Do you have to size your brass?

[Daekar]

I have been playing with the idea of leaving my 357mag brass unsized when I am loading cartridges which are dedicated to the same gun. I have tried it a few times and haven't run into problems with loading the case or chambering the completed round, but it makes me wonder if there will be consequences for accuracy or something else that I'm not aware of. Is this a thing people do in straight walled cases? Brass life already seems practically infinite, this might really make it so...

[Budzilla 19]

In my way of thinking, if not full length resized, then at least neck sizing, or in the case of straight wall cartridges, at least the length of the boolit being used, to have proper neck tension. Ample crimp should also be considered to prevent boolit from backing out of the loaded round and binding up your firearm’s cylinder. Just my opinion.

[black mamba]

I agree with Budzilla. Size at least to the depth of your bullet seat, then crimp just enough for the recoil of the load.

[JimB..]

Third for at least neck size. If you don’t size at all you should be able to push a bullet into the case with very little resistance, and pull it the same, this is not good.

I f/l size 357mag anyway, don’t see an advantage to neck sizing. I toss it when the neck splits, and that’s not reduced by neck sizing vs f/l sizing.

[Mk42gunner]

The only time I have read of using totally unsized brass was when loading slightly oversized wadcutters in .38 Special brass, then basically letting the crimp die provide the sizing to both the brass and the boolit.

I would not do this with the .357 Magnum, unless you are just loading light wadcutter loads.

Robert

[littlejack]

Just from my own expierience:
You may think the case is still small enough to hold a bullet. This is just a very small amount of crimp left after firing a crimped straight wall round. So, when you have resistance sliding a bullet in the case, it is giving you a false sense of bullet to case tension. If you slide the bullet past the left over crimp, you will find that there is actually no case tension on the bullet. You can check this by belling the fired case mouth, and there will be no tension on the bullet.

[ABJ]

The only time I have read of using totally unsized brass was when loading slightly oversized wadcutters in .38 Special brass, then basically letting the crimp die provide the sizing to both the brass and the boolit.

I would not do this with the .357 Magnum, unless you are just loading light wadcutter loads.

Robert

Exactly this, I have done thousands of 38 special wadcutter loads for Bullseye. The problem is, even a .359 wadcutter has very little case tension and must be crimped to prevent boolit setback. Accuracy is better on very light loads in the range of 700/750 fps. Once you get past that not so much. I don't do it any more because I switched to 100 grain swc instead of full wadcutters.
Tony

[Harter66]

Another for neck sizing .

I have been doing this with 45 Colts for several years because of a really fat carbine chamber . It made a small difference in the BlackHawk but a very noticeable in the carbine . Both for the better .

[Soundguy]

I always size and crimp ( in some fashion ) for uniformity.

[scattershot]

Neck tension is pretty important, but except for that it’s not really necessary.

[Daekar]

I messed with this a bit yesterday and discovered that one of my assumptions was wrong.

I had thought that there would be no need to size the brass to address neck tension issues because of the crimping process. This turned out to be incorrect, as after a few firings the crimp proved insufficient to hold the boolit firmly in place - it wiggled to a surprising degree unacceptable even in a single-shot rifle. If you were willing to crimp the bejeezus out of the case mouth, I suppose you might make it work, but at least for the chamber on this gun it seems to cause more problems than it could possibly be worth. As you guys have pointed out, it's not like the body sizing on straight-walled cases is where you start losing things anyway, it's the mouth sizing... so skipping the sizing operation and compensating with a heavier crimp would seem to be counterproductive.

Thanks for the input!

[meh]

I tried "neck sizing" .357 magnum because the chamber on my Rossi 92 is a little large in back, leading to slightly bulged cases. The resizing die couldn't reach all of it, anyway. Chambering a round wasn't as slick, requiring a little bit of force to finish chambering some of the rounds, but other that that there were no problems. Was enough to dissuade me, though, since I could also avoid the issue and still retain good accuracy at that barrel's slow rate of twist by going down to 38 special pressures with a lighter, coated HC bullet.

[GregLaROCHE]

I can’t say for handgun rounds, but I don’t size for my 45/70 anymore. I shoot fat boolits and normally a taper crimp. My brass has been lasting a long time.

[trapper9260]

I size all my brass since I use them in different guns , handgun and rifle. I do have some brass for one handgun that take larger boolit then the others of the 9mm so I still size it like the rest , then when I do expanding I use different die that is 357 mag to bevel the mouth and keep them in there own place for use in that one gun from the rest of the cases . It works for me. I have done some rifle bottle neck cases that did not resize for a friend in his rifle and load them and crimp the bullet and they shot fine . I did not had to put a heavy crimp on them. That is just jacket bullets I loaded for him . He was with me doing it .

[1hole]

Not sizing cases at all sounds bit jarring but if you can assemble cartridges that survive your normal handling there is no reason to tell you "No"!

[chutesnreloads]

Since a single shot rifle was mentioned....what I HAVE done is not crimp at all but seat bullets far enough out to just contact the lands.
In a .357 Handi rifle the lead is so long I use .360DW cases just to have enough bullet in the case, Works well.
But not sized ,,,,absolutely not.

[dtknowles]

I have one load that I do not size my brass. It is for 22 hornet, I use unsized brass and unsized bullets. I shoots well (not great, 3" five shot groups at 100 yards), is easy on brass and on time at the loading bench. I don't crimp. Just decap, prime, drop powder and seat an unsized tumble lubed bullet. There is enough neck tension for handling the ammo and shooting in my Ruger #3.

I full length size all my .357 mag. ammo and give them a good crimp but I am shooting them in revolvers. My revolvers have tight chambers, fat bullets or too much crimp and the will not chamber.

Whoever said crimping is what causes neck splits on .357 brass get my vote.

Tim

[Char-Gar]

[QUOTE=Budzilla 19;5273583]In my way of thinking, if not full length resized, then at least neck sizing, or in the case of straight wall cartridges, at least the length of the boolit being used, to have proper neck tension. Ample crimp should also be considered to prevent boolit from backing out of the loaded round and binding up your firearm’s cylinder. Just my opinion.[/QUOTE

My opinion as well, except I shoot bullets and not boolits.

[bedbugbilly]

If I am using it in just one gun - I FL size the first time and then neck size after that to seating depth. This has worked well for me with 45 Colt/45 Schofield.

On 38/357 - they get shot in more than one pistol/rifle so I FL size them all. It has been my experience that with 38/357, the case failure is 99.9% of the time is a split in the case mouth - then I toss 'em. If I didn't FL size them and just neck sized them - they will still fail with a split neck at some point. So why not FL size so they can be used in any gun - it doesn't take any longer = and usually most have multiple guns to use them in.My Uberti Cattleman 45 has generous chambers - thus why I just neck size - buy failure in 45 Colt/45 Schofield is primarily a split neck as well.

[littlejack]

I neck size my 45 Colt brass down to a bullets seating depth. There is one glitch I have to deal with though. My Winchester 94AE Trapper has an oversize chamber. When partial sized fired in the 94, the cases will not chamber in my Uberti SAA. I crimp separately as a final step. My crimping die has the carbide ring at its opening. So, when crimping the bullet, the base of the case is just barely sized down just enough to drop in the Uberti chambers, but not near as much as if I had full length sized. Works perfectly.

[farmbif]

one problem I can think of. lets say you load 1000 rounds and didn't run the brass though sizing die. you get a new gun and it might be possible none of it will chamber. I guess im a simple sort of person and the sizing die is in the box for a reason. I just do it like I have for years and the brass lasts as long as it will last.
357 mag, 38spl, 9mm brass is cheap and very easy to come by.
there are a couple calibers I might try to get away with such a feat as not resizing brass. 25-20 is one. its very unlikely ill ever get another gun in 25-20. the brass is very thin and fragile and its pretty much impossible to find.

[robg]

if your sizing/decapping with one die why not size?

[Daekar]

if your sizing/decapping with one die why not size?

I have a separate decapping die I use sometimes, so that isn't an assumption for me.

The thought behind not sizing is similar to the reasons some folks only neck size rifle cartridges: when used in a specific gun, you can sometimes achieve a better fit with the chamber, especially oversized chambers, by allowing the brass to remain expanded. This can result in better accuracy. What I learned from my experiments is what some members have already shared: sizing is necessary to achieve proper neck tension and secure seating even on straight walled cases. At some point I may mess with only neck sizing, but for now I have other levers to pull when looking for accuracy. Never say never though!

[Pirate69]

I have a 308 Win that I built on a Mauser action that I shoot without resizing the case. The boolit that I use, when PCed, can be seated with lots of finger pressure. I just seat them a little long in the seating die and let them engage the lands when chambered. Works find and minimum or no swaging of the bullet. Range rounds only. If the round enters the chamber, it will be shot. No guarantee that the round would extract intact. If I had to extract a round, it would be with the muzzle straight up. Guess this is a lazy way of reloading since I am eliminating a step or two.