Brass and PRS

M

MartyK2500

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
278   0   0
Location
Quebec
Just ordered 300x virgin .308 casings. Lapua brand.

It got me wondering, with all that money invested in purchasing and processing brass, do you guys lose your brass at matches or are we allowed to pickup?

If it's a lose your brass event, i understand to keep the flow of match going, but would be even harder for the budget minded to join PRS.

Also, the dealer who sold me the brass (mystic precision) told me he fireformed them without projectiles on first firing.
Went around browsing on Fclass/benchrest forums and it's common practice.

Do you guys in PRS go trough that process? Or load them right up on first load?
 
Every match I've shot in the States, you can pick up your brass. Normally in individual matches, everybody in your squad helps out with something so someone would pick up your brass for you as you come off the line. I've never shot a national level PRS but that's shooting NWPRL matches and RTC. At the last RTC match I shot, the round count was around 200 and I lost maybe 3 pieces? It's good practice to somehow mark your brass to make it more easily identifiable as well. A "sharpie" stripe around the case body down by the case head or the same on your primers or case heel.

As to fireforming, I've never bothered. That being said, you can always do your first, courser round of load testing with virgin brass and then re-size it and use the now once-fired brass for your follow on testing.
 
Last edited:
I feel your pain bro... I neck turn my brass and invest too much energy to risk loosing my F Class grade brass in PRS so I use a different rig with "normal" ammo. It hurts because I have a better and more accurate rifle that sits on the side lines while I flounder with something less.

In PRS events the guys typically mark their brass somehow. Each shooter will have his own colour combinations to identify his brass from others.

Using sharpie markers, some guys will colour the extractor groove, other guys draw lines on the side wall.

Despite your best identification efforts, among the hysteria you can expect to loose a percentage of your brass in PRS.

Oh ya... you pick up your brass after the entire squad has shot, so your brass gets mixed with everyone else's, then each shooter picks from the pile.

If you approach PRS like F Class you will have an advantage assuming you are good at shooting from awkward positions and on the clock. But with people stepping on your fired cases you need to go in with that expectation so don't get too attached to that brass.
 
Last edited:
Thanks this pretty much summed it up.
I have zero experience in rifle matches, but have shot 25+ IPSC matches.
We usually let the brass go to the ROs, unless someone is shooting 38 supercomp or 45, they are running for it!

That being said, with my rifle i'd like to be able to shoot target on my own time, and shoot PRS a few times a season.
I got the feeling Lapua brass will be kept for my personnal time target, and my federal-winchester be used for PRS.
I don't know if my line of thinking even makes sense, as i would have to test muzzle velocity of both loads periodically and have different charts with different brass possibly.

Or get my Lapua brass count to 600 and accept the fact that some will be lost over time.

Still got time to think a out it, as i'm looking what's available in Ottawa area for PRS and seems i would need to travel.
The more travel involved the less matches i can participate.
 
At the Meaford shoot last year. The whole squad did a quick brass sweep then had a couple minutes to sort it out and pick it up.
You'll lose some brass. But not much. I lost 5-6 pieces out of the 200 ish
 
At the Meaford shoot last year. The whole squad did a quick brass sweep then had a couple minutes to sort it out and pick it up.
You'll lose some brass. But not much. I lost 5-6 pieces out of the 200 ish
 
If you want to keep your brass. Mark it with a unique identifier; some guys use colour bands others mark the case head. Something that u can easily identify out of a pile of brass of the same caliber.

All the best
Trevor
 
I think everyone has answered the issue re picking up brass. As for fire-forming, what I do is this: Load new brass and shoot it - fine tune load with once fired and prepare match (F_Class) loads with twice fired.

GOOD LUCK !

Bob
 
At the match this weekend there was a combo of picking it up if it was easy to find right after everything was clear and a sweep after the stage was all wrapped up.

Marked pieces were returned to their owners more easily. Mine were identified by the terribly cratered primers...
 
I've found I get almost 100% of my brass back. Over the course of a season I may lose a total of 5 pieces.

As for fire forming, I like to shoot actual bullets and get trigger time. I do not see it as a waste of components like others do. At this weekends Milo PRS type match, I was actually just shooting my fire forming 206 rem loads, at the end of the match, I had my 260 Ackley improved brass. I simply just go my drops for those laods and ran it in the match. Who cares.
 
Tomochan said:
I think everyone has answered the issue re picking up brass. As for fire-forming, what I do is this: Load new brass and shoot it - fine tune load with once fired and prepare match (F_Class) loads with twice fired.

GOOD LUCK !

Bob
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob!

And thanks to everyone who have contributed, questions have been answered very clearly
 
In 2015 a SHC I lost 80% of my virgin Lapua brass, it happens at lost brass events and I wouldn't loose any sleep over it, most matches I can bank on losing 10% as I shoot the stage and grab what I see and carry on as my mind is more set on the next stage instead of the 2 pieces of brass I left behind.....as far as virgin vs once fired for the game I wouldn't sweat it, the wind will school most people's laser accurate loads no matter how tight the gun shoots or how tweeked the load is, this isn't benchrest its tactical field comp, different disaplines have different protocol.
 
I prefer to fire form my own brass to the chamber of my own gun. Not even sure how you could fire form without the projectile since there would be no back pressure to form the brass, but Jerry knows what he doing.
 
Barnard308 said:
I prefer to fire form my own brass to the chamber of my own gun. Not even sure how you could fire form without the projectile since there would be no back pressure to form the brass, but Jerry knows what he doing.
Click to expand...

Forming a case without a bullet is easy and cheap. "COW" or cream of wheat fireforming (I prefer cornmeal). Light pistol powder charge, cornmeal to base of neck, piece of paper towel stuffed into neck to hold all in place. Fire it at the range. I did over 100cases in 1 hour session over the winter... some snow, and cold temps, barrel was never really hot. Clean chamber and bore once in a while or when you see dings in cases.

I got a Ruger Predator to be my slave/FF rifle. I easily paid for the rifle for the difference in price vs premium brass and I will be able to use this rifle for 10's of thousands of cases. The chamber IS much larger then my McGowen prefit which let's me size to a precise fit.... I don't need to fireform with a bullet. I can just load a bullet and head out to a match.

For the first time, all these oversized factory chambers ARE a good thing. COW form to a bit oversized, size to precisely fit your rifle, load a bullet and go play. If building a custom rifle, set up the reamer to fit your die... voila, easy ....

If you have cases that are much shorter then the chamber, a secondary shoulder can be formed to ensure a tight headspace in the rifle.

Except for a couple of chamberings, there is no real reason to use expensive match brass. If F class accuracy is not needed, why use F class suitable brass? More and more US manfs are offering bulk brass with far less costs (boxes cost a ton of money). The option to fireform inexpensive brass can drop the per unit price tremendously.

My 6.5 CM uses PRVI 22-250 brass. With all these mid sized cartridges, 22-250 is your friend. Less costs, plenty durable and once prepped, equally accurate. Over the winter, doing some brass work is not a chore.

Don't want to do much fireforming, Hrn, Nosler and others will be offering non box brass for popular chamberings like the 6.5 CM. The hrn I have been offering is around 1/3 less then in a fancy Hrn box. Same brass. Will likely be 1/2 the price of Lapua.

My formed PRVI is around 1/3 the price of Lapua... don't care if I loose this stuff. Find some old Win or Rem 22-250 at gunshows and you might drop costs even more.

So there are plenty of ways to keep cost and stress about your brass to a min....

Jerry
 
I usually expect to loose 10-15% of my brass at a match. This is just part of the game and you need to factor this into your brass count for the season. If you look at the over all picture the brass is the cheapest part of your match. You have just spent 1000-1500 to shoot a major PRS event in the states, don't go down with your brass seconds, so you can save $10 in lost brass.
I prefer to Fireform my brass before a match. I fireform while I practice barricade work. Just lay down a tarp if you are shooting in long grass to you don't loose any.....

Ryan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom