• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Sizing Brass

When you purchase new brass, do you full length resize it before you load it? I was just wondering if I'm the only one who weighs new brass checks length and full length resizes it before I load it.
 
I always full-size it first, it's never optimum for my chambers fresh from the box. Usually de-burr inside flash hole too (tool indexing off case head surface so case OAL doesn't yet matter) before loading.

Fired & resized a couple times is when I'll skim-turn necks (if needed) then trim to
length & clean up neck edges.
 
Normally I fully prep brass before using it.

We were at a match and my buddy ran out of ammo. I had new 6 BR brass, primers, powder and bullets.
I loaded 10 with 450 primers, 30 gr. Varget, and bullets I had on hand. My buddy shot the group of his life.
Sub 2" at 600 yards.

Maybe out of the box Lapua brass is OK.
 
I always F/L resize before loading new brass. If nothing else, it will get the dings out of the case necks and makes them all the same size if you have the expander in. If I don't have the expander in, I'll run a mandrel in the necks to make them the same size
 
I full size all new cases. There are a lot of good reason to do this: helps assure neck alignment, corrects neck bents, assures cases will fill chamber*, uniforms cases.

* had a lot of new Hornady brass that was over sized.

Incidently, I full size after all subsequent loadings using a slight shoulder bump.
 
Like Terry's example above, sometimes, in a pinch, you can load new brass and it will work very well for you. Other brass, you create more work for yourself later on. More than one time I have been in a pinch, loaded up new brass, and ended up pulling bullets because some of it didn't fit in my gun. For me, RP has been the worst. New RP brass gets the full treatment now, sized, trimmed, primer pockets, flash holes, and even necks on some.
 
I don't FL resize new brass. I do measure samples and do full case prep, then run a .002" under mandrel in neck to iron out neck. Load and shoot.

If I'm going to neck turn new brass, prior to fire forming, I will FL resize,trim necks and expand to establish the consistency for turning.
 
I recently got another box of Hornady .308 Match brass. Had good luck with it before. I F/L resized them all and turned the necks. Loaded just a few and shot them. I noticed I had a carbon ring on one side of the necks and the other side was spotless. I started checking and these had I think .007-.009" runout in the middle of the necks. Running them through the die again didn't help so I annealed them all and resized. Then ran the K&M neck tool back over them. It never removed any metal until it was about 1/16" or so above the shoulder junction. There the took off metal off one side and not the other. The whole shoulder must have been off center. After reworking, they had no more than .002" runout. The ones that were fire formed also straightened out.
 
Done it both ways. Several guns really liked the new brass and shot it well right out of the box. Others needed sizing and more prep. No magic answer... when in doubt I size it first.

Your expectations and type of shooting will dictate.
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
166,804
Messages
2,223,490
Members
79,910
Latest member
Kenhughes94
Back
Top