Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Prepping new brass

I decided to be a snob and order some Norma brass for my 270 and back-ordered some Lapua brass for my 243.

What is your procedure for new brass prior to loading?

For those who weigh their brass, what type of scale are you using?

Many here don't do a thing but load the brass and shoot.

I don't. I uniform the primer pockets right off the bat, load and shot to expand the brass. Next, trim all to uniform length and uniform the flash holes. Weigh each to hold within ±1%, cull the oddballs for non important use, then use the good ones as you like.

i used too do all the stuff to make my hunting ammo be perfect, but now days for hunting ammo after going thru the federal factory I just load my hunting ammo normal, doing all the extra stuff does not matter much your not shooting at a mouse. but when it comes to my target ammo I am very fussy with my lapua brass and that`s all I ever use then. some will say weighing all powder charges is important,i will disagree most of the bench rest shooters never weigh powder they all volume load as I do and so does all ammo factories just volume load.

Weighing charges or not being worthwhile depends on the distance to the target.

Also the consistency and accuracy of you powder dispenser.

Straighten necks - run them over a Lee collet mandrel or an expander ball for those very few calibers for which I don't have a Lee neck die, chamfer the inside and deburr the outside if needed, load and shoot.

After once firing, sort by case neck concentricity. A very few rifles like the 8x57 Yugo M24/47 don't get their cases sorted since their accuracy potential isn't enough to make it worthwhile.

I knock the burrs off the inside of the flash holes and chamfer the necks. That’s it. Rarely load anything that isn’t sub MOA.

I don't size new brass under the delusion that I'll make it better. The only new brass I size is 460 S&W Magnum brass to be shot in a revolver and that only to keep the bullets from moving under recoil. Having shot unmessed around with new brass in quite a few different guns, I've never had said brass shoot worse than brass I had resized.

As for chamfering; I don't think I've ever had the need with new brass.

I've turned necks, deburred primer flash holes, uniformed primer pockets, etc. and don't think those operations have made any difference on paper.

Case annealing is beneficial but it's not something I'd do to new brass.

So for those of you weighing your brass, are you using your powder scale or do you have a scale reserved for this duty? If so, what make/model scale are you using?

A basic digital powder scale will do nicely. I use an old Pact. A balance beam scale will drive you nuts doing this job.

If you weigh brass, use an electronic scale. Any brand, and it doesn't even have to be an exact weight since you are just finding the mid-range and the outliers. Much faster to sort.

As mentioned by several above, it appears that new brass is better than it used to be. I have gotten Norma, Dakota, Lapua, and Nosler brass that was essentially ready to go right out of the box. . without needing attention to flash holes, primer pockets, etc. Benchrest accuracy might indicate the desirability of all the preparation, but sometimes it is hard to see any difference without lots of target shooting. I think our own JB/Mule Deer recently had a good article in Handloader that showed modest improvement with some of the prep that can be done on brass cases.

Some reloaders are shooters first, then loaders also. Some are reloaders first, then shooters also. If prepping cases gives you more confidence in your shooting, or if you shoot more often if using prepped brass, that time was well spent.

It depends on which rifles I'm loading for. My hunting rifles I run new brass through a sizing die just to get the expander through the neck, chamfer and deburr the case mouth, and load them. For my varmint rifles I run the expander through neck, uniform the neck thickness, chamfer the mouths, and run through a neck sizer, and load.

I don't us ANY new brass for anything important, including final load development. I found for the calibers I load that unexpanded new brass was about half a grain light of the ultimate loads with expanded brass. That made a big difference on paper. All brass I ever worked with was always expanded and neck sized. Makes a difference. YMMV

I do the usual prep but don't sort cases by weight unless I am really trying to find the smallest group. This is mostly out of habit but I like to have it done the first go around and then that is it. I have had problems with new brass even the Alpha brass when I skipped the prep work and I hate to have to break down loads once they are put together.

Do I think it improves accuracy? Yes, but not with my shooting abilities with hunting rifles.

I usually do everything you can do to a case except turn the case neck. I'll run them through a FL die, knowing that the die probably won't touch the shoulder, but mostly to straighten and uniform the neck. Then I'll trim them, deburr them, uniform the primer pocket and deburr the flash hole. I don't weigh cases except for my long range stuff and I only turn case necks on my tight neck rifles. This much work may not help much if any but I've never seen it hurt. If I do weigh cases I use a digital scale.

I only thing I bother with is straightening out of shape necks and chamfering

I do most of what's already been mentioned along with tumbling them overnight in corncob media. Just want to make sure any release agent or anything from the manufacturing process is removed. I'm not a bench rest guy by any means, strictly a hunter.

Last 500 count of 270 Norma brass I ran through didn't need a thing. Just loaded them and shot. 2"- 3" 500 yd groups were common. Could see no reason to mess with it unless I decided I wanted to compete professionally. If I did want to compete professionally I sure as fug would not weight brass, instead I'd check internal water capacity of each piece and net an actual gain



Trystan

Thanks all.

Norma brass comes chamfered and deburred already, as is Nosler and Weatherby. Actually, most chamberings by those 3 are all made by Norma.

I have not used Lapua brass, but would not be surprised if they are also chamfered already.