IDing brass

[JWW4]

I'm getting a reloading set-up for Christmas so whenever I got to the range I look to see what brass is laying round. This past trip I found a bunch that didn't have the caliber on the base just what appear (at least to this noob) to be random numbers and letters. One of them is AMA 89 which looks like a 30-06. There is also a GGG 04 and a FNM-80-1, which are the same size. Where is the best place to go to look up what caliber these are?

Thanks

 

[Cull Buck Hunter]

Alot of the military surplus has date code instead of "win 30-30" or something like that. Commercial will be labeled. A good portion of your surplus will be berdan primed which makes it a pain to reload, also look out for crimped primer pockets on militay surplus, you can use it but it requires an extra step in brass prep.

 

[FULLDRAWXX75]

If you have a good set of micrometers, you can look up brass specs. and attempt to varify that way. If it is older military brass, as mentioned above............don't waste your time. Buy some new or once fired brass and know exactly what you are dealing with.


FDXX75

 

[LeatherLungz]

[font:Comic Sans MS]I'm no one to tell what or how to do your reloading but I would not use miscellaneous brass that has been fire formed by someone else's weapon.

Yes you can certainly resize them, but invest in a quality micrometer.

I have always bought virgin cases and started from there. I'll cycle a hundred cases and then pack them into MEC storage cases. One the storage cases, you can apply labels such as "once fired", "2X fired" and so on. Same thing with factory once fired ammo that you have used in your rifle.

I used to range scrounge but ran into peculiar difficulties even after resizing and found myself having to do extra work involving trimming and other work arounds. I acquired two large ammo cans of spent .308 cases that were pumped out of an M-60 and many of them were 'hot warped'. I can't precisely explain the condition, but suffice it to say, they were too much trouble.

Buy yourself some virgin brass, don't go magnum on all your loads and you should easily get 5 reloads out of your brass.

always inspect carefully after every cycle.[/font]

 

[Cull Buck Hunter]

Good info, I use my range brass for plinking in the 223 and 45acp and reserve the virgin and my fire-formed brass for hunting and target loads. Range brass has it's place, but don't expect it to be as consistent as the others and it will be more work, I guess your budget will determine if it's worth the extra work.
LL: I would rather try to use the M60 brass than try to use HK21/HK91/HK93 brass.