I posted this question over on another gun/reloadong forum, but got inclusive awnsers, so thought I see what you fellas think.
While reading the basics of reloading in the Lyman 49th, I read a statemant that I should resize new brass, does that apply to new primed brass as well?

You can look at your brass and answer this.
If the case mouths are dented where they will ruin the case and or the bullet when seating then you have to at least take care of the case neck. I NEVER FL size new brass but I always run an expander into the case mouths.
My usual treatment is to neck size and expand the upper half of the neck. This takes a tiny bit of lube. Since you have primers present you may want to expand the neck only and use minimum lube on the expander. After expanding the necks use a swab to remmove the lube.

I have and I have not but just this past weekend I opened a new bag of 30-06 Win brass and loaded 50

Trip to the range and 4 or 5 wouldn't chamber....bolt wouldn't close

I returned home and measured accros the shoulder center datum to find them .005 longer than fired cases from the same lot

Should you? Prob don't have to but WOW I will from now on!

i do.
nothing is more frustrating than having to pull a few rounds apart.
then trmming the rest of the batch after firing,
and having 3-4 stray cases out of sync with the rest of them.

Innocently, I used to load 338WM without resizing and never had a problem. It annoys me that any are sold needing to be resized, a process that starts to wear your brass out before you've even fired it. Unless factory rounds get resized and crimped all in one operation, I can't understand why virgin brass is not ready to go, esp. since some of it has been sold already primed IIRC.

I always FL resize brass that is new to my rifle. After that, I neck size. Though if I was going to be using the ammo for DG I would FL resize.

No.

I used to say no

Ran into another one today thats shoulder was .005 longer than my 30-06's chamber

Pull the handle all the way down....takes ONE second longer

Over the years of reloading I have had several different 243,25-06's which are my main calibers. Mostly I would neck size to one gun in particular which is fine as long as you keep the gun. So having a 100 rounds or so already loaded I bought another 243, well about 1 out of 5 would chamber so I had to pull all the bullets and FL size the brass. If all I was going to do was go hunting I would FL size every time I reload. From this point on I will always FL size my brass especially new brass. Think of this if you were hunting and your first shot fired and missed and the second one would not chamber due to the fact of shoulder or neck to far forward then you are screwed. If you FL size there is no question whether or not it will chamber. I would not take that chance I consider FL sizing to be good reloading techniques, make it a habit and you will always be good to go.

Full length resizing doesn't hurt a thing. If the mouth and neck are a little off, it straightens them up. If the shoulders are a little long, it bumps them back. For the most part, full length resizing doesn't touch anything but the neck area of new brass. As far as your primed new cases go, just load them and fire them. If you have a bad neck or mouth, well that's the problem with buying new primed brass. This problem is easy to fix in a number of ways but I for one avoid primed brass, I don't want the aggravation.

There should be no question about this. If you have your FL die set up correctly for your rifle chamber then running new brass into the die will size any cases that do not meet the spec of your rifle chamber. The minimal sizing and opening of the neck of the new brass during this action will not affect the life span od brass in the least as it is usually primer pockets or case head expansion/separation that dictates life of brass. Any reloader who is wanting to wring the longest life from his brass should be competent in annealing the case neck area if neck splitting ever becomes the determining factor of case life for a particular cartridge/rifle combination.

Although I rely on factory loaded ammunition to meet chamber spec, I don't rely on any new brass to do so.

It's a shame that the factories can't make brass that will meet minimum chambers, but sometimes they don't. I generally only iron out necks because there will be about 10% of them malformed in bulk brass. Occasionally that approach has bitten me in the ass with a few rounds that won't chamber. I've never had to resize RWS, Norma or other brass that came in a box with the cases separated.

You at least need to neck size in order to iron out neck dents and have consistent bullet pull.

Shows you what leading a good, clean, honest life will do for you. I have never had a single round of new brass not fit a factory chamber.
I am curious though. Why would store bought ammo fit and brass, as a component from the same company, not? I mean, they don't run two different lines.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Shows you what leading a good, clean, honest life will do for you. I have never had a single round of new brass not fit a factory chamber.
I am curious though. Why would store bought ammo fit and brass, as a component from the same company, not? I mean, they don't run two different lines.

Beeman I have had the same experience.
I have never had new brass or factory ammo fail to chamber and that covers a lot of brass in a lot of rifles. That includes a good number of rifles owned by other family members.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Shows you what leading a good, clean, honest life will do for you. I have never had a single round of new brass not fit a factory chamber.
I am curious though. Why would store bought ammo fit and brass, as a component from the same company, not? I mean, they don't run two different lines.

Yes the new brass cases sold to reloaders and that used by the factory maybe from the same manufacturing process but you do not know the process that the cases go through while being loaded at the factory. Just like powder is and possibly primers too that are used in factory loaded ammo, they are all batch specified as part of the loading process.

From what I've seen of new brass today there are quite a few that have flaws and I would not run the risk of loading without inspection and sizing. I had four cases from a batch of 50 new Winchester 25-06 cases recently that had flawed necks, not just dented but, seriously crinkled, two not retrievable.

Another batch of 50 Remington 7mm08 cases gave me no end of grief with poor or non existent neck tension. These were resized before and after firing in dies that I have used for many years and have never had a problem with once fired factory ammo cases of both Remington and other brands resized in these dies. I had to anneal the new cases and run them in and out of the FL die a few times to temper the brass to where they now give good neck tension.

I have reloaded ammo for many cartridges for over 45 years and have never experienced this problem before and have never come across such crap brass from so called reputable manufacturers such as I have in recent years.

Full length size all brass and check for good neck tension before use. If you loose one case life for this precaution so what, better than looking like an idiot at the range or on a hunt with ammo that doesn't fit.

Brass and loaded ammo are indeed ran separately. Normally brass is made at an entirely different factory, and it is re-sized before being loaded. Winchester's brass plant is several miles from the plant where they make loaded ammo.

Regrdless of where the brass is made, they do not have one factory that makes component brass and another that makes loaded ammo brass. They make a run of say 30-06 brass and some of it is sent to be packaged as components and the other is sent to be loaded.
To restate my original post, I have never had a new piece of brass that would not fit in a factory chamber; I have never had a piece of new factory brass that wouldn't hold a bullet in place. Further, I have never had a piece of new brass that exceeded the max specs. And, with all of the brass that I have bought over the years, I've had damn few pieces that slipped past QC with faults that rendered them unusable. We, of course, are not talking about dinged necks that can easily be rounded out.

I loaded some 7x57 straight out of the WW bag one time. My groups went from 1" to 2 1/2". I resized the brass, with the same loads, back to 1" groups. When seating bullets with the new unsized brass I could feel the differences in pressure required to seat bullets from one to the next. The inconsistency was noticeable and showed up when I shot them. I really don't care if you re-size new brass or not. That's totally up to you, but how do you chamfer case necks that are out of round?

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Regrdless of where the brass is made, they do not have one factory that makes component brass and another that makes loaded ammo brass. They make a run of say 30-06 brass and some of it is sent to be packaged as components and the other is sent to be loaded.

And the brass packaged as components is the rejects from the brass selected for factory loads!

I always FL size, and trim, new brass, then after firing, neck size only, untill I need to FL size again.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Shows you what leading a good, clean, honest life will do for you. I have never had a single round of new brass not fit a factory chamber.
I am curious though. Why would store bought ammo fit and brass, as a component from the same company, not? I mean, they don't run two different lines.

This is the same experience that I have.

Memory is not as good as once, but I don't remember ever having to toss a new case due to manufacturing defects or rough shipping/handling.

I don't FL size new brass. And only neck size cases with dents when I find them.

muck