Military Brass

What the pros and cons of using 45 acp military bras for bullseye?  I have around 1000 rds of once fired, cleaned and primer pockets reamed.  

Thanks in advance
Jim

I have a couple 1000 TZZ cases that I think are military. I got them as a package deal with my first reloading kit almost 30 years ago.  Most are dated 85, 86, & 89.   They have been great to reload and although I don’t really keep track, they don’t seem to split all that much compared to commercial brass.  They have been reloaded quite a few times but there again, I never kept track of how many times.  Use them with confidence if that’s what you have.
John

Many types of Military brass have crimped primers, but if your pockets are already reamed out, that is not a problem.  

Mixed lot military brass may have widely varying case thickness or length, which may give you trouble getting identical case ID, case flare, and case crimp.  If you full length size, but do not expand the case afterwards, different case thickness will give you different ID, which will mean different neck t3ensions.  For some reason, my Dad's stash of .45 acp had a lot of very thin brass, mostly old lRemington Commercial, and with full length sizing then expanding, I would get loose bullets.  For long and short cases, the same flare setting will give you considerably different amounts of flare.

I ended up with a bunch of WCC 86 brass that is my "go to” brass for wadcutter loads. It is very consistent and seems to last forever.

Looks like I will be using all my military brass for competition.

thank You
Jim

I'm down to about 8,000 WCC 76 brass from an initial 15,000. Improper storage for 25 years reduced the supply to about 11,000 (mistake #1). I didn't think I was ever going to shoot and reload so I gave another 3,000 away (mistake #2). These were all once fired brass from 1977 and they did have the crimped primer pockets.

When I finally starting shooting again I did not buy the Dillon 1050 which has the swage station #3 on the toolhead (mistake #3). The 2nd choice to swage all the primer pockets was to buy the Dillon super swage 600 which now list for $148. I decided to buy the RCBS primer pocket swage combo #9495 which cost $25 back 20 years ago.

I don't keep records for the number of reloads used with each piece of brass. I do find that about roughly less than 1% of the brass split after use. I stand by what I posted before that the Martindale gage will 100% of the time pick out the split brass. After cleaning, some of the brass that will not pass through the gage easily have shown the split, even the tiniest hairline crack. Other brass that do not pass through easily are from brass expansion and can be resized back to specs. After a reloading session, I inspect every round before putting it into the Dillon ammo box.

I have no problem with old military brass. I've reloaded a lot of 71 and 72 white box. Head stamped Fed match. If I ever get around to the last 200 I will load them up too.

"I sorted by head stamp and made sure that my match loads all
were loaded with similar brass." 

IMHO - that advice is key. Whatever brass you happen to have at least deserves to be sorted by headstamp. Depending on what level you are shooting, a small quantity of factory match ammo or at least new Starline brass (used only for the long line if you must) surely makes sense given all of the other significant costs involved in competing. But, if you are not regularly keeping all 10 in the black, then that extra cost might not be the optimum choice. More time spent dry-firing (not my preferred option) or serious practice with an Air Pistol or 22 is time/money better spent.

Just my 2c

The only military brass I can't use is "MATCH FC 10". Large pistol primers don't fit into them - possibly due to swagged pockets. All other military brass works fine, like TZZ from 1985, TZZ Match, WCC, or "MATCH FC 03".