As for 60 year old FA Match brass being soft, after dancing with FA stuff of that vintage off and on for the last 50 years I can honestly say I never noticed that trait. Back when I was anal about such things I remarked that FA Match brass of the same lot was scary consistent regarding case volumes, measured with the water/weight thereof method. I have some FA Match brass that is on its 8th loading with no signs of impending retirement. (But mind you I don't load any of it anywhere near max. What's the point?)
Good to hear of your experience there, noah. As I said, I have not even gone through my batch far enough to even start on second reloadings. I'm just going to watch it as it goes. I don't load max loads either, so would hope for results similar to yours.
The reason I made the statement I did is that my warning on that particular batch of brass came from Dr. Ken Howell. I had a long pm or email (can't remember which now) exchange with him about several subjects and this happened to be one. He also referred to comments from Elmer Keith having made similar comments based on his reforming some 61 FA to other chamberings. I tend to listen when I get advice from people with their level of experience. It may be that I don't get the same results as they did, but I'm dang sure going to play it safe by leaning towards their experience while loading this brass.
