Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters New brass vs. 1-Fired

A few years ago I bought a large quantity of Federal 30/06 brass, all new. Tried about 50 pieces in my custom 06 and none would chamber until going through an FL die. Never had any problems like that with WW, Rem or Lapua cases.

It was Winchester brass, only time I’ve had that issue.

I had that with some PPU 7x57. Thing is after I sized it it was great brass.

I allways use the stuff that I was gonna toss so it s no loss. You dudes are way overthinking it all. MB

I tend to do what Magnum Bob does. If I was going on an expensive, or very important hunt , or after dangerous game, I would use once fired brass, and check all rounds to make sure they chamber. But I hunt on the family farm, only 35 miles away from home, and am mostly meat hunting and just getting out of town into the country. I tend to make my hunting loads from 4 or 5 times fired brass, so if I am shooting I can pay attention to the deer or coyote and not worry about throwing away a piece of brass that I've barely gotten the good from. If I've loaded it 4 or 5 times I am not so reluctant to let it land and stay there.

Y'all got to remember, that up until just a few years ago, I hadn't tried neck sizing at all. I was still FL sizing every time-- still had my training wheels on. My Mauser From Hell project was the first time I really thought about doing something different. I had a rifle that wasn't giving good results, so I tried to remove any possible factors. Neck sizing 1-fired brass seemed like a reasonable thing, and y'all were talking up Lee Collet dies. . . the next thing I knew, I'd shot the best group I'd ever done with a hunting rifle. It wasn't neck sizing that ended up being THE FIX for this rifle it was a bunch of stuff (hence The Mauser From Hell) However, this was the first rifle that I tried neck sizing on.

Thanks for the advice. I just neck-sized a bunch of new brass before I had to get ready for work.

Have done just about all of the above at one time or another. Now Mule Deer's method for new brass is what I usually do (expander ball only or collet) but have also used an ordinary Lee loader if the necks aren't dinged. When reloading, the only rifle I FLS for is my new Mini 14*; all others get partial sized or the collet, but I use a case-length headspace gauge like a Wilson or Lyman to check them and run some of the loads at least through the rifle to check fit there. Haven't had to "bump" any shoulders as yet; most of my brass only has a couple or three loads on it since it's so far mainly for hunting ammo and I have a good bit for all my rifles. If I pick up range brass that appears to be from factory ammo, I use that for setting up dies and making dummy rounds to save time and trouble with seaters.

Redding case lube combined with their neck lube make it easy to see how far down the neck the sizer goes when partial sizing.

*.44 mag loads are the exception

I use all new brass in belted Magnum cartridges for my hunting loads out of habit and I always make sure every case will chamber before loading. After that, neck sizing only for target brass. Happy Trails

My best results with new brass occur when I just Lee-collet-neck-size, as JB recommends.

When I have tried FL resizing, prior to the first loading, they would all work "OK" for a deer hunt, but not as tight a group as just neck sizing. (sometimes)

Disclosure : I’m not a gun writer .

I always size new , virgin brass . Which method of sizing is up to you ( body , neck , full length ) . Over the years I have tested several batches of Federal , Remington , Winchester , Starline , etc with a V-block and indicator and almost always they are found to be out - of – round and/or banana shaped . You will also notice that the case mouths will ( most times ) not be square with the case head & body axis . I like to make sure my cases are square , straight and true prior to trimming as case length will grow just by one pass through a sizing die if cases are banana shaped .

Also , I find that the head space dimension on most new / virgin bottle necked cartridge cases to be greatly under sized ( short ) by .015” or more ( using SAAMI specs ) . Not much you can do about that condition except to fire-form . There’s a huge array of rifle makes and models of varying vintage and chamber dimensions the manufacturers have to accommodate .

That'll happen a LOT with standard factory brass, because a lot of it is lop-sided, with one side of a case thicker than another. I can't recall seeing it with Starline, or any of the other good brands of brass I use these days.

One thing I really do like about RWS brass is that it is beautifully turned out, and needs nothing at all done before using it. It is fearsomely dear though.

Other brands, I'll typically size the necks, for which like others here I like Lee's Collet sizer. I'll also trim them all to the same length and chamfer inside the neck. Some brass is pretty good for round necks, proper length etc, but a lot of it isn't, especially the stuff that comes in bags.

With rifles I know to have oversized chambers, I'll also put something around the base of the case for the first firing, in front of the rim or extractor groove, to assist in keeping the case concentric with the bore axis when fireforming. I used to use a very narrow strip of masking tape, but a small o-ring also works and is simpler. Just make sure it comes out with the case after firing.

I don't ever full length size any brass, whether for bolt action, lever, falling block or break action rifles. There again, I never use cases fired in someone else's rifle, and keep separate lots of brass for rifles of the same calibre.

As a general rule I prefer to use fireformed and neck-sized cases when it really matters. They seem to give me better accuracy, though for some rifles the difference may not really be measurable or significant given what the rifle's capable of. It probably doesn't matter much for knocking off a deer or a pig at modest range either, and I have shot a fair few critters with factory fresh cases as well as factory loads.

Shaman, I have personally not seen a difference in point of impact or performance on new brass vs once fired brass so long as it's quality brass. Brass that isn't quality or is thicker on one side than the other will banana when fired and brass such as this might introduce some problems when reloading after it's once fired. I don't use cheap brass anymore or dies with expander balls that cause run-out problems so for the most part it avoids reloading issues for at least 3 reloadings apon which the brass begins to work harden and effect accuracy. Annealing takes care of that problem. I'm not sure if that's what you were after but hopefully it helps


Trystan