Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What do you guys expect when buying "once fired" brass

I just bought some once fired 7mm WSM brass, Im hopeing it is good. I havent been able to find any new brass instock anywhere.

Starting the 7WSM parts collection, are you? Are you sending the Montucky in to PN for a rebarrel?

I don't know about you guys, but there are times when it's easier and cheaper in the long run to buy loaded factory cartridges.

Mind you, that doesn't always work either. Last year I thought about buying a 17 Fireball for groundhogs. The rifles were plentiful and relatively inexpensive. So I started asking about 17 FB cases. Nope. Then I asked about loaded ammunition. Nope.

Scratch that idea!

Trouble.

Some guy ran several test once and published his results. One test tried to determine which brass lasted the longest on average. To accomplish this, he obtained several different brands of new brass and would shoot and load until near failure or failure. Not a test I would do, but kudos to him.

IIRC, Lapua lasted the longest. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20+ loadings. Most of my brass looks fine when I toss it in the recycle bin, but I only use brass for 5 loads. On occasion I've tossed it sooner just because I didn't like the way it looked.

YMMV

I would only use once fired brass where I knew the source of the brass. If I see a guy at the range shooting brand new ammo and he doesn't want his brass, and I can use it...I'll take it. Otherwise I chuck it. I won't use brass where I don't know the source because I don't know why they threw it out to begin with.

I refuse to place 60 KPSI next to my face with an unknown gasket, (brass), Holding that pressure back. I buy new and once fired is what I get when I open the action. Bear

Nope just ain't taking the risk.

Another greedy seller [bleep] his fellow sportsman out of a few bucks. Sorry you got a raw deal bsa1917.

I buy once fired range brass from a local re-seller, it's all separated by brand. I buy Remington with yellow looking primers, so it's pretty obvious once fired based on the primer, crimp, and case condition.

At $20 a hundred I'm ok if I end up with a few bad ones. My component cost is about 33 cents a round for 30-06 if use the brass 4x more times (5 total loads), and Nosler second bullets :P

The problem I have seen is most of the time it isn't once fired brass. It has been pick ups at a range and a mix of use in the batch. Buckfever1

+1
And BSA isn't the only one to complain about this loser either.

It may be unreasonable but I have a problem with people who have nearly every one of their posts in the classifieds.

A cousin of mine just bought supposedly once fired Lake City brass in .308/7.62 that was already primed. He gave them to me to reload. The brass looked old with what looked like rust from many fingers touching them. Several pieces were throw-aways as the mouths looked like someone had used a hacksaw on them, but they were primed. He won't be doing that again.

I get my 308 brass from the rifle range after the police have finished there rifle shooting. Once fires Winchester brass 100 - 300 depending on how much they shoot. All boxed and nice and shinny.