 20 rounds of the stuff and see if you get head separations.
Light primer strikes should be a concern too.

With the shoulder already set back so far, don't expect to get more than one or two firings from this batch of brass before a large percentage of the cases become questionable (especially since it sounds like the WHOLE BATCH is already questionable).

[Adventurer_96]

This stuff will be "fire and forget" at the range - I want to have blasting ammo and FAL fodder, probably 3-400 rounds.

The case gauge is a Wilson, and yes this stuff was already resized by the previous owner. This guy was clearly NOT a professional reloader, just an average (maybe below average? ;)) joe.

From the directions of my case gauge:

"...the shoulder of the case having been pushed back so far, through screwing the die too far into the press, that only the extractor holds the case head near the firing pin. Some of these handloads will drop into the gauge 1/16th inch or more below the lower step. Such an error is impossible with the type die we make but isn't hard to make with many of the common threaded dies."

"The head should not be below the lower step nor above the upper step."

The remaining directions go about setting up your dies, using the gauge, to make sure you don't tighten the dies down too much and set the shoulder back too much on the cases by screwing the dies down too far. That is what sounds like happened to this brass.

My question now, I guess, is can they be loaded and shot safely one time?

[MAINER]

My guess is NO!

With excess headspace and full loads, the cartridge may or may not fire. If it does fire, the cartridge will be pushed to the frount of the chamber by the firing pin. This will leave the primer unsupported and it will be blown out of the pocket and spread out like a disk. When the main charge ignites, it will blow the case back against the bolt face and imbed the primer cup into the base of the cartridge. AMHIK!

The case may rupture or have head seperation also, likely jamming the rifle, at least.

If the cartridge does not fire, then you're in luck, and won't have to worry about all that other stuff. :wink:

The only way to salvage these cases that I would try is to fire them in a bolt action rifle, preferable with a Mauser extractor and a load of 11.0 grs of Unique with a 147gr fmj to plug the opening. Not sure if this is worth it to save milsurp cases however.

Please be careful, whatever you do!!