I've seen lots of threads on whether or not to resize new brass. Being a newbie to reloading, I decided no.

Well, I found the answer is it depends.

On the brass I tried:

1. Remington 243 Winchester brass - not an issue. Factory brass chambered
2. Ditto for Norma 6.5x54 brass - not an issue. Ditto
3. Hornady 8x57 brass - issue.

My previous 8x57 loads were all from Superior and used Remington brass. No issues. No issues with S&B factory ammo chambered either.

I was loading a dummy round with new Hornday to find the depth of the lands. Initially, yes, the bullet was seated way out an it was contacting the lands. So I kept reducing the COL until it was below that of the Superior loads and it still wouldn't close easily. So I ran the brass through a FL resizing die and bingo! Not an issue.

So I guess the answer is it depends on the brass.

Going forward, I will check all the brass by brand/cartridge with my rifles and FL resize anything that needs it.

For new brass I neck size load and shoot. if the mouth of the case is ragged Ill clean them up .
Its generally on the small size for most chambers anyway.
I get a little more pickier after fire forming to my rifles.
Dave

quote:

Originally posted by hivelosity:
For new brass I neck size load and shoot. if the mouth of the case is ragged Ill clean them up .
Its generally on the small size for most chambers anyway.
I get a little more pickier after fire forming to my rifles.
Dave

Looking at Hornady brass, it looked like the shoulder was the issue.

Hornady brass tends to garner a lot of complaints about its poor quality. I steer clear of it.

Federal, Winchester, and Starline are my choices; Remington is last.

I have one rifle that has either a short chamber or a minimum chamber....Kimber 84L in 30-06

I found 8 or 9 rounds I put together would not chamber and to get once fired brass I had to grind .005 of the shell holder

I also say......it depends

But most times it's not required

All of my new brass gets a full length size. I failed to do so once. I found on a hunt that the bullets I had loaded would turn in the case.
Everything gets a full resize. Why chance it!

quote:

Why chance it!

Well, Gee, we're dealing with Brass, Chambers & Dies, all mass manufactured with alot of +/- involved, so why would we not attempt to ensure that all 3 are as they're supposed to be (for correct, easy chambering) from the start?

If your Dies are set-up accordingly (with your chamber) it's a simple process to determine how much sizing new brass will require.

As I round out the case necks on new brass cases (dip the neck into graphite and wipe off afterwards) I simply attempt to see how far into the F/L Sizing Die the brass will enter until resistance is felt. If so, I'm gonna have to lube the entire batch to round the necks and re-size the entire body anyway. Pretty much tells you at the Get-Go to which tolerances batch was manufactured.

If at a minimum the case necks on new brass aren't rounded, the inside/outside case mouth chamfering will be uneven and you may even loose a case or two (for me a silly proposition) to case collapse when attempting to seat a bullet on a completely primed, charged and ready-to-load case - why?.

I use a wide range of brass brands, Lapua, Norma, Winchester, Remington, RWS, Geco, PMP, PMC, S&B, Federal, et al, vanilla-flavored & nickeled and have never had a really bad batch unless it was some of the early (long ago) S&B which was famous for it's ultra-small primer pocket flash holes - I guess I'm just lucky.

Virtually 100% of the time after the case mouth is rounded there is no resistance nor additonal sizing required of new cases; they usually quite easily run into the F/L Die.

Very seldom does new brass require a minor tweak at the base or shoulder but it does occur.

Still IME requires a mediocum of attention to detail at the start to preclude later issues.

quote:

Originally posted by Gerry:
I use a wide range of brass brands, Lapua, Norma, Winchester, Remington, RWS, Geco, PMP, PMC, S&B, Federal, et al, vanilla-flavored & nickeled and have never had a really bad batch

You've used more brands than I have, Gerry, although I can add Sako, Herter's, Frontier, Starline, and various U.S. military surplus to the list. Like you, I've never found a bad batch of brass. Some brands, especially those sold in bulk, my require more preparation than brands like Lapua, which come pretty much ready-to-load. Regardless, I run new Lapua thorough a die to neck-size it to assure the mouths are perfectly round. The only factory-new brass I've had that didn't want to enter the chamber is some .221 Fireball, but that is due to the rifle having a very tight custom chamber, not due to the brass manufacturer failing to dimension its product properly.

I guess I've lived a good and pure life. I've never had any new brass that wouldn't fit in the chamber. Let's face it, the brass is made to minimum standards so's to fit a myriad of rifles. Any new brass I get, I verify that one will fit in the chamber and then I assume that the rest will. I've yet to be disappointed. I bump each case over the resizing ball of a f/l die to make sure they're round and then I chamfer and load. If I were using boat tail bullets, I wouldn't even have to do that. But, I'm not much into bt bullets.
Once I have 1x brass, I trim to length, chamfer, and do any other case prep that I'm inclined to do.

As the OP learned, it depends. I use mostly Rem bulk brass and quite often the case mouths are not round or even. In that case (pardon the pun) I size, trim and chamfer.
Interestingly I just started loading for 270 and bought Nosler brass because that was all I could find in stock. It was all sized trimmed and chamfered right out of the box.
And if you don't have your rifle at your loading bench and try a few brass or loads in it as you load, you are asking for trouble.

I always full length resize new brass. You don't waste a lot of time by doing it & then you know it's gonna work ok.
Bear in Fairbanks

Never had new brass that wouldn't chamber. Although sometimes I FL size anyway to insure uniform bullet pull. And I have loaded every brand mentioned here. No geco. Add Privi. Hornady is the only game in town for some calibers, especially big bores, and I have had no problems with it.

I have never had new brass or factory ammo that would not fit a standard chamber.
Brass that I have used or brands of ammo fired to get the brass ---

Remington, Winchester, PPU, Norma, GECO, Starline, Hornady, Kongsberg (Swedish military berdan), Egyptian military berdan 8X57, IGMAN, Federal, LC (Lake City) , SL-54 (St Louis), Korean military 30-06 and some others. They all chambered.

The GECO was so soft that it did not extract easily in a Savage 110 with a rough chamber.

A lot of 100 Norma 243 cases had grossly uneven case walls and had to be turned.

A batch of the IGMAN ammo had primers that leaked at normal pressures.

With new factory brass I normally just size the top 1/2 of the neck with a bushing or use a FL die and size 1/2 of the neck and pull an expander back through it.

The sizing is done to correct dented and out of round case mouths. Pulling the expander back through the neck will turn any burrs out of the case mouth permitting them to be uniformly removed.

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
I have one rifle that has either a short chamber or a minimum chamber....Kimber 84L in 30-06

I found 8 or 9 rounds I put together would not chamber and to get once fired brass I had to grind .005 of the shell holder

I also say......it depends

But most times it's not required

Surorise - I have the same model Kimber and in the same calibre. Also has minimal headspace, but I have not bothered to check with a "Go" gauge.

Federal brass chambers with no resistance. Winchester and Lapua chamber chamber OK, but with definite (but not tight) "feel", more so with the Lapua. All unfired new brass. All will chamber without what I would call being forceful.

FLS in an old RCBS die set to go all the way to the shell holder and all is fine. Professional advice was that chamber is either minimum headspace, or, at most, .002 short.

Maybe an effort by the rifle manufacturer to minimize tolerances ?

I usually just neck size new brass and since I just luv Lapua, I haven't had any problems yet. I also tend to default to SSA or Starline brass when I can get it. I'll use Hornady but it is often all dented up; I wonder why Lapua never is?

Blacktailer, how has the Nosler brass held up? SPS gets my money, but I never buy Nosler brass due to all the negatives I have read about it. Now that Nosler has bought SSA, maybe the quality of their brass will improve; sure hope so; coming from a true Nosler believer.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin Rohrer:
Hornady brass tends to garner a lot of complaints about its poor quality. I steer clear of it.

.

If this is true, then you shouldn't have any trouble posting several links to such comments.

Well, here is one. Read the first two posts, then about the sixth one down...

http://www.thefirearmsforum.co...wthread.php?t=108012

I resize all of my new brass. I learned the hard, expensive way. Loaded up a bunch of .470 Nitro with new Jamison brass for a hunt only to find out that it was just a little oversized to chamber. Had to order a bullet puller that would work with a .470. I'd advise it.

quote:

Blacktailer, how has the Nosler brass held up? SPS gets my money, but I never buy Nosler brass due to all the negatives I have read about it. Now that Nosler has bought SSA, maybe the quality of their brass will improve; sure hope so; coming from a true Nosler believer.

Don't know yet. Just finished working up a hunting load and haven't chrono'd yet but don't have any brass that is more than 3rd reload. So far, so good.

I always neck size new brass, chamfer and deburr it, uniform the primer pocket along with deburring the flash hole. On the second firing of the brass I set the shoulder back .0001 to .0002 to fit the chamber of the rifle I am using it in. I also trim the brass then if needed.

Well why not. I've always thought that part of chasing accuracy is to control as much of the process as possible and keep everything as identical as one can. Besides, this is my hobby (not work) and I enjoy time at the bench almost as much as shooting my reloads.

Mike, I let my brass tell me what to do. Brass and chambers are different. I work my brass to fit my chamber and the next time around is easy.

butchlambert, You're probably right. Just an old habit that was probably started when components were not as well made as today (CNC etc.)

I like accurate ammo and accurate guns. I resize any new brass, make sure it is not too long, and do all the prep work. After firing it the first time I neck size only (and leave some of the neck unsized to center the round in the front of the chamber. I have not bought new brass in a very long time and my neck sized cases do not grow or expand to the point of needing to have the shoulder bumped back. I have cases that have been loaded well over twenty times and continue to give sub MOA accuracy.

quote:

Originally posted by secondtry:

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
I have one rifle that has either a short chamber or a minimum chamber....Kimber 84L in 30-06

I found 8 or 9 rounds I put together would not chamber and to get once fired brass I had to grind .005 of the shell holder

I also say......it depends

But most times it's not required

Surorise - I have the same model Kimber and in the same calibre. Also has minimal headspace, but I have not bothered to check with a "Go" gauge.

Federal brass chambers with no resistance. Winchester and Lapua chamber chamber OK, but with definite (but not tight) "feel", more so with the Lapua. All unfired new brass. All will chamber without what I would call being forceful.

FLS in an old RCBS die set to go all the way to the shell holder and all is fine. Professional advice was that chamber is either minimum headspace, or, at most, .002 short.

Maybe an effort by the rifle manufacturer to minimize tolerances ?

Just a follow up. I had to know, so I bought a Forster GO gauge. It can be chambered with NO resistance, therefore my 84L 30.06 has no less than minimum headspace. Even if some brass is a bit snug there is no fault with the rifle's headspace.
Well done Kimber !!

Ive never had a problem with new brass chambering. All I do is a quick neck size to insure a true bullet seat and fix any dings in the neck. Never even heard of new brass not chambering until this thread. Must be some real tight chambers. If that is your situation, FL size them, by all means.