I started hand loading in January and I had a about 150 Lapua brass cases from factory loaded match ammo that I kept after firing. Then I bought 200 new Lapua brass cases, although I prepped the cases I didn't trim the length of the case. I measured them to make sure they were all below the 2.015" saami spec, and they were.
I didn't trim them because I knew after they were all fire formed I'd neck size them only and the case OAL would change, I wanted to wait until this point to sort and trim them all to the same length as it seemed the most logical time to do it.
Now the majority of them have been fire formed and only neck sized (no shoulder bump and no full length resizing).
I was going through and measuring/sort all of them to see where the length sit to decide where to trip the length at. I was surprised by the range of lengths that I had, my shortest case is measuring 2.000 and my longest case is measuring 2.015. The brass that was from the factory loaded match ammo is in the 2.000 to 2.007 size range and the new purchased ammo is in the 2.008 to 2.015 range. Now i'm sitting hear scratching my head, I've read that you shouldn't trim the case below 2.005" and some places said not below 2.008". I'm not sure how wise it would be to trim them all down to 2.000, I have about half the cases that are below the 2.005 mark and about half above the 2.008 mark.
I'm partially resizing the neck with a Redding competition neck resizing die, about 2/3" of the neck length is resized (about 0.180"). 0.015" difference in case OAL is close to 10% of the bullet seating contact area, that feels like it's too much variance and that I need to make it more consistant.
Any guidance the precision reloads can offer me?
Thanks.
I didn't trim them because I knew after they were all fire formed I'd neck size them only and the case OAL would change, I wanted to wait until this point to sort and trim them all to the same length as it seemed the most logical time to do it.
Now the majority of them have been fire formed and only neck sized (no shoulder bump and no full length resizing).
I was going through and measuring/sort all of them to see where the length sit to decide where to trip the length at. I was surprised by the range of lengths that I had, my shortest case is measuring 2.000 and my longest case is measuring 2.015. The brass that was from the factory loaded match ammo is in the 2.000 to 2.007 size range and the new purchased ammo is in the 2.008 to 2.015 range. Now i'm sitting hear scratching my head, I've read that you shouldn't trim the case below 2.005" and some places said not below 2.008". I'm not sure how wise it would be to trim them all down to 2.000, I have about half the cases that are below the 2.005 mark and about half above the 2.008 mark.
I'm partially resizing the neck with a Redding competition neck resizing die, about 2/3" of the neck length is resized (about 0.180"). 0.015" difference in case OAL is close to 10% of the bullet seating contact area, that feels like it's too much variance and that I need to make it more consistant.
Any guidance the precision reloads can offer me?
Thanks.