What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Discussion about rifles in 300 AAC BLACKOUT (7.62x35mm), hosted by the creator of the cartridge.

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alamo5000
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What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by alamo5000 »

I have read numbers of places about making your own brass out of 5.56/.223 cases and many people kind of poo poo the idea for some reason or another.

Is there anything wrong with it? Or would it be better to just buy brass that is already 300 BLK?

The only schools of thought that I could think of are below:

1. The neck cases are too thick.
2. Annealing, or rather a possible need to anneal...

Other than that I can't think of anything...and I don't even know if those two are legit reasons or not.

All opinions welcome, pro, con, for, against, or indifferent...
oodnoodn
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by oodnoodn »

I made a lot of 300BLK brass 4-7 years ago when it wasn't too common, but haven't lately since it's become almost a mainstream cartridge & I can get plenty of once-fired stuff at the range. A regime change can easily change brass availability, so keeping the chopsaw & jig to convert 223/5.56 brass is sound planning.

Never annealed a case or turned a neck, & I haven't noticed any problems that I could blame on neck thickness. YMMV.
Sig220
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by Sig220 »

I roll my own. I have only purchased 2 or 3 boxes of the Remy 120g since I picked up a 300BO upper.

Why? I like the control it gives me and find cutting and forming to be a relaxing activity.

I don't anneal, and other then a odd chrome case or two over the years don't remember any neck problems that annealing would have helped.

I wear out the primer pockets faster then anything else and even that is not too often.

I AM particular about neck thickness, which means I AM picky about the brass I convert. There is zero gain in working up a batch of cases where the
neck runs .13 or higher. So the easy avoidance is to just keep cases that are on the "good list". The bottom line, is you have to work in your comfort zone. You will be a better reloader (safer) if you are.
alamo5000
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by alamo5000 »

Thanks for the replies! The more opinions the better and the more options the better as far as I am concerned.

I love 300 BLK.... I am still relatively new to it but I have a 9" upper and soon to be a dedicated 300 BLK SBR lower. I also have a chop saw that I bought here from a forum member... I started playing around with the multitudes of various reloads including cast and coated bullets and dozens of grain weights of jacketed bullets but I had to put that on the shelf for a while due to a health scare of a family member... [my dad had a golf ball size tumor in his brain that subsequently got removed a few months ago]...

Anyway he's good to go now and I am slowly back to picking up the whole reloading and shooting thing as my budget allows.

In any case I have been reloading for YEARS, ever since I was a kid. I like the idea of being able to convert cases if needed. It gives a lot of flexibility. My goal is to get several thousand cases stashed up... (5000 is usually my caliber minimum) and then just top off as needed.

In any case I am sitting here thinking about what has been neglected and what I need to do and/or buy next...so I am debating buying bunches of brass or just making my own and wondering if one is any better than the other.

My ELR OCD side is coming out so I am thinking I would need a ton of same head stamped really nice Lapua brass or some Peterson cases :lol: but in all reality I think for this just your basic run of the mill 'good brass' will do just fine. What, I don't know. I still haven't decided the buy it new or make my own thing yet.
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John A.
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by John A. »

I bought my first 2 boxes of Remington umc brass at walmart when I was building my blk.

This was to give me a control to go off of.

Otherwise, I convert 223 brass.

It's not hard. It is a little time consuming but once you have them cut, formed, and trimmed, if you close your eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart unless you read the stamp on the rim.

FWIW, I don't anneal the necks after forming them. I only shoot subs. I have brass that has been loaded more than a dozen times. I can only remember throwing away 2 cases that looked like the neck were forming a crack even though it wasn't all the way split yet.
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plant.one
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by plant.one »

i think the main reason for many of us is ... well... buying stuff converted by someone else is relatively cheap. like 10-12 cents each cheap.

and when things are that plentiful and affordable - well my time is more valuable than that.

i'd imagine that if brass were 50-70 cents per... you'd find a lot more folks putting in the time to convert their own.

just my $0.02 USD
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by Dolomite_Supafly »

I make my own, made some yesterday. I do my own mostly because I read horror stories of people getting brass that have the shoulders bumped too far to be usable.

I also have thousands of pieces of 5.56 brass.

It also lets me cull brass I don't like the look of so I can ensure they are as identical as humanly possible.
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eowen37
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by eowen37 »

I bought some that another person had made. If it is lake city good to go. He has some ppu brass that is cut down also. Will not go all the way into the cartridge checker after reloading. Just gonna pull the bullets & powder, then scrap them.
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gds
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by gds »

Of the thousands of rounds that I've personally fired out of multiple 300 Blackout firearms. Every round was loaded on a piece of brass that I converted myself. I even got lazy last year and bought 2,000 cases of already formed brass. But still haven't used any of them. Anyone poo poo in the idea I would be leery of their understanding of the 300 Blackout as a whole.
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dellet
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Re: What's wrong with making 300 BLK brass?

Post by dellet »

gds wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 10:13 am Of the thousands of rounds that I've personally fired out of multiple 300 Blackout firearms. Every round was loaded on a piece of brass that I converted myself. I even got lazy last year and bought 2,000 cases of already formed brass. But still haven't used any of them. Anyone poo poo in the idea I would be leery of their understanding of the 300 Blackout as a whole.
Thanks for the vote of confidence :mrgreen:

Besides why not use 223 brass for something useful?
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