When do you know that it's time to FL size your Brass?

[Mr Wick]

I'm sorry I've been so active lately with the questions. I tried to look this one up, but all I found was people talking about the neck size. I have read on here that it is time to FL size your Brass when it is a struggle to go in the chamber of the rifle. After firing my .308 Lapua 5 times it still goes into the chamber like hot butter. It extracts a bit hard, but I may be imagining things.

Thanks again to the greatest community on the Web.

 

[Drop Port]

After you fire it

 

[1911mag]

^^^^^^^
Every firing

 

[Ruddy]

^^^^^

 

[JFrank]

I'm sorry I've been so active lately with the questions. I tried to look this one up, but all I found was people talking about the neck size. I have read on here that it is time to FL size your Brass when it is a struggle to go in the chamber of the rifle. After firing my .308 Lapua 5 times it still goes into the chamber like hot butter. It extracts a bit hard, but I may be imagining things.

Thanks again to the greatest community on the Web.

If you’re running a lower node, they are a little easier on brass so you may be just now starting to notice. Nevertheless when you feel resistance opening the bolt after ignition it’s time to full length size. Until then we monitor the growth both radially and length from case base to a shoulder datum using calipers and a comparator tool.

 

[Shooter13]

After you fire it

Exactly my answer. Ask anyone that shoots competition and 99% will tell you FL size. You are asking for trouble (and it will come) if you don't. As little as you move the brass you are NOT losing anything (okay, maybe 2 firings?), probably not.

 

[whatsupdoc]

Time to dump that 1962 reloading book.

 

[ASD9055]

I am going to be the odd ball here. When I had one rifle/one caliber, only neck sized until I could’nt feed it anymore. Then FL sized. And my rifle shot better than 1/2 “ at 100. Now I resize after every firing

 

[Straightshooter1]

I'm sorry I've been so active lately with the questions. I tried to look this one up, but all I found was people talking about the neck size. I have read on here that it is time to FL size your Brass when it is a struggle to go in the chamber of the rifle. After firing my .308 Lapua 5 times it still goes into the chamber like hot butter. It extracts a bit hard, but I may be imagining things.

Thanks again to the greatest community on the Web.

I've got some .308 Federal brass with 9 firings and the only time I FL sized them was after the 1st firing for fire forming. So, I've only necked sized them and bumped the shoulders 8 times and they're still doing fine, so far. They're not tight when chambering them nor when extracting. They are an experiment to see how it all works out not doing FL sizing, but I do FL size my Lapua brass all the time. This Federal brass has been fully precision prepped and produces good results on paper.

You didn't say if you're also bumping the shoulders after you size the necks??? If your brass is beginning to be stiff on extraction, I'd say it's time to FL size them, then you can go back to neck sizing if that's what you like to do.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Strip the bolt on your rifle and feel how the brass really fits in the chamber.

 

[Eric Leonard]

Exactly my answer. Ask anyone that shoots competition and 99% will tell you FL size. You are asking for trouble (and it will come) if you don't. As little as you move the brass you are NOT losing anything (okay, maybe 2 firings?), probably not.

Frankie after fl sizing mine I cycle the brass through the rifle to make sure the bolt will close easy and they all feel the same. Seems I always have a few I have to resize. I haven’t figured out what causes this but I think it’s in the lube or how even I get it applied.
But I have learned if the bolt closes harder on one round than the rest that it won’t hit in the same place

 

[Shooter13]

Frankie after fl sizing mine I cycle the brass through the rifle to make sure the bolt will close easy and they all feel the same. Seems I always have a few I have to resize. I haven’t figured out what causes this but I think it’s in the lube or how even I get it applied.
But I have learned if the bolt closes harder on one round than the rest that it won’t hit in the same place

While I cycle one in the press (leave it in die) I get the next one ready to size, lube then put it in the press, takes a few seconds and has cut down on the "resize the sided brass" deal!

 

[Mr Wick]

I always thought that you want to keep shooting the brass because it is now form fitted to your rifle and that FL sizing returns it to SAMMI.

 

[Rob01]

I always thought that you want to keep shooting the brass because it is now form fitted to your rifle and that FL sizing returns it to SAMMI.

Only if you do it wrong.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

What is SAAMI? Maybe "returning it to SAAMI" isn't what you're thinking exactly.

For example SAAMI spec for 308 Win allows for:
1.630" minimum headspace
1.640" maximum headspace

So you could FL size and only bump your fired shoulders back minimally 0.002". Or you could FL size and bump the shoulders back 0.010". Both are within SAAMI spec.* (Assuming you're set up for minimum headspace)

For accuracy, you want to FL size and bump the shoulders back consistently every time but only barely enough to provide reliable feeding & extraction in that particular chamber.

Setting your FL die up per the manufacturer instructions (cam over on shell holder) will likely bump your shoulders way more than necessary to ensure cases fit in both tight and loose spec chambers. That's probably what you're talking about.

 

[Dave M.]

I'm sorry I've been so active lately with the questions. I tried to look this one up, but all I found was people talking about the neck size. I have read on here that it is time to FL size your Brass when it is a struggle to go in the chamber of the rifle. After firing my .308 Lapua 5 times it still goes into the chamber like hot butter. It extracts a bit hard, but I may be imagining things.

Thanks again to the greatest community on the Web.

After EVERY SINGLE time you fire it.

 

[Mr Wick]

I guess I found the culprit in my erratic shooting of late. 5X Fired brass is just not going to shoot accurate from what I can read.

 

[Mr Wick]

Is there a good video on how to set up an RCBS FL Die. I suppose I will need a comparator to measure Ogive as well. If my COAL is 2.800 what should my OGIVE be?

 

[BoydAllen]

Only if you do it wrong.

Exactly

 

[BoydAllen]

I guess I found the culprit in my erratic shooting of late. 5X Fired brass is just not going to shoot accurate from what I can read.

You need to find some other source to read. Assuming proper reloading methods, five loadings are just getting started. One of the problems that I see a lot of is very bad information being published by people who want the attention but do not have the necessary knowledge. On Youtube, there is good information and some very bad. The problem is that for someone who just starting out it can be hard to tell the difference.