Reloading once fired brass?

Slipery

Slipery

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Ottawa, Ontario
Hey everyone,

I am looking to getting into reloading soon, and I just had a question. I bought the Lyman 49th edition Handloading book, and in one part I read that they said to 'avoid reloading once-fired brass' that was fired in another gun.

I didn't know this and about two weeks ago I bought 150 once-fired .270 brass off another CGN member.

I was wondering what I should do?

I understand that when a cartridge is fired, the gases cause the brass to expand to the chamber dimensions..

Are these brass useless to me?

I will be reloading for a Remington CDL .270, my pride and joy =)

Also: What is the best company in Canada to buy unprimed brass from?
 
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Unless the brass you got was fired in a rifle with a completely blown out cylinder (very unlikely) there will not be a problem. You should always full length size when using once fired brass (or even new brass for that matter) trim to length etc. To extend the life of the brass just make sure you only FL size enough to reliably chamber the round in your rifle. Going further weakens the brass faster = fewer reloads.
 
The dies you use to resize the brass , brings all the dimensions of the casings to the same size. Once fired brass from another gun may be different dimensions and has to be full length resized. You can just do the necks of brass from your own gun. Where they got the "do not use " idea, I do not know. Perhaps they have said this in conjunction with "do not reload without resizing the brass" I reload for all my rifles and have only bought new casings for one. All the rest are at least once fired and bought from CGN members and many reloaded several times. Most once fired brass is perfectly safe to reload, but whenever you reload, inspect the casings carefully for stress issues.
 
Don't know why Lyman would say that. Unless they qualified it by adding 'without full length resizing first'. That's all you need to do. Full length resize before using the brass in your rifle. No big deal.
Your sizer die will have 'FL' stamped on it if it is a full length sizer die. It most likely is an FL die. However, if it isn't, it's not the end of the world. You can buy one separately. About $35 or so.
 
As long as the case has none of the following, it should be OK:

-Cracked necks or shoulders
-Loose primer pockets
-Incipient head separation: a thin bright line near the base of the case; not to be mistaken for the mark sometimes left by resizing. If in doubt, use a dental pick or hook made from a paperclip to check for thinning at the case head.
 
It is always a good idea to inspect fired brass before processing it.
Discarded range brass needs special attention. Why was it discarded? How many times was it fired? What was it fired in?
 
tiriaq said:
It is always a good idea to inspect fired brass before processing it.
Discarded range brass needs special attention. Why was it discarded? How many times was it fired? What was it fired in?
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You are quite right for inspecting range brass. However so many shooters don't reload and leave their brass for the reloaders. I will never have to buy brass for any of my guns again due to the range brass I've picked up. I thank all the non-reloaders who shoot.

bought the Lyman 49th edition Handloading book, and in one part I read that they said to 'avoid reloading once-fired brass' that was fired in another gun.
Click to expand...
That statement as is can't be true. Thats what reloading is all about for frig sake.
 
I think you may have misread, technically it says not to reloaded 1F brass of an unknown source.

I consider this to be a little overly conservative, there is nothing wrong with 1F brass as long as you heed the advice given above.

It also says that neck sizing offers almost no benefit compared to FL sizing, which I think you will find from a ton of experience reloaders that this is an exaggeration, the benefits are very measurable.
 
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