Do you start load development with virgin brass?

[Winny94]

I only have experience reloading once fired brass from factory ammo, so when loading virgin brass, do you bother testing charge weight, or just pick a mild load and shoot through all virgin brass before starting any development?

 

[JFrank]

The consensus is to Fire form your brass at least once with a modest charge before load development.
I use a Mandrel .002 under the caliber dimension to ensure the necks are perfectly round you can also run them through your die to ensure chambering.
YMMV of course
J

 

[Down South]

I do load development with new brass (Lapua Palma). It shoots damn good. I do prep the new brass before firing it. I ream flash holes, uniform primer pockets, run over mandrel for the neck tension I want etc.

 

[Daddymac]

If it shoots good with new brass, it should shoot better the second time, with should being the key word.

 

[Fliers]

Depending on the brass, assuming FL sizing, virgin brass may have different volume capacity vs resized in your particular die and thus different pressures for a given load.

 

[Jarhead6870]

Personally, I’m not going to burn up barrel life just to fire-form brass. I do my initial load work with new brass, usually 60-70 rounds, and then shoot the remaining brass at that charge weight until it’s all fire-formed. After it’s once fired, I do a fine tuning of the load to get the best out of it. If there’s a change in powder charge, it’s usually within 0.1 grains +/- of the initial charge weight and within the node’s window.

 

[243BR]

I know this is not the conventional wisdom, but I treat new brass the same as fired brass. I just load it up and shoot it. I have occasionally even used new brass at a match. Yes there are differences between new and once fired and 10X fired, but there are also differences among pieces in a particular lot.

 

[old_heli_logger]

Absolutely! That's why we pick the middle of the node. Oh sure, everyone says their brass is EXACTLY the same after it's been fireformed and doctored up

 

[K22]

I see nothing wrong with developing initial load data with "virgin brass" under the condition that each load being tested is being tested with same lot of virgin brass. As with any load development process, once I hit on "the load", I verify with two or three five shot groups on different days with once fired brass.

I always chamfer then full size virgin brass with zero cam over with standard RCBS dies to assure that the cases / necks are relatively uniform. I had a bag of Hornaday 223 Rem brass that had to be sized since it was slightly over max head space. Bottom line - inspect, check, and uniform virgin brass before beginning load testing.

 

[dmoran]

Myself will never load develop or component swap when fire-forming, because I want all the cases to be fired from one consistent pressured load, so that they all get ironed and stretched dimensionally the same. In fact, I fire-form x-amount of cases to be used as "match brass" and x-amount for "test brass", never using the "match brass" for testing at any point either, so that it also remains dimensionally consistent cycle to cycle.

 

[XTR]

Using once fired brass is all fine and dandy if you use 50 cases, but if you are shooting F class and you are starting the yr with 500 new cases (in that exact position right now) then I'm working up the load in new brass and shooting matches. When I get it all once fired I'll shoot a couple of groups to make sure it's still shooting like it should.

 

[Dave Brown]

I only use fire formed Lapua cases from the same lot/same chamber for load testing.

 

[ttfreestyle]

I start taking notes from day one and stop developing when I pull that barrel, seems I’m never convinced the load is done...

 

[Conaso]

I just fire-formed new Lapua 6.5 CM brass, 1.5310" shoulder before, 1.5340" after... .003"growth.

 

[rardoin]

I also develop loads with new brass. I do set aside 20-25 cases just for finding the node and basic testing and set aside thereafter. As Donovan mentioned I want all my match brass fired at the same charge (or within a couple of tenths either side of the node). As far as accuracy, I have fireformed Ackley Improved cases during matches and have cleaned targets at 600yds; firing new cases in an unimproved chamber is not a concern for me. YMMV

 

[Bbear]

With Lapua, I start load development right out of the box.

This load in my 6.5x55 SE was developed with new, unfired, Lapua brass.

I hope DaddyMac is correct and the groups will shrink when I get to once-fired loading

 

[Richard Coody]

Really this is question with many variables.

What is the intended use is the big one

I learned long ago in the short range game developing a load with brand new, carefully prepped lapua brass was a waste of time for me.If you are looking for groups in the 1's and 2's for me those new brass loads always disappointed after fully fireforming.

Most shooters would never notice the difference.

And some rifles just shoot. Remarkable what some of those custom 6ppc built by exceptional gunsmiths will do.

 

[Milo 2.0]

For you guys that only develop on fired brass, what is average number of cases you put into service for that rifle?

 

[Dave Brown]

For you guys that only develop on fired brass, what is average number of cases you put into service for that rifle?

How ever many you decide to put into service, I would make sure each of them have the same number of firings on them.

 

[Sparky570]

This is a great thread,,keep going,,lol,,learning alot