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Strange case

dragman

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I got a bunch of stuff from an estate. And this brass is something I have never seen. I have been in the shooting seen for 10 years and know enough to get into trouble LOL. But I don't dabble in the old stuff often. Brass has been cleaned since original but shows no sizing marks which just makes it strange to me. Any idea?????

The 3rd picture is the case beside a standard 308 case.
 

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Looks like the old Remington "Basic" BR brass. Reloaders used it to form the various BR cases ( 7BR, etc.) before they started appearing as pre-formed brass. It probably has small primer pockets, which all the various BR flavors use.
 
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Looks like the old Remington "Basic" BR brass. Reloaders used it to form the various BR cases ( 7BR, etc.)before they started appearing as pre-formed brass. If probably has small primer pockets, which all the various BR flavors use.
Thanks!
 
I believe Remington put that brass out for a person to then size it down to a couple of the, then, BR cartridges. It was sold as a base cartridge to work with.

Yes, for many years, Remington didn't make any BR cartridges or brass. It was up to the user to form cases primarily from the small primer UBBR cases that Rem did make. They started out as standard 308 Win shape externally, but had small primer pockets and the smaller size flash-hole (1.5mm dia. instead of 2mm). It wasn't until the 7mm BR developed a following in Silhouette shooting and the arms side of Remington put suitable 7BR pistols on sale that the factory produced any finished ammunition or brass.

Ignition facilities aside, whilst UBBR was apparently identical to a stock 308 Win case, it wasn't as the walls were deliberately drawn very thin as an aid to the reforming sizing steps and to maximise the capacity of the finalised BR case. (The BRs were a 1961 development of Frank Barnes' 308X1.5-inch prototype 'intermediate' cartridge for assault rifles that was never adopted for its intended purpose, the US Army totally committed to its then new T65-E3 aka 7.62 NATO cartridge and replacing its 30-06 M1s with the M14 rifle.)

Whilst the Barnes retained the standard (LR) primer pocket and flash-hole, but was nevertheless a 'heroic' reforming job on the 7.62/308, Remington's development department led by Mike Walker adapted it further for precision shooting and for easier reforming. Even so it was a multi-step exercise involving three or four different form dies.

Many people bought the brass as the basic 308 for use in this calibre as a standard, but unusually high-capacity 308 Win, also hoping that the small primer arrangement would improve ignition and MV consistency - in effect a 'Palma' 308 a half century before the Lapua version. This didn't work out well as the powders and primers of the time appeared unable to cope with lighting off 50gn or thereabouts of powder with small primers. The other non-Remington BR use was its adoption by various experimenters for wildcats, as appears to be the case here.
 
I think I have a case of the 6BR basic brass with out the flash hole being drilled.
Butch, Was this a singleton in the box, or was the whole box this way. I thought I'd heard that at one time you could get BR cases without the flash hole drilled. This to facilitate the user determining what size they wanted.
 
Very interesting.
I'm seeing several that get cool shooting stuff at estate sales ... I need to start looking around !
 
Butch, Was this a singleton in the box, or was the whole box this way. I thought I'd heard that at one time you could get BR cases without the flash hole drilled. This to facilitate the user determining what size they wanted.
I got 2 cases of the 6MM BR brass part# U6MMBR and they were all without flash holes. I have about 16 boxes of 20 left.They came from Red Cornelison. Red was the first member of the Benchrest Hall of Fame. Red said early on that they experimented with the different flash hole sizes. I have mentioned before that Red made and shot a 17-22mag rimfire many many years before the 17HMR came out. Part of the items that I bought was a case of 5,000 22mag primed Federal cases without bullets or powder. Red also shot what he called a 22 Red Russian. He took his BR brass and rebated the rims to 222 rim size, shortened them about .100" and made a fitted neck that allowed him to sit the bullet on a ledge inside the neck. Red turned the neck in two stages. He turned the neck to a predetermined dimension and then came back and turned again only part of the way down the neck. He sized the neck and it left a lrdge for the bullet to sit on.
 
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Looks like the old Remington "Basic" BR brass. Reloaders used it to form the various BR cases ( 7BR, etc.) before they started appearing as pre-formed brass. It probably has small primer pockets, which all the various BR flavors use.
This is the correct answer.
 

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