Size new brass?

B said:
I have some of that stuff in .30-06 I used to load some ammo for my brother. Despite being well under max it splits and cracks in random places half the time. Higginsons didn't seem to care. An unusual lack of customer service from them in this instance.
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I've got a bunch of those cases in 7x57/8x57/30-06 and 6mm Remington.

I've never had any of the issues you write about.

Are you annealing the necks after four or five reloads?

The 7x57 cases are used exclusively in a Mexican small ring 98 type Mauser, which has a rather large chamber (not unusual for Mexican chambers) The rifle was manufactured in Europe for Mexico.

I only reload 20 cases at a time for this rifle as I don't shoot it much, but I like to take it out a couple of times each year as it has some nostalgic memories because it was a gift from someone I respected a lot, over 40 years ago.

I have reloaded those cases at least ten times with a "standard'' low pressure load of 49.0 grains of W760, over BR2 primers, under 140 grain #1905, Sierra SPBT bullets. 2800fps at 39,700CUP or 43,000psi. This is a great load. Easy on the rifle and brass. Accurate.

I annealed the cases again, after the last time I used them, this summer. I neck size only and bump back the shoulder a few thou right after annealing.
 
Eagleye said:
I am in Andy's camp on this matter. I Only size necks if they are distorted.
Less working is better, IMHO. Dave.
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I find that most times new brass has not only distorted necks but when they're ironed out to be round, the mouth lips are often wavy.

A quick neck size only and uniforming case length, while the brass is still dead soft, IF warranted.

I agree, the more you work the brass the less ductile it becomes.
 
This thread is about resizing new brass. As I said I don't do that, but I will correct dented necks.

Beyond that though, I do some prep work on new brass - I inside ream primer flash holes (once for the life of the brass) and I chamfer the neck when new, and again after each sizing and of course trim to length as required and neck anneal after about five firings.

Brass is discarded after it cracks, or the primer pocket becomes too loose.
 
i like to give new brass the full treatment neck size to make sure there round, check the length is uniform, uniform the primer pockets, cleanup inside flash hole then inside/outside chamfer the necks. i like to do in batches of 50 or 100 depending on the calibre.
 
bearhunter said:
I've got a bunch of those cases in 7x57/8x57/30-06 and 6mm Remington.

I've never had any of the issues you write about.

Are you annealing the necks after four or five reloads?

The 7x57 cases are used exclusively in a Mexican small ring 98 type Mauser, which has a rather large chamber (not unusual for Mexican chambers) The rifle was manufactured in Europe for Mexico.

I only reload 20 cases at a time for this rifle as I don't shoot it much, but I like to take it out a couple of times each year as it has some nostalgic memories because it was a gift from someone I respected a lot, over 40 years ago.

I have reloaded those cases at least ten times with a "standard'' low pressure load of 49.0 grains of W760, over BR2 primers, under 140 grain #1905, Sierra SPBT bullets. 2800fps at 39,700CUP or 43,000psi. This is a great load. Easy on the rifle and brass. Accurate.

I annealed the cases again, after the last time I used them, this summer. I neck size only and bump back the shoulder a few thou right after annealing.
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It's brand new brass. Copper occlusions(?) are visible in the cracks. I am not trying to sidetrack though. I just pulled them and threw out the cases.
 
As has been mentioned by others in this thread why size the body more than necessary?

With new cases like Eagleye and Andy I make sure the necks are round - I use expander mandrels - trim to uniform length, deburr flash holes, and chamfer the inside and outside of the mouth.
 
I do and I don't. I like to chamfer the cases and that doesn't work if they aren't round. Could just run them over the ball, but a lot of my dies don't have balls. Quality brass that is already chamferred seldom gets anything. These are the "I do s"

Here's the "I don't clause". You can run typical brand new rifle brass through a full length die and not size anything but the neck. You don't even need lube. New brass is the smallest its ever going to be.

The reason why its "I don't" is even when I FL size new brass I'm really not doing it. Since there's nothing especially magic about my brass, rifles and dies I'll wager that it applies to practically everyone else too.

I typically lose my brass to loose primer pockets; what's one neck size more going to hurt.
 
I resize all new brass, light lube, FL size, chamfer and deburr, prime... ready to load. If new brass is even slightly deformed it is pretty tough to chamfer the case evenly.
 
B said:
It's brand new brass. Copper occlusions(?) are visible in the cracks. I am not trying to sidetrack though. I just pulled them and threw out the cases.
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My stuff is pretty old, I have no idea about the quality control given to the metalurgy of new production cases.

Thanx for the information.
 
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