Where has all the once fired '06 brass gone?

[condor bravo]

Thinking to routinely purchase a few hundred Federal once fired 30-06 brass from www.oncefiredbrass.com, surprisingly they were out of stock. No other '06 brass either. And out of stock were all the other vendors that I checked with. First choice is always Federal but will go for Remington as second choice. Third choice perhaps mixed headstamps for 1000 or so if price is right. There's likely to be some Federals and Remingtons. Any of your vendors have '06 once fired brass today?

[Geezerbiker]

More guys than ever are reloading. I'd say that has something to do with it...

Tony

[Mobuck]

Lots of old Garands are getting some use. People who didn't reload for the 06 have started looking at that option.

[Reloadron]

Unlike years ago when the 30-06 was the military cartridge, including being run through machine guns the 30-06 has fallen from grace as thee military cartridge. Hell I can have several thousand .308 Winchester or .223 Remington pieces of brass here in 48 hours but no longer true of the 30-06. Without the military contributing surplus brass the amount of 30-06 out there is diminishing. I can actually find once fired 300 Win Mag brass easier than 30-06, go figure huh?

Ron

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Not quite the time of year yet where lots of used brass is stocked. Next month such first fire 06 brass should be a bit easier found.

[condor bravo]

Sure Shot,
Good, I hope you're right.

[hagar]

When you could buy HXP for less than 30 cents a round, it almost wasn't worth reloading. Now it is..

[the possum]

Where has all the once fired '06 brass gone?

My dad's garage.

[condor bravo]

I bet he has a half dozen Garands and will use it all up and be in the same boat I'm in.

[T. O'Heir]

Lotta on-line sites do the same thing retailers do. They put stuff they want to unload on the site and/or stuff that's in great demand.
Anyway, there's lots of BNIB '06 available for reasonable money at Midway. 50 pieces of Hornady brass is on sale at $29.49. $104.99 per 250. Unknown sourced once fired .30-06 isn't worth buying.
These guys are showing mixed head stamp milsurp '06 brass(told 'em already it's not NATO) at $130 per 500. Mixed commercial at $250.00 per 1,000.
http://www.diamondkbrass.com/Once-Fi...Brass_DKB.html

[William T. Watts]

If you get a chance to buy 1X fired cases you should pick them up, there was a time I could find all I needed at the local shooting range, not any more. While new cases are pricy, they would be my 2nd choice plus they are usually in stock at the various outlets we normally use.. William

[condor bravo]

Mr T:
DiamondK looks good for Rem and mixed brass containing Federals. Thought I had checked them out a few days ago with negative results. Will proceed with them.
Thanks

[condor bravo]

William:
Considering new brass if necessary. Still have a few boxes of American Eagle Garand factory ammunition to fall back on.

[Unclenick]

Ditto with pull-down .30-06. I bought 1000 LC 68 Match pulled-down cases from Jeff Bartlett three or four seasons back. Decided I really wanted another 1000, but too late–gone. If you can afford high end stuff, both Midsouth and Graf & Sons have Norma .30-06 brass on sale for a mere $800/thousand. Midway has Winchester for about half that.


Starline has started making a number of bottleneck rifle cases, but nothing longer than about .308 so far. But that may well change. You could call them to ask. I would guess that if they do it, it will be about the price of the Winchester based on how their .308 compares. Maybe a little less.

I found two dealers with 100 quantities of mixed-headstamp once-fired .30-06 for $25 and $35 dollars, respectively. At those prices for mixed brass, I'd either save up for new stuff I really wanted or I'd pick up some of the brass cased import ammo and shoot that and keep the brass. Lucky Gunner has a couple of different Prvi offerings that are at about $75 a round.

If you want Federal, specifically, at $.40 each, this is the best new brass price I found for it. Don't know why the photo shows primed cases, but I would not expect them to be primed at that price. You could call and double-check.

[Rivertrail]

check out bargainbrass or sagesreloadingsupplies.com

[Unclenick]

Rivertrail,

Links would be useful. Google doesn't find bargainbrass anywhere and the URL you gave for sage doesn't work.

[Rivertrail]

http://www.sagesreloadingsupply.com/ is the link to Sages.

Ignore this - I see no 3006 brass. What i've been able to find is priced too high to pay for once fired....I think Bargain Brass must only have a Facebook presence. If you do facebook search bargain brass and they come up. They have good deals at times. I'll post a link but have no idea if it will work. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1539738762975732/

[Tsquared]

You can also check reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/BrassSwap/

[hdwhit]

https://rangebrass.us/products

30-06 Military brass. $9.66 per hundred + shipping.

30-06 Commercial. $11.52 per hundred + shipping.

I have ordered from them before. Quick shipping. Generally good condition. It is range pick-up brass so you will need to process it yourself. They also have a E-bay like site for rare and hard-to-find calibers.

[condor bravo]

Well it turns out that things aren't that bleak after all. Several sources for Federals at acceptable prices from sources new to me. Thanks for all the input.

[RC20]

For what its worth, PPU is both low cost and its proving to be very good stuff.

I have shot some groups so small with it that while not a true 5 in one hole, I am not sure how to calculate the groups size. I come up with 1/10 to 2/10. Clearly sub 1/4 (and that's 110 yards so a hair small MOA wise )

I am not sure how good it is, certainly equal to RP (which is my mainline go to brass)

It may be close to Lapua.

And I will note, Federal is the worst brass out there. Not sure if FC military if they had the LC arsenal at one time was any good, but the over the counter commercial stuff does not last.

[condor bravo]

RC
Thanks for the info. Intriguing how preferences for different brass varieties vary and would be interesting to know the various reasons why. Of the common varieties, my least favorite is Winchester, with Remingtons coming in as second choice behind first choice Federals so we are not in total disagreement. Now I do have a pretty good supply of Federals coming in and may even go for some Remingtons. Responders offered some good sources.

[std7mag]

Sorry Condor,

I've started reloading for 4 different 06'.

Sad part is i don't own one since mine was stolen.

Loading for Uncle, neighber, and 2 customers from work.
They can't get enough of the 165gr Nosler Ballistic tip over IMR 4350.

[F. Guffey]

I form cases, when forming cases there is nothing like new cases, after that there is once fired cases, after that there are cases that have been fired in machine guns. I like machine gun fired cases because manufacturers do not sell cases to reloaders that know what they are doing. If they sold cases to reloaders that knew what they were doing they could sell new cases that were too long from the shoulder to the case head, that is another of my favorite things; a case that is too long from the shoulder to the case head to chamber.

Around here there is no shortage of 30/06 cases. While other reloaders were culling cases because they were new but the flash hole was not in the center of the primer pocket, they were LC, new, never fired and stamped 'MATCH'.

The first thing I did when I got home was neck up 400 of the cases to
35 Whelen and 338/06. If the cases were new I should have no problem stretching the necks.

F. Guffey

[RC20]

RC
Thanks for the info. Intriguing how preferences for different brass varieties vary and would be interesting to know the various reasons why. Of the common varieties, my least favorite is Winchester, with Remingtons coming in as second choice behind first choice Federals so we are not in total disagreement. Now I do have a pretty good supply of Federals coming in and may even go for some Remingtons. Responders offered some good sources.

You might fond it odd, but I really do like Federal. It works well, forms well and polished up nice (not a have to but I like shiny brass)

Where it fell down was even with minim bump back in my mil surplus guns it cracked at the base.

All the cases I have stuck in the sizer have been broken off head of FC.

Winchester seem so so.

RP has been solid, PPU as good, maybe better, still long term results to see.

The only problem I had was the 7.5 is European brass and a tad too small a pocket . Fixed with a primer pocket uniform tool.

At 50 cents a case that's pretty good for brass you can't get.

308 and 30-06 I have picked up on good sales. Will see longer term but shooting wise its certainly been up there with Lapua