I have recently started reloading, but I am still somewhat inexperienced with reloading. I have a a few questions about using military brass. I have a ton of once fired military brass in 7.62 AND 5.56 in like new shape. I would normally buy commercial brass but this was free for the taking so I took it. (Those "Evil Black rifles" burn a lot of this up real fast) I would like to reload this for plinking ammo, but I understand that there are a few additional steps that are required to reload this brass. What procedures do I need to follow that I dont normally preform when reloading 7mm Rem Mag? If some of the "Experts" could enlighten me with some "spiritual enrichment" on this topic, I would most greatly appreciate it. Thanks....

Sorry, I should have thought to look in past threads. Found one right after posting! It doesnt mention anything about primers being "staked" or prepping them for reloads....

Be sure to check your load manuals for cautions regarding military brass. Weigh a few of them compared to the commercial brass you have used - if they are heavier, then reduce your loads a grain or two. Heaver brass = less case capacity.

If it's free - go for it, keeping in mind you may have to fool with crimped-in primers and slightly different loads.

Good luck.

MikeG, Thanks for the feed back. It helps and sorta piggy-backs on a earlier thread I read, at least in reguard to heavier thicker brass and as such needing to reduce loads a bit.

But what sorta work has to be done with the primers. Dillon Pecision has a device out that they are recommending for use with military brass that will swage the primer pockets if I read it right. Is this all I need to do for case prep that is a bit out of the ordinary compared to reloading other cartridges?

I picked up 15,000 rds of the 5.56 and about 5000 of the 7.62 from a local recycling facility for free. I really enjoy the reloading and dont see it as a hassle. I am sure that several of the cases will get jacked away reloading and a few will be culled, but with that many cases...I should keep real busy and have plenty of ammo for the range if I can reload it. It all appears to be in excellent condition and its all american made head stamps from WCC and LC prefix in the ammo lot numbers, an oldest lot I have found is 1992.

Get yourself one of the Lee Universal decapping dies, this device will decap anything including Berdan primed cases. This device will punch a hole thru the bottom of the Berdan case. This will save wear and tear on your loading dies.
The next step is to remove the primer crimp that fits on your loading press or could chuck into your power drill. RCBS makes a nifty device that does this handily, as do many of the reloading equipment manufacturers.
Once the primer pockets are dealt with, you need to resize the cases to determine if you will need to trim the cases to length. Lots of the 7.62 brass is from machineguns and is not the most uniform. Lee makes another nifty device that is both cheap and easy for case trimming, using your power drill.
Once you have the case primer pockets de-crimped, the cases sized, trimmed to length, I weigh them and separate the cases into three groups. The middle group will be the most accurate, followed by the heaviest group. Give the light weight group of cases to your shooting buddy.
Jim

Just four things to watch for:

The cases usually have a staked/crimped primer...you knew that already. Lots of ways to take it out, with the press mountyed swages being the fastest. Even a deburring tool will do the trick if you have the time and are careful not to over do it.

The cases are often a bit heavier...with less internal volume...so loads may have to be reduced a bit.

Some of the rifles that shot it may be a bit long in headspace...esp. the stuff that got shot in machine guns (the tripid.bipod belt fed guys). In your case, unless there were a bunch of class 3 guys shooting old well used full auto rifles, the headspace will probably be OK...just may have a tougher sizing job than brass fired in yourown chamber.

Watch for Berdan primed rounds mixed in...everyso often there is a joker in the deck.

One more thing to watch for, especially with the .308 ronds, is that they might have been fired from a machine gun. If that is the case you may need a small base resizing die to bring them back into spec for a standard rifle chamber.

If you are going to process all of that brass, there are two tools you migtht want to take a peek at. I have both these items and they work peerfectly for what they are designed to do. This would be the previously mentioned Dillon Super Swage 600 and the Dillon RT1200B case trimmer. These products make short work of primer pocket swaging and trimming the cases to spec. Trimming 20000 pieces of brass any other way would be an absulute nightmare. Dillon also sells a go/no go gauge that can be used to set up the sizing die on the RT1200B that is a worthwhile investment when you are prepping brass that might be loaded in more than one firearm.

If the brass is all WCC and LC, you shouldn't encounter any berdan primed casings.

I'd go with the Dillon crimp swager for that much brass.

I concur on the Lee universal decapping die.

Sure would hate to trim that much brass by hand. Definitely need some power accessories....

That dillon trimmer also resizes the brass at the same time it trims the brass, makes it much faster. You still have to expand the necks before reloading. There are various ways of accomplishing that and one is the decapping stem in your standard resizing die, the other option is the Lyman M die (that's for you Mike).

The RCBS Power Trim Pro is pretty handy too, but it doesn't work with the speed of the Dillon unit. I've got them both and large quantities of brass can be dealt with in 1/4 or less of the time as the RCBS unit.

There is also the Gracey case trimmer from www.matchprep.com I've not had a chance to use one of these, but some guys from my gun club have had good results with them. This unit trims, chamfers, and deburrs all at once so it's quite the machine. I've heard that the claims of 500 pieces of brass an hour are a little optomistic, but like I said, I've not used one.

You should be aware that mil spec brass is generally annealed and the necks will flow fwd, check you length after each firing. Also if made into say .243 ream the neck, you can generally get away with one loading but then on the next the case flows and the neck grows causing a pressure problem that goes to the moon.

Thanks for the info...Think I have pretty good picture of the task at hand.

All of the brass was fired in accurized M-14's and general issue M-16A2's.