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Joined: Sep 2008
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I had 50 pieces of once fired 223 brass from my rebarreled 223. I haven't neck sized before, but read the instructions and lubed em up and ran em through. All of them measured 1.710-1.714 after I sized em. This seems way too short. I didn't measure the brass before I sized it.
I'm kinda thinking that the die may not be set properly in the press. The RCBS instructions were the same for FL and Neck Size dies. Anyone else had this trouble? The chamber in the gun is very tight, but I don't think it would make brass shrink.

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if it was trimmed before sizing, then there is your bug. otherwise, were they "once fired" handloads that had been trimmed too short to begin with? or were they factory, and of what make if that is the case? when i neck size for a particular gun, i size one caliber of neck or until a sized case will fit in the chamber snugly (whichever requires more sizing) and with this method, i trim the cases only once, after first firing. there will be effectively no stretch this way, and i throw them away when i split a neck. dont know if this is any help for you at all.

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Probably shrunk on first firing as the shoulder filled out. That's normal for never-fired, but yours seem to be a little shorter than "normal."
Not really a big deal. Usually, I don't do much case prep with virgin brass except with a nail set for dinged necks, and a really light hit with a die grinder burr (not in the grinder) to chamfer just a little.
After the first firing of the lot, I'll measure a good sample and try to find the "shortest" length, and use that as a basis so all the cases are the same when I'm done. I set a trimmer up for a couple thou longer, start banging away. Then I set the burr up in a drill press with a stop. Anything that doesn't bite on the burr gets culled.


Up hills slow,
Down hills fast
Tonnage first and
Safety last.
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I didn't trim em before I sized em. It was all sized pretty close to the same length before I fired em the first time. It was some nosler brass I found on sale. Seems to be good brass, hope I don't have to trash it.

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Nope, just trim them all to the same length and keep using it. The "trim to" length is kinda arbitary. It's the max length you have to watch.


Aim for the exit hole.
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Check your chamber. Sinclair has a neat little tool for determining mas length. Cost: I paid $4.50.

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"Too short" for what? They are fine for common use and I wouldn't bother "trimming" them at all.

Load 'em and shoot 'em, they'll grow.

Last edited by boomtube; 05/11/10.
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One of the reasons for trimming them to a common length is you don't have to check each case to see if its grown too long. You can treat all of the brass as a "unit".


Aim for the exit hole.
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The nominal case length is 1.750. Max is listed as 1.760. So, your a bit short. The die will not shorten your brass to the degree you suggest.
Load it again and shoot it.

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Palmetto: Sounds to me like the fine folks at Nosler "made" you some "short" brass.
It is MOST likely short in the neck length dimension ONLY!
Check on this.
The good news is they are consistently short and the neck tensions on your bullets should ALL be quite similar.
This condition (the similarity in brass length - neck length) will aid in accuracy and I see no real problem with your brass being 0.04" short as long as it is all in the neck.
Puzzling this condition, but not dangerous.
Neck sizing should NOT shorten your brass THAT much from the norm.
If you want more brass dedicated to that Rifle you may have to disregard these Nosler pieces and go with what ever brass you can get "enough" of for your neeeds.
If 50 is enough I would keep them and use them.
Mixing these definitely short pieces of brass with "normal" length brass will cause variances in neck tension and accuracy (if mixed in).
Best of luck with your 223.
Hold into the wind
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Gotta add to what VG says about mixing. That's okay and fine for plinking, but consistency has its merits.
My thinking on lengths is to have the "internal" of the neck all the same. Fire the brass once, that gets them all fitted to the chamber. You can still have pretty good accuracy with your "fireform" loads.
Then when you trim, you trim all the same. You can either trim before necking, or trim after necking. Just make sure they are all in the same sized or unsized condition.
Some cases will miss, or just skim a little, some will really hog off some metal. Then the chamfering (I use either a rotary file or grinder burr) is done in the drill press at the same depth setting.
This all gives an identical internal length, the same amount of neck grab area for a batch of bullets all loaded to the same OAL.
Makes the bullet release all the same.
The only cases I'll cull are the real "shorties" that don't take a hit from the chamfering on the inside of the neck. If they skin just a hair, that's enough for working loads.


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Always resize your brass before trimming.


Aim for the exit hole.
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They were shorter than usual, but I always trim to uniform length after sizing. I shot em all yesterday. They functioned and shot fine. had em loaded up with 63 sierra SMP's and 64 win power points. Varget and TAC. No problems. Shot a couple of nice groups to. Haven't measured em yet, maybe they grew with this firing.


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