Federal or Winchester Brass

[DennisH]

I have thousands of once fired brass, mainly Federal.

With the current situation, what is the correct way to prep this once fired brass for use in matches.

I went through bags of 308 Fed cases last night. I might as well use them.

I just need to know the steps to produce match quality with this brass.

Thanks in advance, Dennis

 

[DRNewcomb]

It depends on what sort of "match quality" you are looking for. Certainly cleaning and sizing are universal steps, as is trimming the case for length. In general, sorting by weight is also a good step. (Sorting by weight is pretty much the same as sorting by case volume.)

Optional steps include: primer pocket and flash hole uniforming & inside neck turning.

 

[Taildrag15X]

I deburr the inside of the flash hole, trim to 2.010" then weight sort them into groups of + or - .25grs. so that there is no more than .5grs. difference over my Match Lot of 55 pieces for local Matches. For Mtches that are held were there are pits and Sighters for each Relay I get to use up the odd smaller lots of weight groups in 18-25 piece lots still maintaining that .5gr. max spread.

 

[broncman]

I too have a bunch of federal brass. I weight sort in 1 grain sometimes 1.5 grains weight.

Remember, the volume of 1-2 grains of brass is VERY small so you will not see much case volume at those weights. Brass volume vs powder volume for same weight is huge.

I then debur flash hole, anneal, clean, full length size, trim, chamfer and clean one last time to remove sizing lube and brass shavings.

The beauty of having a bunch is I can process it all, and it takes a few shooting sessions and hopefully matches before I have to start over.

 

[Dans40X]

Personally,I'd match prep "older" Federal brass & shoot the Winchester brass for gas gun to shooting during the winter months.
Once the Winchester brass clears the ejection port, ,it's back to nature.

Neck turning is a waste of time unless you are score/group shooting for monies/prizes.

If your Fed/LC/ATK brass has staked primers-pitch the junk/cash it in as scrap!!

 

[savageshooter86]

Lets see. My steps for my brass were

1) Deburred flash hole
2) Sized and trimmed brass
3) Chamfer/debur case mouth
4) Uniformed primer pocket
5) Sorted cases by neck wall thickness using Forster measuring gauge.
6) Weight sorted brass to cull out extreme weights
**** my experience is that my weight of case had no direct relationship with internal capacity. I weighed all my cases and then checked H20 capacity of them. Picked out 10 or so that had same H20 capacity and then let the cases dry. Re weighed those cases and they were as much as 4 gr difference in weight but had same H20 capacity.
7) Keep up with #of firings and try to keep same batches together
8) anneal cases

 

[Shynloco]

Dennis,
If my memory serves me well, I seem to recall that the Federal Brass is thicker brass than the Winchester. It's been a while since I used either because I went over to Lapua a few years ago because my loads simply performed better with Lapua. But since you brought up the subject, (and I remember resizing the "once fired" Federal took a little more muscle) you might want to compare the brass thickness, if for no other reason than you'll know. As you probably know, brass thickness doesn't necessarily equate to more and longer resilient brass springback. In fact, I'd be checking the brass thickness for consistency with both types of brass. But I think it would be a fun exercise since you apparently have a bunch of the Federal brass which I believe is some good stuff which I keep in back-up just in case (along with Norma brass). Have fun!

 

[Rtheurer]

**** my experience is that my weight of case had no direct relationship with internal capacity. I weighed all my cases and then checked H20 capacity of them. Picked out 10 or so that had same H20 capacity and then let the cases dry. Re weighed those cases and they were as much as 4 gr difference in weight but had same H20 capacity.

BINGO!!!!

 

[Terry]

http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/reloading/complete-precision-case-prep/

 

[Rtheurer]

That is great link. Other than Step # 8 being incorrect in that the external or Mass weight corralates to internal volume. An ES of Mass weight can be up to 4 grains while the internal water volume can and is significantly closer in ES. Exteral weight is a very poor substatute for actual internal cace capacity... yet its the most common.

For everyone except our Benchrest borthers and Maybe F-O shooters who need to make every case exactly the very same it is most likely irrelivent and a waste of time. Oh boy did i spend alot of time weighing brass and getting all worked up about it and the ES i would get. Trying like heck to keep those cases in the same batch that I had segragated it into and causing hart ach when i messed up getting them mixed up. Then one day a fellow showed me the light....I took my worst brass ( Hornady 6.5X284) with the most amount of MASS ES and uniformed them all up. weighed them into .1 rows just like in step #8 like I always did. Sharpie the weight n the side and then went through the pain staken process of weighing internal water volume.... Only to find out that those huge MASS weight ES's where not 4 or 5 grains it was actuall like 1.2 in internal volume of H20 and most of them where all the same weight. Some of those on each of the spectrume actually weighed the same as the ones in the middle of the pack.
I had to finally bite the bullet and do the hard long drawn out proccess of weighing the internal volume to finally prove it to myself that there wasnt much in the way of a corralation to external weight to internal volume as I was lead to believe.

You dont have to believe me... just Try it yourself, you will see.

Wish you the best.
RussT

 

[DennisH]

All are great responses.

Terry, thank's for the link.

I already have 500 cases ready! Still have bags left, some are over 3 years old.

I have a lot of 243 brass and don't even own a 243 anymore! I have plenty of live ammo as well for it.

Again, I appreciate everyone's responses.

Dennis

 

[Joe Maisto]

I have found that Win. brass is harder than Re./Fed. and don't grow as much. The worst was LC Military brass for me as far as growing goes.

Joe

 

[bigedp51]

I do not have any .308 Federal brass but I do have a great deal of Federal .223/5.56 brass and many AR15 shooters are having problems with loose primer pockets after the first firing. The problem is in the web of the case and the thickness of the brass at the flash hole.

Below on the right and left are Lake City cases and in the center is a Federal case, please notice how thin the Federal case is at the flash hole. Also note after weighing these cases the Lake City cases are lighter than the federal case. Meaning as stated earlier case weight has noting to do with case volume/internal capacity.

Note, the Federal case below is American Eagle brand and other brands of Federal cases are not noted for the thin brass in the web area and having loose primer pockets after the first firing.

A two inch rod was inserted inside these cases to find the short web cases using vernier calipers to measure depth.

Also note .308/7.62 cases are not loaded to the same higher chamber pressures as the 5.56 cases are and may not have the same problem.

And also note that military cases are made harder now and not necessarily "thicker" than commercial cases.

And for grins and giggles.........