45 ACP brass

[ebb]

My brother gave me a box of 45ACP brass. There were 4 zip locks with 250 pieces in each. I started prepping them tonight and found that some were head stamped RA 66 match. A google search says Remington Arms brass. When I deprimed the inside of the primer and the bottom of the primer pocket are white, and it is some kind of powder as it is accumulating on my press. Likely some kind of corrosion. The brass is in excellent shape otherwise and does not appear to be old enough to be made in 1966. They are all clean enough other than the pockets that I would only give a couple of hours in the vibratory cleaner and load. I think maybe some time with the stainless pins may be a good idea. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[JohnW...ski]

They will be fine, if you are older than thre brass they aren't that old.

 

[243winxb]

Load and shoot. Over cleaning not required. I would not use pins on very old brass.

Its from 1966. I have a few old batches like that. There was 1 Bullseye Match, when you got free GI hardball ammo to shoot . 1970s. Had to remove the "Crimped Primer Pockets" before reloading.

Best accuracy requires new Starline brass. All fired the same amount of times. As the trim length gets shorter, accuracy drops off a little.
Trimming has never been needed on my 45acp brass.

 

[ebb]

Then primers have a red sealant on them so they appear to be once fired is that possible? They are very clean, and I would tumble them lightly on not at all, but don't want the white powder (corrosion or what ever it is to interfere with the primer working properly.

 

[JohnW...ski]

They will probably be crimped primers making it more difficult to seat the new primers, otherwise the white powder will be removed during tumbling. I stopped using military pistol brass long ago since I had so much commercial brass but as I said except for the tight primer pockets military brass is good.

 

[ebb]

Yes John I am older than the brass. not really sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I do recall learning how to drive in a 1954 chevy with a 3 speed on the steering column. We were born in the same year, the chevy and I. Two tone blue and the original mohair interior.

 

[Pirate69]

The RA66 match ammo was produced under U.S. military contracts for competitive shooting programs and service pistol matches. The primers may not be crimped. It will be interesting to know. Even if they are crimped primers, removing the crimp does not take a lot of effort. This is good brass and when properly prepped will serve you a long time.

 

[ebb]

^^^^ some have a commercial looking head stamp RA 66 MATCH and some is just 4 figures RA 66. I think I have an idea on the weird white powder in the primer pockets. They all had primers in them but looked better than the y should given the age. I think they were cleaned with some kind of wet process with the primers still in and trapped water in the primer pocket. The first half after last nights tumbler ride are super clean and the pockets and flash hole look as new. Thanks for the help !!!!

 

[divingin]

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I've had Starline do that as well. My loads are pretty light (200 LSWC, around 700fps), but the brass gets loaded a lot. I've gone to retrieving the brass, and shaking it in my hand to sort out those cracked cases (they make a very different bell-like sound compared to the "tink" of intact cases.)

Oddly, my bullseye 38 special cases (fired in a S&W Model 52) tend to start the cracks in the middle of the case about half the time (I don't recall 45 doing that.) The rest crack from the mouth down as you'd expect.