aister Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 i got about 300 223 brass cases from a friend of a friend who saved his brass with the intention of reloading but never did. among it there was 90 cases in their original boxes which held 30 rounds, it was a plain white box with, SMI 5.56 (m855 IP) printed on it. the case head had SMI 86 09 stamped and the primers had 3 crimp marks around them. i decapped one of them and when i put in the new primer i noticed that it was in below the line of the case head. is this brass ok to reload with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lineshooter Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 I think these are military Berdan primed cases, there are dies to remove this primer so the cases can be reloaded so as long as the brass is in good order then I would say you`re ok to use. Try firing a primed case to see what sort of primer strike you get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1066 Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 I think these are military Berdan primed cases, there are dies to remove this primer so the cases can be reloaded so as long as the brass is in good order then I would say you`re ok to use. Try firing a primed case to see what sort of primer strike you get. I think you are right - These cases will probably be Berdan primed and really only good for scrap. Yes - it is possible to reload Berdan cases but you would need to be pretty desperate and also locate some Berdan primers. If you look inside the case, a Boxer primed case only has one flash hole a Berdan case has two. To de-cap them you will need to use a hydraulic system or a claw to rip them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aister Posted July 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) these are not berdan primed as i decapped them with a standard sizeing die and there is only one flash hole. Edited July 4, 2012 by aister Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaedra1106 Posted July 5, 2012 Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 SMI (Società Metallurgica Italiana, Campo Tizzoro, Italy) will be Italian Mil-Surp, m855 may be steel core tipped bullets. These cases are designed for 5.56 military use not .223 commercial/civilian, I would full length re-size the cases and run a primer pocket cleaner and de-burr the pockets as well, in fact I'd probably just toss them!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted July 6, 2012 Report Share Posted July 6, 2012 Deburr the primer pocket and press in new primer . Test fire some primed cases and see if they go off .Its not unusual to have primers sitting just below the case head . Harnser . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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