1943 vintage 30-06 brass, reloadable?

[His lordship.]

I bought several boxes of 1943 vintaged Denver Arsenal 30-06 rifle cartridges and noticed after I fired a few rounds and looked inside the case that it is reloadable with the single boxer type primer hole.

I had read once somewhere that old military brass was not a good choice due to corrosion possibilities and the passage of time, is that rule only with the European ammo?  I have reloaded some fairly recent Korean military brass without any problems.

Should I keep this brass or toss it? :?

Thanks

[jhm]

Chris:  As easy and as cheep as you can come up with 30-06 brass its everywhere, if I had a doubt about the brass I would personally chunk it, but if you dont see anything wrong with it after running it thru a polisher go ahead and load up a few cases.   JIM

[PaulS]

Any ammo with corrosive primers should be cleaned in HOT saopy water and thoroughly dried before reloading. if any corrosion is visible discard the brass in favor of safety. (it may work fine but why take the chance?

PaulS

[John Traveler]

Paul's RIGHT!  The NRA Technical Advisor has some well-documented information on after-rust problems from reloading formerly corrosive primed cases.  US military small arms were generally loaded with corrosive primers right up to the end of the Korean War (middle 1950's), and surplus corrosive primers were widely availabe for many years after that.

THOROUGH cleaning of guns AND cartridge cases is needed if you are to avoid rusting problems!

I've loaded many thousands of WWII surplus .30-06 cases to factory (G.I.) pressures and velocities,  and never had any problems.

[Questor]

Brass is cheap. Guns are expensive. I don't think I'd put that stuff in my gun because it might have brittle spots. A blown case and a face full of hot gas would ruin my day.

[His lordship.]

I looked very closely into the 6 that I shot and noticed grey and black bubble spots inside 3 of them, this could be corrosion.  The powder burned clean though, as the fired cases inside were cleaner than some of the reloaded commerical brass using 4895 powder that I have shot in the past.

I will throw the fired cases away after shooting them.  As I have a long history of shooting old bolt actions and black powder muzzleloaders, I did/will clean after shooting with the old GI bore cleaner, then really good with Hoppes #9.

I shot and reloaded 7.7 and 6.5 Jap for many years and the brass was expensive.  That is why I hate to toss out any reloadable cartridge cases, however, you guys are right, 30-06 is really common, not in the same league as NORMA stuff costwise. :-)

Thanks for the input.

[JBMauser]

I will answer your question in desending order of sanity.  #1 why are you shooting 1943 ammo when there are collectors who would gladly trade you modern ammo 2 for one.  (I once asked the price of such ammo at a show and when I spoke of shooting it the dealer refused to sell it to me, as well he should have) #2 brass gets brittle with age, corrosive primer or not the necks will most likely split on the first if not the second reload.  #3 powders of that vintage can become unstable.  I have pulled bullets from millsurp ammo not nearly that old and it was damp and stuck together.  The Nitro was comming out of suspension in the powder.  This could be a devil of a problem as the normal burn rate goes out the window.  It may be that you care not of such risks but YOU CAN BUY CHEAP 30/06 AT WALLMART! in case you did not know this.  #4 old bullets look the same on the outside as new ones, more or less.  If you handload you know that what is in side is what is important.  This is not the time to use selective memory.  Put the old ammo up or trade it for new brass.  JB