Which brass do you use for competition

[marchx]

This is my card from today. I sorted my brass- 1.162 headspace (fired brass- 1.1645), trimmed to length, FL sized+carbide mandrel through necks, necks cleaned with nylon brush, dry lube (graphite on the necks).
Brass fired 4 times. Powder charge+seating depth chosen on the basis that last time the same combination allowed me to get .025 5-shot group.
Clearly, this card is a disaster. It can be me of course. I will post tomorrow my SDs and ES for each 5-shot series. They wer not satisfactory. Most shots were in the range of 2750-2770fps.

 

[jimmymac]

I aneal every firing but my targets still stink.

Fixed it for you pal.

 

[Dub]

Fixed it for you pal.

No thanks

 

[Dub]

This is my card from today. I sorted my brass- 1.162 headspace (fired brass- 1.1645), trimmed to length, FL sized+carbide mandrel through necks, necks cleaned with nylon brush, dry lube (graphite on the necks).
Brass fired 4 times. Powder charge+seating depth chosen on the basis that last time the same combination allowed me to get .025 5-shot group.
Clearly, this card is a disaster. It can be me of course. I will post tomorrow my SDs and ES for each 5-shot series. They wer not satisfactory. Most shots were in the range of 2750-2770fps.

Not good

 

[JFrank]

This is my card from today. I sorted my brass- 1.162 headspace (fired brass- 1.1645), trimmed to length, FL sized+carbide mandrel through necks, necks cleaned with nylon brush, dry lube (graphite on the necks).
Brass fired 4 times. Powder charge+seating depth chosen on the basis that last time the same combination allowed me to get .025 5-shot group.
Clearly, this card is a disaster. It can be me of course. I will post tomorrow my SDs and ES for each 5-shot series. They wer not satisfactory. Most shots were in the range of 2750-2770fps.

Those are small.

 

[Dub]

my 100 yard card from yesterday

 

[Dave M.]

You say you don't anneal.
Why not?

I use Lapua brass. Three lots of 80 pieces. The oldest has 15 firing, the next two have 6 firings each. My waterline is good at 500 and 1000 yards. I'll have unexplained flyer occasionally. Wind?? Load?? Trigger finger?? Who knows...

But if your concerned over neck tension:
1-Buy the your favorite brass
2- delete this step; waste of time and components**
3-Full size both body and case neck to make every case uniform
4-shoot the match
** I shot a clean at 500 yards on the first load out with new brass. This was "Speedy" knowledge given.

Caveat; If it's different brand of brass you might want to do a load development process first.

The guy who won our 1000 yard F open class championship shot the last two years with brand new sized brass. Had never even been fired before. I was shocked.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Widden doesn't anneal.

 

[marchx]

The guy who won our 1000 yard F open class championship shot the last two years with brand new sized brass. Had never even been fired before. I was shocked.

why were you shocked?

 

[marchx]

my 100 yard card from yesterday

I am happy for you.

 

[Dub]

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

 

[marchx]

Please find below the Labradar data. It's not good would be an euphemism. I frankly don't know where to start to fix this. I'll give you more details on my process.
rifle setup: Rem 700 action, trued, barrel: bartlein 27" 1:7.75 twist, spuhr mount, March HM scope.
reloading setup: Forster Co-ax press, Forster Benchrest dies (FL&Seating), Forster bushing bump die (I use only this die for sizing my brass up to 3rd firing, after 3rd firing I do FL sizing), for sizing I use Imperial wax. Scale- I use RCBS chargemaster lite. After sizing I clean my brass in ultrasonic cleaner. All my stuff is quite new since I started reloading earlier this year.

I do not sort my brass based on volume or weight. I do not sort my bullets- I check 5 random bullets out of a single lot of Bergers and if variations are within 1 thau (BTO), I just seat the bullets. I do not uniform primer pockets. I prime cases using Co-ax press.

 

[X-Caveman]

If a 105 class bullet, it seems about 100 FPS slow. Care to share bullet & powder data?

 

[JFrank]

Things to consider.

Verify the charge master is weighing to the .1 or less. Or order a fx120i
Uniform primer pockets.
Use a quality hand primer tool.
Lightly brush the carbon inside the necks vs removing with ultrasonic cleaner.
Might want to sort the bullets a little better, and there are several discussions on brass sorting technics. One way is by fps culling the unexplained.

 

[CharlieNC]

I experienced significant differences in bullet seating force based upon feel, and upon checking the seating depths varied according. Then I bought an entry level Annealeze and the problem was solved. Does it provide the consistency of an Amp? No, but it sufficiently satisfied my needs.

 

[marchx]

Things to consider.

Verify the charge master is weighing to the .1 or less. Or order a fx120i
Uniform primer pockets.
Use a quality hand primer tool.
Lightly brush the carbon inside the necks vs removing with ultrasonic cleaner.
Might want to sort the bullets a little better, and there are several discussions on brass sorting technics. One way is by fps culling the unexplained.

Thank you for this. If you could expand it a little bit in the following direction:
-there is mixed opinion about uniforming primer pockets. In Lapua brass how important would it be? How should one approach the topic of uniforming primer pockets (tools?)?
- why priming using Co-ax is inferior to e.g. lyman hand priming tool?
- how do you sort your brass?

 

[JFrank]

I currently use a k&m uniformer pre set at .122 cutting depth followed by hand seating with a K&M hand primer, I varify the results with low ES numbers and smaller /more consistent groups on paper.
21st century has click adjustable priming tools I have been eye balling as a step up.

@BartsBullets sorts brass by fps using a labradar setting aside those rounds that have large unexplained variations to re test then ultimately cull those that again vary in speed.

He may weigh in to add clarification..

Personally I think this is an excellent results driven approach that moving forward I will employ.

 

[marchx]

If a 105 class bullet, it seems about 100 FPS slow. Care to share bullet & powder data?

I currently use a k&m uniformer pre set at .122 cutting depth followed by hand seating with a K&M hand primer, I varify the results with low ES numbers and smaller /more consistent groups on paper.
21st century has click adjustable priming tools I have been eye balling as a step up.

@BartsBullets sorts brass by fps using a labradar setting aside those rounds that have large unexplained variations to re test then ultimately cull those that again vary in speed.

He may weigh in to add clarification..

Personally I think this is an excellent results driven approach that moving forward I will employ.

Thanks. How important is unifying primer pockets in the whole sequence? I lack experience to properly weight rhis factor.

 

[JFrank]

1- combustion . I would place priming in this catagory
2- harmonics
3- ballistics

 

[JFrank]

I mentioned tuning brass earlier, both these pictures are separate brass lots on separate days after neck tension adjustments and pockets uniformed, hand primed with loads weighed carefully. Shot at 500 yards over a chronograph to cull any fliers.