New brass ... should i size?

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graaf7mm

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hello.. well by the time i get home I'll have all my questions answered and be ready to roll :D
Do you need to run brand new brass through your FL die before you load them? and trim them right off the bat to get things the same?? or is a .006'' difference acceptable? they are all below the max Saami of 2.045'' (yes it's a .243, sako rifle )
 
graaf7mm said:
Do you need to run brand new brass through your FL die before you load them? and trim them right off the bat to get things the same??
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Two simple questions with two simple answers :D. Yes & Yes.
New unfired brass must be full length sized & trimmed before use. By NOT sizing them, you risk having issues with them chambering in your rifle. IMHO neck sizing isn't enough. You may NOT find any that need trimming, but you might. Better to get into a good habit & make measuring/trimming part of your case prep cycles.

George
 
Which would be easier done...pushing all the crud on the new casings into your gun chamber to try all the casings???? or....running them all thru a die that is meant for that purpose.

Reality should tell you that even new casings may not be all the same size as thousands are made in different machines and dies.
 
I agree with glang1 yes and yes . Have done it this way ever since I started reloading.

Straight Shooting

Budweiser2
 
I agree with 44 bore. Never FL sized or trimmed a case until it has been fired once. Neck sizing does the job just fine, and trimming before firing the brass so it actually fills out in the chamber is a lesson in futility. I have fired thousands of rounds at targets with new brass that had been neck sized and chamfered only, with no ill effects whatsoever. Additionally, I cannot remember ever having a factory new case that would not chamber, even when the chamber was a SAAMI minimum one. Case necks for "tight neck" chambers need to be turned before use, though. Regards, Eagleye
 
Yes, I am bewildered by these people who say they try new brass in the chamer to see if it will go in. Do they do the same with factory loaded ammunition? It's all the same size. And do they also measure the brass of their factory loads before they shoot them? The factory loads have the same length brass as the new unloaded brass.
Until recently I bought all my new brass in the 20 round boxes. The brass is perfect, so I just prime and load. Have never resized new brass yet. With my two newest reloading calibres, 45-70 and 22 Hornet, I bought brass in 100 round bags. I gave them the same treatment, prime and load.
Never had the slightest problem of any kind.
So, my answer to the two questions would be no and no!
 
Agree 100%. Never in more than 40 years of handloading have I ever resized new brass, and I have never had a failure to chamber.

There may be a few out of round necks, but just a quick trip into the die far enough to pass over the expander ball, not any resizing at all, takes care of that. :cool:

Ted
 
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H4831 said:
Yes, I am bewildered by these people who say they try new brass in the chamer to see if it will go in. Do they do the same with factory loaded ammunition? It's all the same size. And do they also measure the brass of their factory loads before they shoot them? The factory loads have the same length brass as the new unloaded brass.
Until recently I bought all my new brass in the 20 round boxes. The brass is perfect, so I just prime and load. Have never resized new brass yet. With my two newest reloading calibres, 45-70 and 22 Hornet, I bought brass in 100 round bags. I gave them the same treatment, prime and load.
Never had the slightest problem of any kind.
So, my answer to the two questions would be no and no!
Click to expand...

x 2
 
-Answer: it depends.

Used/surplus/once-fired brass: I'll size & trim because I have no idea what chamber it may have been through before, or 'really', how many times some of that 'once-fired' brass was really fired (okay, I've had some really cheap too-good-to-be-true deals in the past, that were just that...)? But, I understand that this thread is more aimed at factory-new brass.

I've had bags of new brass come with the necks so flattened/out-of-round on so many of them that for the effort of straightening them individually, I just sized them all before loading. It was minimal time 'wasted' over what I had to do anyway, so why not? I've also had problems in the past with 'certain' manufacturer's brass, where OAL differences ran into the 0.010" over 100rds ! (I've had issues with Bertram & Graf rim thickness & diameters, but that's another matter...generally good brass; needs work...) Of course, I discovered that OAL problem AFTER priming and charging 100rds with powder, when seating bullets & crimping. No consistant crimps that day !

I'll say this, and it's only IMHO: look at the brass and decide for yourself? Are the mouths bashed in? Are the OAL's scary-inconsistant? Is it intended for match-work in a fancy-schmancy target-rifle? Let your needs decide for you.

If I can get away with it, for most of my bolt-actions I'll neck-size & trim AFTER the first firing in the chamber of the rifle that it will be used in.
 
The thread started with the question..." if the casings should be run thru his gun to check size before reloading" ....if that is the gist. I just went down to Cabela's last nite and got a bag of new brass. I came home and opened it, wiped the brass down ( which has not been mentioned..... before puting the brass into the chamber) and commenced trying the brass in my gun. What a long tedious process just to find that many were extremely loose and 9 of the 100 would not chamber without pressure .

For the time it takes to size, I would rather take the time before reloading than to find the ammo refusing to chamber when out in the field.Looking at using the gun as a guage.....If the chamber in a well used gun is "large" , the casings would easily chamber and could erosion from escaping gases happen? I am certainly not an expert but better a safe gun than sorry " just because".
 
Anyone who is going into the field with reloaded ammo who has not cycled every "loaded" round through their rifle before embarking on said hunting trip is courting trouble. Weed any iffy stuff out before you go. BTW, Full-length sizing is not a guarantee that the loaded round will chamber. Eagleye.
 
Eagleye said:
Anyone who is going into the field with reloaded ammo who has not cycled every "loaded" round through their rifle before embarking on said hunting trip is courting trouble. Weed any iffy stuff out before you go. BTW, Full-length sizing is not a guarantee that the loaded round will chamber. Eagleye.
Click to expand...

We are in perfect agreement again!
One can have a perfect fitting empty case, set the seating die wrong and you have a case that won't chamber, because the shoulder has been swollen.
I even checked every round in the chamber before going into a competition.
 
H4831 said:
Yes, I am bewildered by these people who say they try new brass in the chamer to see if it will go in. Do they do the same with factory loaded ammunition? It's all the same size. And do they also measure the brass of their factory loads before they shoot them? The factory loads have the same length brass as the new unloaded brass.
Until recently I bought all my new brass in the 20 round boxes. The brass is perfect, so I just prime and load. Have never resized new brass yet. With my two newest reloading calibres, 45-70 and 22 Hornet, I bought brass in 100 round bags. I gave them the same treatment, prime and load.
Never had the slightest problem of any kind.
So, my answer to the two questions would be no and no!
Click to expand...

The reason I suggested to try the new brass is if there was any doubts about whether or not the brass would fit. I have never FL sized new brass, all I ever did was run it through the neck sizer to round out the case neck if needed.
 
I want to at least run the necks over the expander ball to round out the necks. In many instances brand new brass are so small that they don't even touch the sides of a full length die. If that's the case I'll run them right through without lube. Normally I won't trim cases before firing them once, but I seldom crimp anything.
 
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