new brass

[duckndawg]

It sure is nice when you get brandy new brass!!!!! And 500 doesn't seem like a lot,,, UNTIL you size them, trim flash holes, uniform primer pockets, and trim to size. I am tired of looking at these pieces of brass.

[lurch]

Know what you mean... I've got 1000 "new to me" 308's I've got to get into shape and have been dreading that part of it.

[DeanoBeanCounter]

You love it and you know it.
Dean

[R.C. Hatter]

:violin:If you folks dread, and are tired of your abundance of new brass, do yourselves a favor and send it to me.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Just think of the future shooting you can do with little work and a very nice reduction in case costs. Its like molding: invest first, get dividends later. BvT

[462]

Get comfortable, maybe some relaxing music, and have at it. I enjoy it all.

[3006guns]

It's a chore all right.....sorting, tumbling, sizing, etc. But you know what? I equate those shiney piles to WEALTH! I look around at nice neat boxes of brass and feel like one of the Rockefellers.....rich beyond belief.

[mooman76]

Know what you mean... I've got 1000 "new to me" 308's I've got to get into shape and have been dreading that part of it.

When I get a project like that that I dred a little, I try to talk myself into doing just a small portion of it. That way I don't dred it that much and 9x out of 10 once I get going I don't stop til I've finished.:bigsmyl2:

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

It's like eating an elephant - just take one bite at a time. :)

Really, if you make it into a drudge, you'll start dreading it. You don't have to do them all at once.

I tend to do batches of 50 or 100 cartridges for cleaning, depriming/sizing, cleaning, pockets, trimming, chamfering, etc - I have several loading blocks, some hold 100 cartridges, some hold 50. I'll just do what I feel like doing, but I always complete the current operation on the batch of 50 or 100, and sticky a checklist on the block so I don't have to remember what's next, in case I don't get back to it for awhile.

The exception is once I get the cases primed, then I want powder and boolits in them pretty quickly. If they're going to be just primed and sitting for awhile, I put them in cartridge boxes. All of my loaded stuff goes into surplus GI ammo cans.

I recently inherited a good bit of .30-06 brass that I'm distributing excess to some of my long-time local Marine buddies. They want to shoot their M1 Garand rifles, and they want to start reloading. I'm going to start them off right, with loads I work up in my Garand first.

But I'm going to do it 50 and 100 rounds at a time.

[crabo]

Anyone got a good primer on prepping new brass? I have a bolt .308 and a lot of new WW brass.

I want to end up with 5 shot 3/4" group at 100 yards. I don't want to get anal if I don't have to. I am not looking for benchrest sized groups here. I want good hunting loads. I have Forster Benchrest dies with the micrometer seater.

I have reloaded quite a bit of rifle in the past, but I would like to take it up a notch.

Thanks,

The rifle is a Remington 700 Light Tactical Rifle with a 6.5x20 Luepold. It should shoot.

[felix]

Weigh the new brass into one grain piles. Keep them separate for shooting, and shoot full loads (condoms) for the first go around. Neck size if needed before reloading the condoms. Try the largest boolit diameter possible for your chambered round, which means no more than 0.001 neck slop. Reduce boolit diameter by no more than 0.001 for the next loading. Compare groups, once deciding on a practical load, leaving the load alone when comparing diameters. Check case length after each firing. No need to make them consistent in length unless you are going to crimp without felt pressure. However, the seating tension MUST be consistent for the entire pile. The faster the powder you use, the less important it is to seat close to the lands. ... felix

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

crabo,
The basis to all reloading is consistency, coupled with what your firearm "likes" to shoot.

The more variables you choose to ignore or "finagle" on, the larger your groups will be.

Try starting off by prepping your brass to standard dimensions.

I don't know if you are casting boolits or using factory bullets. The latter would probably be easier. Sierra is a good brand.

Use a good powder like Varget, and work up your load carefully to find the 'sweet spot" where your vertical displacement does not vary much in a 10 round group. Varget is sort of like 4895, but it doesn't have the temperature dependency that 4895 does. One of the main reasons why it's so darn hard to find nowadays.

Once you find that "sweet spot", you can work on things like neck thickness, etc.

[crabo]

I have Glenn Zedikers book "Handloading for competition" and need to reread it. He treats bolts and Ars different if I remember correctly. I have some jacketed to shoot for a while.

I bought a box of Federal Match and have several boxes of Remington match. I thought I would shoot some groups with them as a control group to see how my reloads compare.

I do have some Varget already, so I am going to try that first.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I dunno, the AARP is still officially pushing for the Kenyadent's Health Mismanagement legislation.

Rich

[crabo]

I have Glenn Zedikers book "Handloading for competition" and need to reread it.

I found this today

"If anyone is not about to spend time and money on measuring tools and case segragation, then he should do this: load up all of the new cases, go prone, and keep in one guarded pile all those that send a bullet in the x-ring..... that's not a bad way to segragate cases and if nothing else, should always be the final selection segragation criteria. If a case throws a shot, pitch it. No matter how perfect it was suppossed to be, if it didn't shoot, don't shoot it again......

You can always use those cases that you cull for offhand practice.