Dumb question about new brass

[std7mag]

I've loaded a lot of rounds of new brass without resizing and have had never had a single issue.....until recently. I loaded some new Winchester brass and out of 50 rounds, I had a couple with neck tension so loose the bullets simply fell out of the case. So I'll likely resize new brass from here on out.

Like telling the kids the oven is hot.
You can only tell them so many times until they have to find out for themselves.

 

[DamascusSteel]

Like telling the kids the oven is hot.
You can only tell them so many times until they have to find out for themselves.

I remember that day

 

[Don Fischer]

I've loaded a lot of rounds of new brass without resizing and have had never had a single issue.....until recently. I loaded some new Winchester brass and out of 50 rounds, I had a couple with neck tension so loose the bullets simply fell out of the case. So I'll likely resize new brass from here on out.

Pretty much same here. I only resized when a mouth was dented though. Once in a while there would be a case with a dent in the body or neck, they simply fire out.

 

[ImBillT]

Personally, i don't care who the manufacturer is, i'm going to do the same prep (in some cases check) anyways.

Visual inspection.
F/L size.
Trim.
Camfer/deburr case mouth.
Uniform primer pockets.
Uniform/deburr flash hole.

Why take anything for chance?

No need to de-burr a flashole on brass with drilled flasholes(Lapua, Norma, RWS and some others) there is no burr. By all means, de-burr Winchester, Remington, Federal, Hornady etc.

Have you measured much Lapua or RWS? Have you measured every case you trimmed? I can tell you that Lapua and RWS start out pretty close to trim length, so there’s no need to shorten it any further, AND that your brass will be LESS uniform length after you trim it than RWS comes from the factory, and you will not improve the uniformity of Lapua length very much if at all. I don’t remember how close Norma tends to be to trim length, but I’ve never had it close enough to SAAMI max length that I felt the need to trim it before shooting.

Primer pocket depths for RWS and Norma are almost perfectly uniform as well. Lapua is pretty good, but not as uniform as the other two.

For most users, with Lapua, Norma or RWS, full length size, chamfer case mouths, done.

If I’m looking for extremely low velocity spreads, I’ll uniform primer pocket depth. Again, with Lapua/Norma/RWS, it’s still less work. Typically the depth to the center is incredibly uniform, and the variation is in the corners of the pockets. If you use an adjustable uniformer, you can adjust it to take out the very minimum required make the pocket the same depth at the edges that it is at the center, and it requires the removal of very little material making it a fast and easy process. With Winchester the depths vary so much that I usually set the cutter at the maximum SAAMI depth. Not only does it take forever to uniform a 100-500 primer pockets because of how much material you’re removing from 25-40% of them, but when you’re done, there will still be 10% or more that aren’t even flat on the bottom, in spite of the fact that you can’t cut any deeper within SAAMI specs.

If I’m chasing maximum accuracy, I’ll turn necks, usually with a tighter than SAAMI neck in the chamber, and again, Lapua, Norma, and RWS are so much more uniform than the rest of the pack that whether you’re setting the spec on a tightneck, or turning just until the neck is cleaned up, you end up doing far less work.

I typically weight sort after prep is complete.

For a SAAMI chamber on a hunting gun, with Lapua, RWS, or Norma, really just full length size, chamfer, and shoot. This year I actually just sized Norma 7x64, fireformed, and shot it in my 30-06AI. I didn’t even chamfer. It worked very well.

 

[std7mag]

No need to de-burr a flashole on brass with drilled flasholes(Lapua, Norma, RWS and some others) there is no burr. By all means, de-burr Winchester, Remington, Federal, Hornady etc.

Have you measured much Lapua or RWS? Have you measured every case you trimmed? I can tell you that Lapua and RWS start out pretty close to trim length, so there’s no need to shorten it any further, AND that your brass will be LESS uniform length after you trim it than RWS comes from the factory, and you will not improve the uniformity of Lapua length very much if at all. I don’t remember how close Norma tends to be to trim length, but I’ve never had it close enough to SAAMI max length that I felt the need to trim it before shooting.

Primer pocket depths for RWS and Norma are almost perfectly uniform as well. Lapua is pretty good, but not as uniform as the other two.

For most users, with Lapua, Norma or RWS, full length size, chamfer case mouths, done.

If I’m looking for extremely low velocity spreads, I’ll uniform primer pocket depth. Again, with Lapua/Norma/RWS, it’s still less work. Typically the depth to the center is incredibly uniform, and the variation is in the corners of the pockets. If you use an adjustable uniformer, you can adjust it to take out the very minimum required make the pocket the same depth at the edges that it is at the center, and it requires the removal of very little material making it a fast and easy process. With Winchester the depths vary so much that I usually set the cutter at the maximum SAAMI depth. Not only does it take forever to uniform a 100-500 primer pockets because of how much material you’re removing from 25-40% of them, but when you’re done, there will still be 10% or more that aren’t even flat on the bottom, in spite of the fact that you can’t cut any deeper within SAAMI specs.

If I’m chasing maximum accuracy, I’ll turn necks, usually with a tighter than SAAMI neck in the chamber, and again, Lapua, Norma, and RWS are so much more uniform than the rest of the pack that whether you’re setting the spec on a tightneck, or turning just until the neck is cleaned up, you end up doing far less work.

I typically weight sort after prep is complete.

For a SAAMI chamber on a hunting gun, with Lapua, RWS, or Norma, really just full length size, chamfer, and shoot. This year I actually just sized Norma 7x64, fireformed, and shot it in my 30-06AI. I didn’t even chamfer. It worked very well.

As i said.
I do/check the proceedures regardless of whom the brass manufacturer is.
Why would i want to let anything to chance?

 

[ImBillT]

As i said.
I do/check the proceedures regardless of whom the brass manufacturer is.
Why would i want to let anything to chance?

At least stop de-burring drilled flasholes. There is no burr. Those tools exist for punched flasholes. You’re leaving ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to chance by skipping this step with those three brands. Nothing. Go ask someone winning matches with a PPC if they de-burr flasholes on their 220 Russian brass.

Again, have you measured your pre-trimming and post-trimming lengths with Lapua, Norma or RWS? I’m going to have a VERY difficult time believing that you will have improved the uniformity of length with any of the three, but especially RWS. How short are you trimming those unfired cases? It would be unusual for Lapua to even be longer than trim length. If you really don’t want to leave anything to chance, then measure every piece and trim the handful of pieces that are longer than the rest back to match the rest. That would result in time saved and a very slight improvement in uniformity. Trimming them all will yield very little improvement with Lapua, or Norma, and almost certainly make RWS worse than when you opened the box. What brand are your calipers?

Do you weight sort?

 

[std7mag]

Trust, but verify!!
Actually, i don't trust to begin with!
Verify everything!

 

[ImBillT]

Trust, but verify!!
Actually, i don't trust to begin with!
Verify everything!

What does this have to do with performing a bunch of needless operations? You can verify without cutting your brass.

You didn’t mention the brand of calipers that you use, or whether or not you weight sort.

 

[Dakotakid]

What do you all do with new brass as far as prep work? Just inspect and load? Run through a FL sizing die? I have a backorder placed for Starline 30-06, so whenever that finally ships I'd like to know how to handle it.

I know it's a dumb question, but I've only worked with brass that's been fired at least once.

I neck size with lee collet,
Then trim(if nessasary) chamfer, prime, charge and seat.

I check several to confirm snug chamber but not hard bolt close,

Then hunt.

I do that with once fired also until they have grown to the point of bolt stiff closing and needing a bump.

If bump isn’t sufficient correction, I then size.

It has worked well for me with hunting rifles that don’t get shot a large amount.