Shooting virgin brass in Competition - issues????

[juniorARshooter]

Guys
I am getting ready for a big competition this month and may not have time to fire form some new Lapua brass I got. I am shooting .308 and hav full lenght sized, prepped etc the brass. If I do not get to fire form the brass before the match what kind of risk or problems (aka inaccuracies) might I have using virgin brass???

BTW: I will be shooting F-Class at 600 and 1000 yards.

Thanks in advance for the assist

 

[clowdis]

.308 in .308....none.

 

[Dave2]

I haven't had any issues with that with .223 in an AR, but believe you will be shooting at smaller scoring rings than XTC! You may want to cycle some prepped empties through the action before loading just to make sure all is well with the dimensions of the prepped cases.

Dave

 

[Longtrain]

I've fired new brass in competition, worked ok. Once I started neck turning, resizing and fire forming my brass the consistency of my loads bettered any new brass performance.

Now, especially in F Class, I won't shoot new brass. I try to tweak the most consistency (accuracy), I can from my competition loads.

Tony

 

[scout1]

Just my thoughts, I dont shoot Lapua brass. I am sure that the Lapua is fairly consistant lot to lot, but how does this lot compare to your last one? Have you shot Lapua brass before? Have you checked your load with this new brass or other Lapua of the same weight and internal volume. If this is an important match to you and you want to preload and arrive in tune or as close as possible I think its a misstep to run virgin brass.

 

[Mark Walker in TX]

Concentricity will likely be more than with fired and sized brass, and everything is amplified at 1k...

 

[msnations]

I was wondering the same thing, so I shot new brass at the last palma practice. I couldn't tell the difference...

-Mark

 

[Zilla]

I would prefer to use once fired. But I have shot some decent scores with new brass.

 

[zullo74]

Unlike BR for group size, F-class is a score game. A 10 at 12 o'clock is just as good as a 10 at 6 o'clock. Virgin brass will be just fine. If you were shooting factory ammo, it would be virgin brass.

 

[Moderator]

The best groups my 6BR ever shot were with virgin Lapua brass, which had been slightly chamfered only with a mandrel run down the neck to make sure they were round and not too tight. No sorting, no trimming (I usually trim after first firing).

We have a .308 "palmtactical" test rifle currently in the "skunkworks". Again, the best groups so far were shot with new Lapua brass. YMMV.

 

[Obtunded]

I love virgin Lapua 6BR brass. No problems there. I have won many local competitions shooting virgin brass, and I swear that if you run it through an expander mandrel it gives you the most consistent neck tension you'll ever get - even after annealing.

I've been load developing a 6.5-284 with Virgin Lapua and I could not be happier. In a match chamber, I don't think it makes too much difference, besides, what's the real difference between FL resizing and using good Lapua brass anyway?

 

[juniorARshooter]

Thanks guys - puts my mind at ease!

 

[tripcrow]

The biggest difference between FL sized fired brass and new is that if you’re properly resizing brass that was fired in your gun you should have less and more consistent headspace than new. You may hit it right and have new brass that is within .001”or so of your chamber. You may also luck out and have a lot that is all the same size dimension wise. But I don’t know how likely that is going to happen.

Other advantages to previously fired brass should be less neck and therefore less bullet run out too. Once again if you get a good lot of Lapua you may luck out to some extent. But if you’re using new that has near no run out you most likely didn’t neck turn. If you didn’t neck turn you have inconsistent neck tension with the new brass. If you have a custom die, fired brass can be better shaped to the rifles chamber. That also means less and more consistent case movement when the firing pin strikes.

The only possible advantage for new brass that I can think of for someone that knows how to reload properly is that the new brass was freshly annealed and should be more elastically consistent than once or twice fired. But then I’m one of those guys that believe 4-5+ times fired brass is just about as constant as properly freshly annealed brass. Anybody know of any other advantage?

Now I ain’t saying you can’t shoot your best score ever with new. Just that you could have scored even better if you were firing good fired brass and only bad luck could have made you score worse. So my advice is to take the game, your reloading ability, and your shooting ability into account to see if you can get away with new brass. Shoot new only if you have to or you just don’t care that you’re not going to do your best. But don’t BS yourself into thinking new is just as good as rounds made with properly loaded fired cases.

Edit:There you go Bud don't say I never stuck up for you

 

[dreever]

I would run all the new brass thru a Sinclair .30 cal. expander die. The new generation ll version has a floating mandrel MUCH better than the generation one.
Then use a bushing die to get the neck tension that you want. Load it and sort by concentricity. Save the ones with the worst runout for foulers or sighters and save the good ones .001 or less for the record rounds. If it's Lapua brass you won't have that many bad ones for foulers. Ideal would be once or twice fired, but careful prep on the new cases (Lapua) and I don't think you have to worry. Especially if you are seating into the lands since that's as straight as youre going to get.
I personally feel brass is as good as it gets for the first three loadings, then it's down hill after that so you have to be more careful with consistant neck tension etc.

Danny