used 243 win. brass

[jotrot]

I have a custom 243 win. and with virgin win. brass it is very very accurate.
a while back I bought some used 243win. brass i don't know how many times shot but has tight primer pockets. why is it that I cant repeat those same tight groups ?

thanks, joel

 

[Paddyd]

Could be they are not all the same. Some may have different hardness properties and inconsistent neck tension. Who knows?

 

[Brians356]

I have a custom 243 win. and with virgin win. brass it is very very accurate.
a while back I bought some used 243win. brass i don't know how many times shot but has tight primer pockets. why is it that I cant repeat those same tight groups ?
l

Are you implying (you didn't state) they are all (virgin and used) from the same manufacturer? That would be critical info.

 

[jotrot]

winchester virgin brass shoots tiny groups, the used Winchester brass that I bought with tight primer pockets does not shoot well at all.

thanks, joel

 

[Mr.Spradlin]

What was done to the used brass?
Did someone "uniform" the primer pockets or flash holes? Was anything done to the necks?

Something is not the same between the two.

 

[jotrot]

nothing was done to the brass, but when I sized the first one I had to put it back and bump the shoulder back to fit.

thanks, joel

 

[ireload2]

They might shoot better the next time around. If not, anneal the necks lightly.
But don't be too quick to condemn the brass. Some times we do other things that kill accuracy without knowing it.

 

[Fat Albert]

It is all about accountability. You have no idea what has been done to these cases. For all you know,. the last time they were loaded it was a 85,000psi load of Win296. The last time I was at my gun club a shooter asked me if the old cardboard box (40's or 50's) 06 reloads were ok to shoot in the $1500 new condition pre Win 70 that he had just bought. All the cases were 06. There was 6 different headstamps, 8 different bullets, 5 different oal and 4 different primers. Some of the primers looked like pistol primers and most were round domed (pre-1960's). I asked him if the had ever heard the term "eat a bolt"? He didn't shoot them and we pulled 4 of the bullets and found 4 different powders.

 

[jlow]

Did you feel any difference in terms of how hard and consistent in terms of the pressure you felt when you seated the bullets into the cases? Between cases in the new used lots and also between them and your virgin Win cases. If you felt significant differences between the used stuff and your virgin cases, this should tell you that your neck tension is significantly different, and that can definitely affect how your rifle shoot the bullets. As to why they are different, there could be lots of reason among which are differences in work hardening, neck thickness, how the neck was sized, differences in chamfering, smoothness (i.e. lubrication), etc.

 

[Rem06]

nothing was done to the brass, but when I sized the first one I had to put it back and bump the shoulder back to fit.

thanks, joel

did you check trim length? maybe the old brass is too long?

 

[danny]

GIGO?

Garbage in...Garbage out..

Danny

 

[Patch700]

Nobody likes to hear what they don't want to hear... With respect to using brass from some place that you cannot for certain know it's history , You are putting alot of faith in someone else... This can be either very noble or very bad for your health..

With the ever increasing popularity of home gunsmithing (loosely termed) I would treat even once fired brass as trash without having hands on experience with it's history.

Good luck and don't waste a good barrel on suspect components..

 

['Freak]

How long was the used brass from case head to shoulder datum both before and then after giving it the shoulder bump just so it could be made to chamber?

After the shoulder bump, did that make the used brass the same case head to shoulder datum length as the first time fired virgin brass fresh out the chamber?

 

[hunter243sgk]

Don't know for sure what is causing that problem but that is a good reason to not buy used brass. I do not buy used brass anymore because we never know what the person who had it before has done to it.