case bulge

[schemi]

I have 900 30-06 cases that I planned on resizing to 7.7 jap. After cleaning I noticed 2/3 of them have a bulge just above the web. My dad and I reloaded for this rifle 20 years ago and I just inherited it. We resized 100 30-06 cases back then and I noticed some of them have the same bulge. I also have 100 norma 7.7 brass that i believe are once fired and about 10 have bulges too. I bent a piece of wire and can not find any thin spots in the walls. Is this common for 30-06 brass? The 30-06 cases are at least 20 years old and I dont know the history of them. any help?

[schemi]

I was just looking at headstamps and there is a bunch of lc brass, they say lc 61 match. some headstamps have S L 5 3, some have EW 43. Is that 1953 and 1943? the bulges seem to be random

[GaCop]

Don't sweat that slight bulge just above the extractor groove, resizing will eliminate most if not all of it. I used 30-06 in forming 7.7 loads and it worked very well.

SL53 is St Louis 1953. LC61, Lake City 1961. EW 43.....don't know that arsenal but the year is 1943.

[Uncle Jack]

Eau Claire Ordnance Plant, Eau Claire, WI ??

uj

[tammons]

The bulge is where the case halves are joined together.

A normal expansion might be .003-.004 etc.
If they don't have a ridge/line you can feel with your fingernail,
I don't worry about them too much.

[Slowpoke Slim]

Tammons,

..."case halves"...

?

schemi,

I wouldn't worry about the case bulge you described. It's pretty common to see in bottle neck cases, especially from brass fired in "standard" chambers. Now if you had a custom benchrest rifle with a minimum spec chamber cut with a custom reamer and a resizing die reamed from the same reamer that the chamber was cut with, I'd be more concerned.

Not all chambers are cut the same, even though they may be within tolerance. Most likely your brass was fired in a chamber that's a bit on the "large" size, and your resizing die is cut on the small side. Most resizing dies are cut on the small side for off the shelf die sets anyway.

No biggie.

If you really want to maximize your brass life, consider neck sizing, or only partial full length resizing your brass, and you won't work it up and down so much.

[tammons]

Yep wrong again.
For some reason I thought modern cartridges, the case head was furnace brazed to the tube.
Seems like I read that somewhere or maybe that's how they were made in the old days ??

At any rate the ridge is where the case will separate from the head in extreme case failure.

[Eric in NC]

Nope - they are drawn from a solid piece of brass. To go to multiple part brass cases you have to go WAY back (past ballon head) to some of the stuff like early Martini Henry cartridges etc.

[schemi]

most of the bulges are not too bad but some of them have a ridge all the way around that I can definitely feel. I will measure them tonight when I get home. Other than the 100 we did 20 years ago, I have not resized any yet. I asked here first so i didnt resize any that needed culled out. Is there any safety issues with using brass this old? Almost all have crimped primers so I am assuming they are military?

[Eric in NC]

Some folks report issues with using brass that was primed with corrosive ammo (any USGI 30-06 before about 1953) - I haven't had problems with it though.

The primer crimp will need to be removed before you can re-prime them though.

[schemi]

Ok, Thanks everyone for your help

[sharpshooter]

Don't waste time with brass that's older than you are..... ;D

[schemi]

other than the bulges, this brass looks good. I cut 10 cases with the worst bulges and there are no thin spots in the walls. The inside of the cases look good too.