Is my brass useless

[coldboreshot]

Being that its a semi-auto, you need to set shoulders back generously anyway. There should be enough chamber length. If you want to double check before trimming 1000 pcs, Brownells sells a chamber length guage. Soft metal plug that goes in the neck and you chamber the brass case. Extract and measure. Just follow instructions and pop the primer out first unless you have other stripped brass. The chamber length of my Stiller Tac30 with Obermeyer barrel is 2.046". Cut with Saami spec reamer. The Sig barrel should be chambered to Saami spec as well.

I reiterate, DO NOT use primed brass when using chamber length guage.

 

[cheek9075]

yea, every one does.

Sorry not what I mentioned. Do they have have the same primers in them? Same brand? That would be the only thing would worry about

 

[Bill K]

As some have mentioned and to ease your mind. Take five cases, FL size them with the rod removed from you Sizing die, trim them to measurement given in any one of your reloading manuals, load a start charge with a powder you have that is shown with the bullet you want to use and fire them in your rifle.
If all goes well and it should, then you can rest easy and prep all the rest and enjoy them.
It would appear you made a good find at the sale.

 

[Walt Krafft]

I had the same thing happen to me. Big bag of 308 brass for next to nothing. For now, ignore the primers and take 20 to 50 pieces and prep them for reloading. Decap and full length resize to fit your rifle. Now inspect: primer pockets ok, crimped, crimp removed? Check overall length and trim if needed. How much did you have to trim? A need to trim a large amount indicates it was machine gun brass and likely to have head seperations after only a few loadings. Now decide if it is worth your time to proceed with them.

 

[Webster]

I found 1000 .308 casings at a garage/estate sale. They are already primed. Guy wanted $10 for them so i picked them up. I know it's a lottery ticket gamble, but I did it anyway. When I got them home, i discovered they are NOT resized. The necks all measure .30. some are even too long to load per my reloading manuals. Already having primers in them, I didn't think it wise to try to full length size them. Wondering if I can neck size them so they are useable....as well as trim and chamfer/deburr them.

Thanks for any responses in advance. 1000 casings was worth a $10 gamble. But I don't want to gamble with safety if they are not usable.

If they chamber you could always pop them off with the rifle a small bunch every month.

 

[hoz53]

they are all between 2.005 and 2.15 in length. I've never checked my chamber for length, it's a Sig Saur AR10.
The headstamps are all of a military variety, some random name brand stamps.

are you sure they havent been sized? seems like if somebody primed them they probably sized them first. will a bullet slide into the neck? did you try a few in the gun and see if action will close? you cant really go by what the loading manual says. its a general guide. you have to see how they fit in your gun. you say they measure .30 inside neck diameter? 30 caliber bullets are .308 diameter.

 

[divingin]

I found 1000 .308 casings at a garage/estate sale. They are already primed. Guy wanted $10 for them so i picked them up. I know it's a lottery ticket gamble, but I did it anyway. When I got them home, i discovered they are NOT resized. The necks all measure .30. some are even too long to load per my reloading manuals. Already having primers in them, I didn't think it wise to try to full length size them. Wondering if I can neck size them so they are useable....as well as trim and chamfer/deburr them.

Thanks for any responses in advance. 1000 casings was worth a $10 gamble. But I don't want to gamble with safety if they are not usable.

Quick observations/comments:

Have you taken the longer ones and tried chambering in your rifle? That's the final gauge for determining if they'll work or not.

.300" internal neck diameter is actually a little tight for a .308, not loose. .303ish to . .306ish is ideal.

2.015" is SAAMI max length for the cartridge; if they're under that, they should be OK.

Any difference in primers will be fixed after the first firing.

As several mentioned, you can still size and trim them if needed.

If they chamber and hold a bullet, though, I'd say you're pretty much good to go. I'd choose a moderate load until you see how they perform, but I don't see any real problems. Not match grade fodder (yet) but sounds usable.

And you can always decap and set aside and reuse primers that hold the anvil in (I've reinserted anvils and reused those as well); then do your normal prep on empty brass.

1K/$10 brass is a steal; even more so for primed.