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"Range"brass question.

bigoutside
Not too long ago, I dropped by my local indoor range.

I needed to burn a few hundred rounds of ammo as I was "jonesing" to reload and was about out of brass. Sad, but true.

As I swept brass, I noticed that the people before me had left their brass on the floor. And being a good citizen of the world, I decided to sweep up their brass as well.

Mixed head stamp. So I assume they were reloaders. But 80% or so of their abandoned brass was missing primers??

Nothing split. No bulges.

Thoughts??

What might cause that?
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • charliemeyer007
    The primer pocket has worn out from being reloaded so many times.
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  • Mobuck
    "Mixed head stamp. So I assume they were reloaders. But 80% or so of their abandoned brass was missing primers??"

    I expect that's why the brass was left-no longer worth another loading.
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  • Hawk Carse
    Crap range reloads maybe.
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  • 243winxb
    High pressure will expand primer pockets. Brass is not reloadable.
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  • bigoutside
    quote:Originally posted by 243winxb
    High pressure will expand primer pockets. Brass is not reloadable.


    But you'd think you would see some split cases... no?
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  • v35
    Have produced plenty of loose primers on experimental wildcat pistol
    brass.
    Pressures on those cases was above 45kpsi.
    A positive indication of overpressure besides perforated primers is expansion of the extractor groove. This can be measured by caliper and compared with unfired groove diameter of unfired or once fired normal loads.
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  • bigoutside
    quote:Originally posted by v35
    Have produced plenty of loose primers on experimental wildcat pistol
    brass.
    Pressures on those cases was above 45kpsi.
    A positive indication of overpressure besides perforated primers is expansion of the extractor groove. This can be measured by caliper and compared with unfired groove diameter of unfired or once fired normal loads.



    I'll take a look at that. Makes sense. We'll see how it shakes out. Thanks for the input!
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  • 44pinshooter
    Hey, self ejecting primers save you time at the loading bench......
    Years ago there was guy who reloaded a case, rifle, handgun or shotgun, until it was so worn out. When the primers wouldn't stay in, he would use tape to get one more time out of them. His shot shells, the crimp, again, taped up to hold the shot in. When I first meet him, one of the club members took me aside and told me that he was a nice enuff guy, but NEVER, EVER shoot any of his ammo. In the years that he shot at this club, he blew up 3 guns. I was there for one.
    It was a HK 91. He was shooting 308 reloads with the primers taped in. As best as we could put things together was a primer backed out of the pocket and when the bolt stripped the round out of the mag, it fired with the bolt not all the way in battery. The mag blew out of the gun and the bolt went all the way back and that is where it stayed.
    Another friend got a Remington 700 chambered in .221 Fireball.
    His loads worked great at home in April with the temps around 40 - 50 degrees. July when we went dogging in Montana, the temp was pushing close to 100 and he had self ejecting primers. He put the Fireball away and when he got home, pulled the bullets and backed off the powder. Oh yeah, the couple of rounds that he fired that ejected there primers, we call them "eraser loads" as the head stamp is kind of wiped out.
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  • sandwarrior
    If people are reloading to that level right next to you I'd get nervous. From what you describe, I'd say high pressure too. The other thing I see, though not as common, is 5.56 being run in .223 chambers. The higher pressure can blow primers, but fortunately, they are well crimped and the primers are thick. Needless to say they shame pancakes for flatness... Once you get the crimp cut out they are then not reloadable.
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  • v35
    Priming of range brass goes a lot easier if you swage primer pockets 100%.
    With the many brands now on the market it's hard to predict crimped and tight primer pockets.
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