New brass, fire forming question

dastt

dastt

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So I bought 100 lapua brass for my .223, everything I have read says fast burning pistol powder? On hand I have benchmark, varget, and h4350, would any of these not work or are they too slow? Also what's a recommended weight to start off with?


I'm limited on the number of Bergers I have left so I don't really want to load up 100 to fire form the brass and not get the real precision I'm looking for
 
Fast burning pistol powder would be outright dangerous. Where is the everywhere you are reading this?
No need to fireform. Real precision can be had from the get go.
Varget works in .223, doubt if H4350 would be a good choice.
No way that a load can be recommended without knowing the bullet weight.
 
What rifle? What twist barrel? What type of shooting you be using it for? What weight of bullet? What accuracy do you expect to get?
What dies do you use? ( neck size or full length size?) Do weigh each charge or throw each charge?
I know--lots of questions, but they are all relevant to precision shooting.
 
I run all my new brass through the die to clean up all the necks and use the deburring tool on it as well.

Yeah I wouldnt be pissing around with pistol power either.
 
Sorry all the videos I watched on YouTube, now that I think about it they were fireforming to AI. I watched about 4 videos all said the same thing.

I'm shooting 80gr Bergers out of a 1-8 twist McLennan 28"

I just remember hearing somewhere that for best results use fire formed brass.

As for results in obviously trying to shoot smallest groups possible, so if having non fire formed brass affect accuracy then hence the fireforming

Sorry I havnt bought new brass before always started from once fired factory ammo
 
The difference in the shoulders from my fired brass and the new lapua brass is .010"

Or is that not to worry about?
 
dastt said:
Sorry all the videos I watched on YouTube, now that I think about it they were fireforming to AI. I watched about 4 videos all said the same thing.

I'm shooting 80gr Bergers out of a 1-8 twist McLennan 28"

I just remember hearing somewhere that for best results use fire formed brass.

As for results in obviously trying to shoot smallest groups possible, so if having non fire formed brass affect accuracy then hence the fireforming

Sorry I havnt bought new brass before always started from once fired factory ammo
Click to expand...

The Berger manual recommends Varget start load at 20.o grs to a max load of 22.2 grs. From my experience the Benchmark powder is best for 40 to 50 gr. bullets. Fireforming the brass will increase accuracy, but only slightly.
 
dastt said:
The difference in the shoulders from my fired brass and the new lapua brass is .010"

Or is that not to worry about?
Click to expand...

That is quite a lot... I would use the COW method to fireform using a small charge of pistol powder and cornmeal. Full pressure load could damage the web area.

With that much less headspace, ignition may be problematic

Once formed, going to normal pressure loading will not cause any further stress on the web area... keep shoulder bump to around 2 to 3 thou of the chamber dimension and you would get good brass life.

Do consider outside neck turning to 10 thou... really thick out of the box usually and might cause problems in some chambers.

Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
That is quite a lot... I would use the COW method to fireform using a small charge of pistol powder and cornmeal. Full pressure load could damage the web area.

With that much less headspace, ignition may be problematic

Once formed, going to normal pressure loading will not cause any further stress on the web area... keep shoulder bump to around 2 to 3 thou of the chamber dimension and you would get good brass life.

Do consider outside neck turning to 10 thou... really thick out of the box usually and might cause problems in some chambers.

Jerry
Click to expand...

Thanks jerry that's what I was looking for. I guess I should have specified doing the COW method.
 
dastt: with a lot of reading and information for great people like Jerry I started asking the same questions... and started putting the answers in the same post for ease of searching. Here is the thread: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...7-Testing-Reloads-for-Accuracy-Order-to-do-it

I am at the stage where I did the COW method for chamber sizing, have neck sized and loaded rounds for ladder testing... but I haven't had the time to get farther and add to the post.

Maybe my thread will help.
 
Thanks for the great info!


So you just worked your way up from 10% in how many % increments? And once you figured it out you loaded the rest at that?
 
dastt said:
Thanks for the great info!


So you just worked your way up from 10% in how many % increments? And once you figured it out you loaded the rest at that?
Click to expand...

I wanted that post to be free of brands and calibers... but I am using brand new PVRI brass in 300WM from a site sponsor. I started by sizing every brass, then getting the "100%" fill of Bullseye by filling 20 random cases and getting an average (loose shake inserting powder until it is overfull and carefully scrape the tip of the neck flat). Once I got that I looked at videos and seen most AI reforming was in the 18-26% range so I just loaded all the percentages from 10 to 26.

As I said in the thread I started I found shoulder "movement" at about 13% and it stopped at about 20%. Neck expansion because it was trying to ram out all of that oatmeal ahead of the patch was happening even at 10%. At 21, 22 & 23% there was no more increase in the size of the neck or movement of the shoulder so I stopped: I wanted shoulder and neck sizing, not an expanded case body or a stiff bolt. I ended up very carefully pulling my 24, 25 & 26% tests as I felt they were unneeded.

Now that I told you that... fugget aboud it! I MEAN IT! :mad:

Why? Because that was what I needed for 300WM in PVRI brass with a CCI primer, patch, Bullseye and oatmeal. Any single change in that equasion changes the percentage you need: that is why I left this out of my other thread!!! For you 21% could do nothing... or break something!!!

PS: don't double charge... that could be horrible.

EDIT: I'm going to add that second last paragraph to my thread...
 
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