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Bart B. · February 13, 2013, 08:45 AM

That knurl at the pressure ring on 7.62 NATO M852 match ammo's to indicate it's not supposed to be used in combat; Geneva Convetions regs. Too bad it's where it is, but such is life. The earlier M118 match ammo never had it 'cause it was loaded with what was the original machine gun bullet for the .30-06 developed in the 1920's but without the crimping cannelure.

Military brass was never annealed to be good for reloading. It's typically too hard. But it has to be that way to withstand rough handling and loading in semi and full auto firearms. When I first saw the M852 stuff when it came out in the early 1980's, I called Lake City Army Ammo Plant and asked them about it. The engineer I talked with said it was less safe for reloading than the M118 versions due to that knurled cannelure at the pressure ring. Not a good idea to weaken the case where incipient case head separations starts in the first place.

As most folks resizing that brass set the fired case shoulder back too far, when the reloaded round was fired and drove the case hard against the chamber shoulder, the back end of the case stretched back until its head stopped against the bolt face. That knurl point was/is the weakest part of the case near the head so that's where folks would typically see case head separation fractures. Case life for reloading these first fired in semiautos is short.

Regarding those "soft" Federal .308 Win. brass cases, I full length sized one 46 times; a friend reloaded one 57 times. We both used maximum loads and quit after running out of powder used for these tests sessions. No neck annealing whatsoever. Excellent accuracy and muzzle velocity spread, too.

So, I think the Federal stuff is much better than the LC stuff.

February 13, 2013, 08:45 AM	#10
Bart B. Senior Member Join Date: February 15, 2009 Posts: 8,927	That knurl at the pressure ring on 7.62 NATO M852 match ammo's to indicate it's not supposed to be used in combat; Geneva Convetions regs. Too bad it's where it is, but such is life. The earlier M118 match ammo never had it 'cause it was loaded with what was the original machine gun bullet for the .30-06 developed in the 1920's but without the crimping cannelure. Military brass was never annealed to be good for reloading. It's typically too hard. But it has to be that way to withstand rough handling and loading in semi and full auto firearms. When I first saw the M852 stuff when it came out in the early 1980's, I called Lake City Army Ammo Plant and asked them about it. The engineer I talked with said it was less safe for reloading than the M118 versions due to that knurled cannelure at the pressure ring. Not a good idea to weaken the case where incipient case head separations starts in the first place. As most folks resizing that brass set the fired case shoulder back too far, when the reloaded round was fired and drove the case hard against the chamber shoulder, the back end of the case stretched back until its head stopped against the bolt face. That knurl point was/is the weakest part of the case near the head so that's where folks would typically see case head separation fractures. Case life for reloading these first fired in semiautos is short. Regarding those "soft" Federal .308 Win. brass cases, I full length sized one 46 times; a friend reloaded one 57 times. We both used maximum loads and quit after running out of powder used for these tests sessions. No neck annealing whatsoever. Excellent accuracy and muzzle velocity spread, too. So, I think the Federal stuff is much better than the LC stuff. Last edited by Bart B.; February 13, 2013 at 08:53 AM.