Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles A note about new vs. 1x fired brass

Please explain proper prep.

It's no secret to anyone with a modicum of handloading experience that all bets are off while doing load development in new, unfired brass, as mathman has demonstrated....

I'm doing a casual, flying blind experiment not yet checking the neck walls, and have been pleasantly surprised by the low runout this non-match grade brass is producing (for the most part) upon second assembly.

Yet there are manuals and published "experts" who always say ONLY use brand new brass to work up new loads!

Crazy.

Same as you did for the once-fired brass, if you wish to make a fair comparison.

I think you missed some of the things I wrote.

First, a typical FL die isn't tight enough in diameter and taper to really true up new brass which typically runs on the small side.

Second, I did do a FL size pass before the first loading on another set of brass, and while the runout results on these new brass loaded cartridges were slightly better than in the first comparison, there was still a marked improvement in runout in their second loading.

I believe I have the new vs. 1x thing covered.

Mathman,

I almost went exactly the same route you've gone. Instead I made one small change. Instead of useing the Forster full length die I use the Redding body die that sizes the body and doesn't touch the neck. I size my brass first and then neck size and deprime with the Lee collet.

Bullets are seated with the Forster Benchrest Seater. IMO this method negates any need to neck turn brass that might not have consistent neck thickness and works the necks a lot less.

I'm guessing your lot of LC brass has very consistent neck thickness




Shod

One set of twenty is now on its third loading vis Lee collet neck die and Redding body die. One cartridge had .0025" runout, three had .002" and the rest .0015" or less.

The second loading of this brass put sixteen into just under 3/4 moa, and that's with thrown charges and a 6x scope. (The other four were sighters for the freshly mounted scope.)

The third loading has the charge tweaked slightly to see if I can hit the old Lake City match velocity spec on the nose.

Whew, lowering my standards and selling all my reloading schit never felt so good......

For me fooling around with this stuff is part of the fun.

To ease your mind, test runout on various factory loads, and you will be quite satisfied with most results of handloading.

True that.
.004 - .006 out seemed to be the norm on the Win and Rem .270 loads I checked.
True Tool fixed em right up.

The straightening tool is great, and straightened cartridges shoot better than crooked ones.** But given an accurate rifle you'll probably find a batch of cartridges straightened from .006" to .002" or less won't do as well as a batch of cartridges that are .002" or less in the first place.


** Assuming they didn't need a ton of straightening which causes its own problems.

Small sample, maybe mathman will have more results.

And take any two from one group with one from the other and you get the dreaded "two together, one out" syndrome. So now take the 6 total rounds and chose any three at random and run the probability of getting "2 & 1"


What I see is the probability of 6 dead animals and no need for me to worry.

YMMV

If your only goal is dead animals, maybe you should sell your guns too and hunt at the supermarket.

You can suck my dick on the way too....

WTH?

I meant we'll stop at Sonic for a hotdog, my treat.

LOL, that's a better offer.