New Brass...any prep needed?

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fivehundredlimited

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Hi CGN,
I have some new Hornady brass in .223REM that I plan to reload. I researched a bit and most people say they resize then trim prior to reloading for the first time.

If the brass fits in my Lyman case gauge without a problem is it safe to say I could skip the trim and resize since the case gauge confirms it's within spec both size wise and length wise?

I was thinking I will run them through my Lee neck sizer so the neck tension is consistent.

Any problems with my logic?
Fivehundred
 
what rifle are they for, AR or bolt. If bolt gun then it would be a good idea to check the necks for proper bullet tension. If its for a semi auto then i wouldn't worry because you need to crimp them
 
I've used brass like you suggest but I figure on the first shot being to size it to the chamber in prep for neck sizing only. But I quickly changed from doing that to fire forming using a wad of paper towel as a bullet and a small charge of fast pistol powder to save on the cost of the bullets since what I was seeing was pretty well useless for accuracy in that first batch.

The brass for me was .38-55 so no shoulder. That might put a wrench into the works for you. But the upside was that I got neatly chamber fitted brass to load with the "first" bullets and knowing that it fit the chamber spot on.

And I don't know about Lapua but all the brass I've seen had lots of oval or dented mouths and crusty looking lips. A pass through the flaring die set to not quite flare rounds them up then a pass over the chambering and crowning cutters to remove the knobbly bits on the mouth goes a lot way towards the bullets slipping into the mouths more smoothly.

In the end after doing a few thousand cases with a small double ended hand tool I went crazy and bought a Lyman case prep machine. I won't say I look forward to de-burring the case mouths but at least I don't have nightmares the evening before any more..... :d
 
I usually run them through a FL die to round up the case mouths for chamfering. In the vast majority of cases a brand new case is so small it doesn't even touch the sides of a FL die and doesn't require lube. Sometimes Ill just run the expander ball in an out of the neck and call it good. With Nosler and Lapua I don't even do that, just load them.

Some thoughts. Those that run their new cases through a FL die probably aren't full length sizing anything. Another observation is that if you check for run-out before and after sizing those new cases they were probably straighter before you sized them. You might not be doing yourself all the favors you think.
 
I do all the usual prep for the first firing except trim.... FL size which doesn't do much except expand the neck for even tension, deburr flash holes, inside chamfer, load em up.
 
BCRider said:
I've used brass like you suggest but I figure on the first shot being to size it to the chamber in prep for neck sizing only. But I quickly changed from doing that to fire forming using a wad of paper towel as a bullet and a small charge of fast pistol powder to save on the cost of the bullets since what I was seeing was pretty well useless for accuracy in that first batch.

The brass for me was .38-55 so no shoulder. That might put a wrench into the works for you. But the upside was that I got neatly chamber fitted brass to load with the "first" bullets and knowing that it fit the chamber spot on.

And I don't know about Lapua but all the brass I've seen had lots of oval or dented mouths and crusty looking lips. A pass through the flaring die set to not quite flare rounds them up then a pass over the chambering and crowning cutters to remove the knobbly bits on the mouth goes a lot way towards the bullets slipping into the mouths more smoothly.

In the end after doing a few thousand cases with a small double ended hand tool I went crazy and bought a Lyman case prep machine. I won't say I look forward to de-burring the case mouths but at least I don't have nightmares the evening before any more..... :d
Click to expand...

BCRider, your paper towel wad fire forming doesn't sound like a very effective idea. How do you know that the pressure reaches that of a regular load and round?
 
I agree with most of what's been said.....but I've found so many new brass cases that have slight deformities that I run every pc. of brass through the FL die. Ignore the advice to not use case lube either~I've had lightly-lubed .223 cases get stuck in the FL die~not fun! lol I've also read that RCBS dies are the tightest ones around (true?) and that's what I use. So my process;

1. FL Resize
2. Measure every case length. If they fall under the "trimmed length" case spec. (1.75" for .223) I put them in one pile...if they're more than that length they go in the "trim pile". I just did 100 new .243 brass, and about 70% were over, 30% under. Some were as many as 6 thou over, shortest case was 5 thou under.
3. Chamfer/de-burr
4. Hit them all with the RCBS case neck brush, give them a tap on the bench top (neck side down)
5. Wipe them off
6. Prime

Granted...I wear nitrile gloves too...so that I don't tarnish the brass. :)
 
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