Preparing Brass for Hunting Rounds

3macs1

3macs1

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
182   0   0
Location
Nova Scotia Canada
Ok. I am not a target shooter and never will be. Been out of rifle reloading for over 12 years and when I did it found a combo that worked in my gun and stayed with it.
Started picking up supplies and equipment again about 3 months ago and decided to buy winchester new and once fired brass and some lapua brass new if I could get it in my calipers. I am starting with 223, 243 and 280
So for just shooting targets to build loads for hunting and the final hunting reloads what brass preparation has to be done . I asked my friends and they gave me this link which is great but do I really have to do all of those steps for hunting reloads.Which steps can I not do normally??
What preparation would you guys do for hunting loads with new or once fired winchester or lapua brass.
Thanks in advance for the help. Here is the link. I also have the new hornady and nosler manual but want to hear what is really the best way to do it from your experiences
http://www.chuckhawks.com/preparing_competition_brass.htm
 
Last edited:
if your loading new lapua make sure the necks are round, not dented and fill them up. there good from the box. i will spend the time on win or rem brass to trim, uniform primer pockets, ream the flash hole, chamfer inside and out. i do my brass during the winter months when i can't shoot.. its not nessasary but i think it gives you an edge in making up accurate loads. if your not worried about getting every bit of accuracy just load them up and shoot.
 
Cleanliness is next to godliness, remember whatever is in that brass can go down your bore, primer and powder residue is very gritty!! I clean thoroughly, take the burr off the flash hole, resize, trim to length, deburr and load.
 
New brass for most uses, just load it. Thats what the factory does.

Used brass size, trim and load.

If I'm getting fussy, size, trim/chamfer, uniform primer pocket, debur flash hole, load.
 
Hunting ammo: Make sure you shoot some from that lot to make sure they work.

I think it is very important to cycle 100% of the hunting ammo through the mag and chamber, to make sure none of them have a defect that would jam the rifle. I learned that one the hard way.
 
The phrase to keep in mind is 'Minute of Bambi'.

Target shooters spend a lot of time and effort trying to get the smallest possible group. Neck thickness is measured and trimmed, brass separated by lot - you name it. And it works for them. Indeed, it's probably necessary for them because 1/10" wins competitions.

Now consider the vital zone for a deer or elk or moose. It's the size of a dinner plate. In reality, if you've got 2 MOA, if you do your job aiming, you're going to hit that every time out to 400 yards. It simply isn't necessary to take extraordinary measures for routine hunting purposes. Super accurate isn't bad, of course, but it's not strictly speaking necessary.

So clean them if dirty. First time, check the primer hole to ensure it's not blocked. If used (particularly with hot loads), consider trimming for length. Check for signs of head separation. Maybe even stick to one brand of case. Unless you're hunting gophers at extreme distance, that sort of thing will be enough for most realistic hunting needs.

Cycling them through your rifle is a good idea, but that's post-production.
 
I FL resize and inside chamfer new brass and fired brass from a different rifle. I bump back the shoulder just slightly on fired brass that will be used in the same rifle it was fired in.

I've never had problems yet with brass that had primer pockets that were too tight, and i see no point to make them uniformly loose by removing material from the primer pocket on a hunting cartridge. It might gain a 0.05 inch tighter group on a HB bench rifle but it doesn't mean much on a hunting rifle. If the primers are protruding then you need to think about cutting them bit deeper, otherwise don't bother.

Try to cycle some of your finished reloads prior to loading a whole bunch to make sure they chamber OK. Easier to pull bullets and rebuild a couple cartridges than a whole batch.
 
Well - As said above, cycle your intended hunting rounds through the rifle before going hunting. This is particularly important if you are using a rifle without much leverage (eg pump). In my case, it was a Ross and a missed deer...
 
chappy said:
if your loading new lapua make sure the necks are round, not dented and fill them up. there good from the box. i will spend the time on win or rem brass to trim, uniform primer pockets, ream the flash hole, chamfer inside and out. i do my brass during the winter months when i can't shoot.. its not nessasary but i think it gives you an edge in making up accurate loads. if your not worried about getting every bit of accuracy just load them up and shoot.
Click to expand...

Yes sir the 243 lapus new brass has quite a few dented necks that have to be fixed.
Trim I am Ok I have a rcbs trim pro, uniform primer pockets and ream flash hole what are you using or now recommend for that?? chamfer inside and out assuming you just use like a rcbs hand deburrer which I have. thanks for the help
 
cosmic said:
Well - As said above, cycle your intended hunting rounds through the rifle before going hunting. This is particularly important if you are using a rifle without much leverage (eg pump). In my case, it was a Ross and a missed deer...
Click to expand...

Will do since 90% of my rifles are pumps and I am just using standard FL rcbs dies.
 
If I look at the link the boys gave me and try to think back from when I reloaded years back I never did the following steps for hunting reloads. Maybe I should have and that is why I am asking now.
step 5 turn necks
step 6 deburr flash holes
step 7 check concentricity
step 8 weigh and seperate cases
step 10 check head space
step 11 square heads

The rest on the link yes I would do

http://www.chuckhawks.com/preparing_competition_brass.htm
 
hk33ka1 said:
New brass for most uses, just load it. Thats what the factory does.

Used brass size, trim and load.

If I'm getting fussy, size, trim/chamfer, uniform primer pocket, debur flash hole, load.
Click to expand...

Always resize new brass , you get dents ,out of round etc...... always resize new brass
 
1. FL Resize (even new brass)
2. Trim, chamfer and debur
3. Ream primer pocket & flash hole
4. Load

FL resize to make sure that the ammo has a reasonable chance of getting into the action quickly and easily. Small base dies might be a good idea for a semi. Trim, chamfer and debur for the same reason. Some guys might say that reaming/cleanign the primer pocket and deburring the flash hole is unnecessary for hunting ammo, and for accuracy's sake, it is. For reliability's sake, why wreck the shot of a lifetime with a dud round or a hangfire (which could make your hunt infinitely worse than just a failure to fire).
 
3macs1 said:
If I look at the link the boys gave me and try to think back from when I reloaded years back I never did the following steps for hunting reloads. Maybe I should have and that is why I am asking now.
step 5 turn necks
step 6 deburr flash holes
step 7 check concentricity
step 8 weigh and seperate cases
step 10 check head space
step 11 square heads

The rest on the link yes I would do

http://www.chuckhawks.com/preparing_competition_brass.htm
Click to expand...

I would never, ever do all those things, either.
I have never resized new brass. There are sure some weak reasons given here, for full length resizing new brass.
As far as I am concerned, all that full length resizing new brass does, is cut, maybe 10%, off the life of the brass.
Just think, the neck is the right size to start with, so put it in your die and open up the neck, then size it down too small, as the die is fully seated. Pull it out of the die and open the neck up again. Doesn't make sense to me.
 
sundance1972 said:
I don't get it. Why bother reloading if you're not going to follow all the steps to get the best performance you can from your rifles?
Click to expand...

Best performance means most accurate to you, I am guessing.

There's nothing wrong with accuracy, God knows, but it's the law of diminishing returns kicking in. Sub-MOA accuracy takes a great deal of effort and time. That's great when you're target-shooting. If you're deer hunting, it's kind of like trying to get the best possible performance from your car by tuning it each and every day. Overkill.
 
sundance1972 said:
I don't get it. Why bother reloading if you're not going to follow all the steps to get the best performance you can from your rifles?
Click to expand...

I will only be hunting, 200 yards max and don't really need tack drivers. If they are fine. I have just never heard of reloaders in my day doing the steps I listed. If they are required now to produce a quality hunting round I will do them. Problem is I have no clue what equipment I need to do these steps or in my mind can I really see what difference they are going to make for a hunting round with a partition bullet.
These are the steps that I am confused about
step 5 turn necks
step 6 deburr flash holes
step 7 check concentricity
step 8 weigh and seperate cases ( ok this one I know how to weigh but why am I doing it and how do I seperate plus or minus 2 grain, 5 10 ??)
step 10 check head space
step 11 square heads

I am going back to reloading since I cannot find ammo down here and tired of paying like 55.00 to ship a few boxes of 7mm08 and 280 from western canada.
 
3macs1 said:
I will only be hunting, 200 yards max and don't really need tack drivers. If they are fine. I have just never heard of reloaders in my day doing the steps I listed. If they are required now to produce a quality hunting round I will do them. Problem is I have no clue what equipment I need to do these steps or in my mind can I really see what difference they are going to make for a hunting round with a partition bullet.
These are the steps that I am confused about
step 5 turn necks
step 6 deburr flash holes
step 7 check concentricity
step 8 weigh and seperate cases ( ok this one I know how to weigh but why am I doing it and how do I seperate plus or minus 2 grain, 5 10 ??)
step 10 check head space
step 11 square heads

I am going back to reloading since I cannot find ammo down here and tired of paying like 55.00 to ship a few boxes of 7mm08 and 280 from western canada.
Click to expand...

Target shooters are looking for minute of angle, half minute of angle, quarter minute of angle. Anything outside a loonie-size group at several hundred metres is a Lose. It's a very demanding sport and its participants have to take advantage of every last possible way to wring the last possible bit of accuracy out of their rifle. For them, things like the list above are important. They want - they need - every case, every bullet, every charge and primer to be exactly the same, down to 1/100th of an inch or smaller. The fewer the deviations between them, the more accurate.

My hat's off to them. They're far better shots than I am.

That said, such things are generally overkill for somebody reloading for hunting. A deer-hunter's 'bull's-eye' is the size of a dinner plate and putting one shot anywhere inside that is a Win.

Taking the extra care to be able to achieve target accuracy is like spending a lot of time in your garage tuning your car every evening just to drive to work. It will certainly run better, but what are you achieving in reality? Not much - your car will run well enough to get you to work each morning without that degree of meticulous attention.

Hunters simply do not need the extreme accuracy that target shooters do and if you're reloading for hunting, time spent in eg. weighing cases is wasted. (Incidentally, weighing cases helps ensure that they all have precisely the same internal volume.)

So:

  • Clean the cases if they're dirty.

  • The first time you use them, check the primer hole for obstructions. It does happen. If there's a scrap of brass partially blocking it, there are special tools you can buy, but careful use of a normal drill bit will clear them, too.

  • Check them for splits, serious dents, possible head separations.

  • Particularly if you've been using hot loads (which tend to elongate cases), check their length and trim them back if necessary. If you do, chamfer them inside and out using that simple tool made for the purpose.

  • Resize them. Some will say resizing new brass is pointless and it may reduce case life a little bit. They're right, but others note that you want to be absolutely certain that the ammo will fit reliably in your rifle. I tend to go with the second opinion. Particularly if you are using a semiauto or pump, you may want to resize full-length, but otherwise you may want (after the first time) to just resize the neck because that will indeed extend case life.

  • carry on with normal reloading.
 
ATOM said:
Target shooters are looking for minute of angle, half minute of angle, quarter minute of angle. Anything outside a loonie-size group at several hundred metres is a Lose. It's a very demanding sport and its participants have to take advantage of every last possible way to wring the last possible bit of accuracy out of their rifle. For them, things like the list above are important. They want - they need - every case, every bullet, every charge and primer to be exactly the same, down to 1/100th of an inch or smaller. The fewer the deviations between them, the more accurate.

My hat's off to them. They're far better shots than I am.

That said, such things are generally overkill for somebody reloading for hunting. A deer-hunter's 'bull's-eye' is the size of a dinner plate and putting one shot anywhere inside that is a Win.

Taking the extra care to be able to achieve target accuracy is like spending a lot of time in your garage tuning your car every evening just to drive to work. It will certainly run better, but what are you achieving in reality? Not much - your car will run well enough to get you to work each morning without that degree of meticulous attention.

Hunters simply do not need the extreme accuracy that target shooters do and if you're reloading for hunting, time spent in eg. weighing cases is wasted. (Incidentally, weighing cases helps ensure that they all have precisely the same internal volume.)

So:

  • Clean the cases if they're dirty.

  • The first time you use them, check the primer hole for obstructions. It does happen. If there's a scrap of brass partially blocking it, there are special tools you can buy, but careful use of a normal drill bit will clear them, too.

  • Check them for splits, serious dents, possible head separations.

  • Particularly if you've been using hot loads (which tend to elongate cases), check their length and trim them back if necessary. If you do, chamfer them inside and out using that simple tool made for the purpose.

  • Resize them. Some will say resizing new brass is pointless and it may reduce case life a little bit. They're right, but others note that you want to be absolutely certain that the ammo will fit reliably in your rifle. I tend to go with the second opinion. Particularly if you are using a semiauto or pump, you may want to resize full-length, but otherwise you may want (after the first time) to just resize the neck because that will indeed extend case life.

  • carry on with normal reloading.
Click to expand...

Many thanks Atom sounds like going back to what I would do years back when reloading rifle is still fine and acceptable other than I have to get something to make sure the flash hole is clean and deburred.
I hate to even say it here but 2" groups are fine for what I am doing and will kill every deer and coyote I shoot at.
I normally don't run hot loads but will try different powders and bullets just to see how well they will do. thanks to all for the help:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom