No matter what detail you are in the middle of, in reloading you have to watch every single one of them. I ordered 500 FB brass cases, pre-primed. I thought, great, that would save me a lot of work. Except, no. As I was loading the cratridges, I noticed after about 150 of them, that a primer was sticking halfway out. Halfway! I thought, now I have to go and inspect the rest of them, and I found about 10 for every hundred with the primers sticking out. But they weren't just sticking out, they were totally sliding back and forth in and out. Let's see, factory new brass, direct from the factory, primer holes too big, possible slamfire or blown up rifle. Not good. No matter what, you have to check EVERYTHING, even brass and products directly from the factory. I am in the process of sending them back, but hell, coupled with a problem with 200 other loaded FB brass, that's 700 inspected, and about 350 pulled and time spent. Not really wasted doing the pulling, because safety is the first concern, but this is one order that cost me three times what simply buying already loaded ammo would have cost. Not much fun either. So check EVERYTHING. Twice even. There were a couple of primers in there backwards too.
ALWAYS TAKE CARE
- Thread starter writerman
- Start date
jackieschmidt
Gold $$ Contributor
Factory Brass, I guess.
joshb
Gold $$ Contributor
Could be the new “Federal Binary” brass produced under the last President? They were known for oversized holes.
GROAN!!!!Could be the new “Federal Binary” brass produced under the last President? They were known for oversized holes.
When it comes to handloading one cannot be too careful with safety. Just one of the reasons I would not ever purchase pre-primed brass from any company period. Secondly, you have no idea which primer was used, the quality of the primer, how much the primer was crushed, etc. It would be impossible to determine any exact factors of the priming job done. If all other aspects of the load were perfect except for primers & priming one could chase their tail trying to figure out the issue indefinitely.
joshb
Gold $$ Contributor
Sorry, I was in a mood. Seriously:
I’d send that brass back to where it came from. I used to buy a lot of used once fired brass but never “processed brass”. I wanted to do the resizing. I only buy new brass made by Lapua or Peterson for most of my guns. Starline for the rest, mostly pistol stuff.
I’d send that brass back to where it came from. I used to buy a lot of used once fired brass but never “processed brass”. I wanted to do the resizing. I only buy new brass made by Lapua or Peterson for most of my guns. Starline for the rest, mostly pistol stuff.
So what happened to your RCBS post?
Did I miss your response?
In case you forgot:
“ Have a question about how to overcome the limitations of the dies RCBS puts out. I bought .223 and 6.5 Grendel small based die sets. On the .223 the depriming and sizing die bends the casing and ruins it four times out of ten. I wrote them and they said they would take it back for thirty bucks and fix it. Fix a new set! Now I am having to use my old Hornady loading die, because it does not do this. You would think on .223 since 55 gr spire points are hugely predominant, they would just know the size to make it. Then, on the Grendel die set, the sizing die does NOT go down enough, even though I am maxing it out, and makes the case twenty thousands too long at the shoulder. I know this to be true because I measured the case against a Hornady black new case, and it was visibly longer, as well as measured with a caliper. I even had to drill out the port on my Odin Works new 6.5 Grendel barrel, because they made it so small, it would not reload on my AR. What is with companies these days? I should not have to do anything to new products paid for, in order to 'fix' them, right? I am perplexed.”
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Honestly ... the primers you use, and how they are installed, is a pretty friggin' important part of precision reloading. I can't really imagine why I'd want to "outsource" that process. But to each his own, I suppose.
Coyotefurharvester
Silver $$ Contributor
Have to tell us what "factory" sells new production brass incorrectly primed.
For all the reason stated above, I never ever considered buying pre-primed brass.
It is bad enough buying virgin brass. I've seen all matter of factory defects in virgin brass. But at least with this you can separate the defectives before you invested time and other components in loading them. I want to control as much as the reloading process at possible. I don't want to put my eyeballs and other body parts in the hands of unknown sources.
It seems and I may be wrong but, in my experience, going on 60 years of reloading now, a lot of the problems I read on here about reloading are self-inflicted.
It is bad enough buying virgin brass. I've seen all matter of factory defects in virgin brass. But at least with this you can separate the defectives before you invested time and other components in loading them. I want to control as much as the reloading process at possible. I don't want to put my eyeballs and other body parts in the hands of unknown sources.
It seems and I may be wrong but, in my experience, going on 60 years of reloading now, a lot of the problems I read on here about reloading are self-inflicted.
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
^^^^^^^^
Wayne
It wasn't shorthand. The case is marked FB USA .223 Remington. I tried to look it up, and could not find it.
Tried to look it up. Could not find it.
I don't know what happened to the post. I had a friend with a machine shop, take down the collet 20 thousandths and that bumped the shoulder down perfectly to match 6.5 Black Hornady ammo. I use the full length small base die set from RCBS for my .223, but not the loader. The loader was not made correctly, it damages the cases, bends the necks. So I combo the reloading process by using my Dimensions Hornady loading die for the .223. For the 6.5 Grendel, the loading die works. I am carefully measuring to the one thousandth, every step I take now, period.
Well, that's exactly how I feel now. Yet for new ammo. we outsource all the processes. So I made the mistake of trusting factory new, pre-primed brass. Never again. I will prime my own. Go for feel. Get it right.
Most of the cases seemed to be okay, at least visually. So I took all the primers out, one by one, and found that many were too loose. I went by feel in reinstalling the primers in the ones that had good resistance, both in taking them out to test them, and in putting them back in. The ones that were loose, were so obvious, but even the ones that were less resistant in any way I tossed. I don't think I will do anything but prime my own brass again. This was new, factory primed, and looked great. I just thank God I noticed the problem visually, but it's been a hell of a lot of work. Hours and hours. Never again. I have not yet been able to find the FB headstamp company, I wanted to look them up and make sure not to buy that brass again. I am sticking with Starline, though in loading them in 6.5 Grendel, I did have a problem with too small primer hole diameters that destroyed a few of my primers going in. It's check check check check check check as always. And then check again.
That definitely would be enough to get my goat no doubt. Would never purchase from that company again.
6MMsteve
Gold $$ Contributor
yes I bought some processed brass 223 what a dam mess I got into, I assumed to never assume to assume to ass of a mess with case mouth, had to pull bout 200 then trim, chamfer and resize what an ass umption...did I say ass ume nuff
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