Accuracy and mixed fired brass

[nhenry]

I have to say at this point I'm a little confused, which is probably just my lack of mental horsepower.
1)What is the range of number of firings for the fireformed brass? (i.e. 1x-5x?, 3x-4x?). Let's call this batch 1.
2)With the stuff that's not fireformed, is it 1x that you've picked up, or is it virgin brass? Let's call this batch 2.
3)About how many pieces do you have in batch 1 and batch 2?

If I'm understanding your question correctly...if the formed stuff is all within a firing or two and you're loading nice straight ammo (low runout) that's not too hot, it'll probably shoot and hunt fine. Once you start getting there on case life for any cases in batch 1, I'd just pitch it all. I would keep batch 2 separate and start tracking firings and case data on it now.

1) excluding the initial fireforming, the range is 1-3 firings
2) it was virgin that I used in my rifle (with the fresh chamber) and the range on that stuff is 1-4 firings
3) I have about 50 pieces of the 280 AI headstamped and 40 fireformed

 

[Fremont15]

Yes I mix and it doesn’t affect accuracy at all.

 

[Gravelyctry]

If you’re only talking about the number of times fired with the same headstamp, I wouldn’t think about it all. Especially with the relatively few times you’ve fired brass.

I use different lots of lake city for highpower matches at 200 and 300 yards with different number of firings and it doesn’t show up in groups. At the 600 yard line I use Winchester brass, annealed each time to ensure consistent neck tension and extend brass life. The annealing extends brass life, and my usual failure is when the primer pocket becomes too loose. The 600 yard brass also has different number of firings on it.

Ive never heard someone be concerned about shooting the same headstamp brass with different numbers of firings other than the potential for brass failures.

Neil

 

[pyrotechnic]

The targets in this thread were shot using mixed headstamp brass with a mixed number of firings. The rifle shoots well on 8" steel out to about 600 yds or so after that I velocity spreads start taking its toll, as well as the rather mediocre projectile.

Why Sample Size Matters

I posted this in a thread about tuners on another site but figured I'd share it here. The Ammo and Reloading section seemed like the best place to put it. I bought a Kinetic Security Solutions adaptive tuner system around a year ago as I was primarily shooting factory ammo and it seemed like...

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For the other calibers I load for I use the same brass and same number of firings as it's relatively easy to do, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if 3x fired brass get mixed in with the 4x or whatever.

If you're chasing speed and your on the ragged edge of pressure I'd use the same headstamp and try to keep my brass on the same firing. Otherwise I doubt you'd really notice much inside of 600 yds.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I don’t keep up with how many times I’ve fired my brass. I haven’t had any accuracy issues from doing so.

I’ll mixed headstamps and don’t notice any difference with it either.

 

[Shortbowshot]

There's no way having 2 vs 4th fired brass could have a significant impact on accuracy. I swear some people reload to give their OCD personalities a socially acceptable outlet



Well now you've went and hurt my feelings.

Might be true.

 

[Fire_9]

When you start getting case head separations, donut formation, primer pockets wearing out, etc. you wouldn't know which cases to cull without going through every single one to check each metric of concern.

This would be the biggest reason for me to track it. I can’t, and I doubt anyone else could either, shoot the difference between once fired and 5x fired brass

 

[Horseman]

I mix brass that has been shot different numbers of times, of the same manufacturer and from the same bag/box and have .25moa. If I load 20 rounds there will often be brass that has never been fired and brass that has been fired multiple times. I always full length resize, trim and clean primer pockets. Shooting different brands of brass usually wrecks accuracy so I don’t do it