what do you do to new brass before the first loading ?

[watkibe]

I'm wondering what ideas different folks have about what new brass needs in the way of processing before loading it for the first time. I usually just smooth out any dents in the case mouths before loading, but I have some new 338 win mag brass from Remington that just doesn't have enough neck tension on cast boolits. I think I'm going to size the rest of it first.

What do you do ?

[mike in co]

fl size,
trim to length
de burr neck, in and out
deburr flash hole(from the inside)
uniform primer pocket
weight sort....at least pull the highs and lows and use for fouling shots.

mike in co

[August]

I chamfer and debur the case mouth and full length resize my cowboy brass when new. For long range, I do those operations, anneal, and uniform the primer hole before using them.

[Marvin S]

I FL size them, check length, chamfer mouths then usually have to expand neck to size.

[winelover]

Not much--flare case mouth, prime and load! You think the factory goes thru all those extra steps? Unless your into BENCHREST COMPETITION it's a waste of time for plinking, practice and big game hunting ammunition IMO. Time better spent casting, shooting and load development!:Fire:

Winelover:castmine:

[chevyiron420]

i have found new brass that was way too long so i check the length, trim if needed, f.l. size, chamfer and load.:cbpour:

[pdawg_shooter]

I anneal the necks.
Trim to length.
De burr inside and outside.
Turn necks to uniform thickness.
Drill flash holes uniform.
Uniform primer pockets.
Sort by weight.

[AZ-Stew]

Rifle:

FL size,
Trim to length
De-burr neck, in and out
De-burr inside flash hole

Handgun:

FL size,
Trim to length (crimp consistency)
De-burr neck, in and out

Regards,

Stew

[Jim]

Nothing. I load fire forming loads, shoot and THEN go through all the hoopla.

[405]

Pretty routine steps.
1) inspect, check neck wall thickness
2) brush inside neck with mica/moly mix and light lube outside case
3) run through sizer
4) neck expand if done separately
5) trim to standard or least common length
6) chamfer inside and outside neck mouth
7) lightly debur and uniform inside flash hole

load

[DLCTEX]

Chamfer, load, shoot.

[HeavyMetal]

Depends on weather its rifle or pistol brass

Pistol:
Clean ( if needed)
resize
trim to length
deburr flash hole
uniform primer pocket
deburr inside and outside case mouth
IF I'm shooting match grade I will sort by weight and head stamp.

Rifle: (bottlenecked case's)

Clean ( if needed)

Neck size only with Lee Collet die

Test a couple empties in the rifle for chambering

If they chamber continue to next step, if they don't fire up a base sizing die and resize the base until they do fit in the gun!

Trim to length

deburr flash hole

deburr case mouth

uniform primer pocket

Load and shoot per previous notes on particular caliber I'm loading!

[kir_kenix]

Depends what its going to be used for. For range/hunting/plinking i just FL, chamfer/trim to length.

BR brass gets:
*anneal (Lupua brass usually not)
*FL resize
*trim & chamfer
*ream flash (I usually dont do this for Lupua brass either)
*turn necks
*Sort by weight (I sort into 1 grain batches...I know some folks sort them down even further but I cant see sorting them to the nearest .2...)

I do most of these steps in front of the tv, as this is a very time consuming task. No voodoo here, but I know some of the guys shooting Long rang bench rest that just load and shoot...some that go thru all the steps I mentioned (or more).

Guess you have to decide what the purpose is, and what you expect to get out of it. Is it really worth all of that work to gain .1 MOA for a hunting rig? I don't think so, but there are guys out there doing it. On the other hand, that .1 MOA at 600 or 1k yards will make or break you some days, so I figure its worth it.

[357maximum]

With new rifle/long range pistol brass I:

1.FL size
2.CHECK BRASS LENGTH..trim if necessarry
3.load
4.shoot

Only after it has been shot once in my chamber do I get persnickety and do all the other "HOOPLA" if the end use dictates. I have never seen unfired brass that is as accurate as brass that is fired once in my chamber.

The more I load/shoot and age the less I tend to do all the crazy benchrest stuff to hunting/plinkin brass. I do not shoot benchrest......I aim to kill something be it a deer/critter/can/steel plate............bench time at the range will get you farther than bench time in the house.............taken me a long time to get over what the gunrags have drummed into most of us loonies. Only if I am trying to extend my range in certain applications do I even bother anymore really.

Short range Pistol...I check it for o.a.l chamfer mouth slightly then run it through the dillon.

[watkibe]

Wow, what a great variety of answers ! Thanks for all the input. We seem to fall into 2 schools of thought: the minimum and the maximum case prep before shooting. I like the idea of preparing brass appropriately for the intended use. And thanks to 357maximum for the great comment on gun rags drumming all kinds of stuff in our heads.

[captaint]

Wide variety of answers indeed!! Guess I'm with the fire first, then see what we have group. Primer pockets, flash holes, I've done all that. Mostly only on the serious target ammo tho.. I do like to trim early and get the length uniform.. At least flash holes are easy. Enjoy Mike

[mike in co]

if you trim to length, and then deburr the flash hole...and use an rcbs tool, you are actually "uniforming" the flash hole....this is the advantage of fl size, trim to length, then the flash hole

mike in co

[C1PNR]

fl size,
trim to length
de burr neck, in and out
deburr flash hole(from the inside)
uniform primer pocket
weight sort....at least pull the highs and lows and use for fouling shots.

mike in co
Ditto, except I don't do the weigh and sort step. Only because I'm shooting informally, or some for hunting.

Now it I were to get involved in some competitive shooting, like CMP style with my milsurps, I'd do the weigh and sort, too.

I once won 300 "new in the sealed package" RP rifle brass in a "Friends of NRA" drawing. During my preparation I found 7 rounds that were not even completely formed, they had holes in them! I may very well have found them during loading, but maybe I'd have missed one, who knows.

[mike in co]

guys,
its all up to you, but let me show you one example with one lot of 223 brass.
john feamster, wrote the book Black Magic. in the book he does a series on reloading and shooting results done with a lot of winchester brass.
i bought the brass from john. the first thing i did was to weight sort the brass. it weight from 89.1 to 94.5...that is a 6% variation (or plus/minus3%)and would easily explain some of the flyers he had.
typical bullet specs are plus/minus 0.3 gr......the case variation is about 10 times that.

you are correct for plinking, short range hunting maybe not an issue.


just ome more thing to consider IF you are looking for tack driving accuracy.

mike in co.

[Wayne Smith]

I used to random check length, size and load as usual. I now have three 32-20 shells so badly bent from being loaded and crimped too long that they are unusuable. That's three of 50 new WW cases. I'm now a believer in checking each case for length in anything that is crimped!

[44man]

All new brass needs to be sized whether just neck sized for a rifle or revolver or FL for a revolver. Expand, then trimmed to make even and chamfer edges.
Without sizing, neck tension runs all over the place.
The best way to sort brass is to shoot groups and watch every shot and sort by where the shot hits the target.
Weighing cases does not tell you anything about the brass grain structure, hardness or boolit pull. After sorting by weight, you still need the sorting by shooting.
Do not anneal revolver brass.

[felix]

Exactly, 44man! ... felix