Most of you know I'm a newbie hunter and reloader...

My son and I are going on a hunt of a lifetime...Namibia PG in MAY...

I'm ordering 300ea. 30-06 WW brass from MIDWAY USA today...

Should I FLR my brass first or it doesn't matter?

I was of the opinion that I should to maintain uniformity of my ammo, i.e., FLR, trim, chamfer/deburr, etc.

What do you guys recommend?

Thanks a bunch as usual for your guidance and input!!!

I would normally say no. But if you are going to use this virgin brass on a hunt like that I would say yes.
But, if it were me I'd actually practice with the new brass....reload it with my favorite loads.....test a small sample of the new reloads.....take the rest hunting.

Definately run it in to get the necks squared. You dont want to try to push a bullet into a dented neck. Usually 2-6 pieces out of a 50pc bag will have the neck dinged

quote:

Originally posted by Buglemintoday:
Definately run it in to get the necks squared. You dont want to try to push a bullet into a dented neck. Usually 2-6 pieces out of a 50pc bag will have the neck dinged

My thoughts exactly. I always flr new brass. The good part is, you usually never need to lubricate them first since they are not blown out to chamber size anyway. Most of the time it's just the neck getting uniformed anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Late-Bloomer:
My son and I are going on a hunt of a lifetime...Namibia PG in MAY...

Hey L-B, Good question for a person just getting started Reloading.

That being the situation, I'd P-FLR and shoot every case at least once with the Load you intend to take. If it is a Dangerous Game Hunt, then always FLR instead of P-FLR. And yes, do your normal Case Preparation routine.

Watch the Groups closely and if you have an "Unexpected Flier" mark that Case and separate it from the rest. It may have been something different in the Case, or perhaps it was the Bullet, but this way you eliminate the potential of the Case having been the problem.

P-FLR the Once-Fired Cases again, load them up and cycle each of them from the Magazine through the rifle. Good idea to do this outside - just in case.

Practice with "other" Cases, from the same Lot, all you can. You can include the Marked Culls in the Practice Ammo and see if they create another Unexpected Flier.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.

Hey LB

You are going to have to uniform those case necks. WW brass usually comes with a lot of bends in the neck mouths. Just run you die in and out, remember to lube the inside of the neck unless you have a Lee Collet Neck Sizer (then you don't need lube in the neck). After that then chamfer them in order to make the bullets easier to seat and debur the inside of the flash holes and you are ready to shoot with those new cases.

After the first firing you can neck size only for 3 or 4 firings until the cases become tight in your chamber and then it is time to PFLR.

I always fully size,trim,deburr mouth/flash hole the hole nine yards of my new brass then fire once to get a better sizeing consistancy.
Sometimes new brass varies greatly on body size. You will feel this when you size new brass some act like you are not forming them at all while some give resistance.
Then load your once fired cases with your favorite tested loads but before you hunt cycle all your ammo you intend to take to the hunt by loading it through your rifle (somewhere safe) to be sure you don't have a tite one.

Factory brass often has burr ring of dinged metal on the case mouth that comes from the final tumbling/polishing process. The case mouths hit other cases during this process raising the burr ring. I always expand the case necks with an expander to remove the dents and expand the burr ring to the outside. Then I deburr both inside and especially outside. After that I load and shoot.
It accomplishes nothing to size them if they are already small enough to chamber. After they have been fired once and resized then I check them for length. I rarely mess with the uniforming BS unless it is a bench rest rifle or the brass is unusually non-uniform.

I usually never size new brass, but I will start after today. I loaded up some test loads for a friends rifle, caliber 300WinMag, and they would hardly chamber. I will have to F/L size them in order to set the shoulder back a little. I have never had this happen before with brand new brass but I guess you never get to old to be surprised.

Hey guys, haven't heard from some of you in awhile!!!

Thanks for all the info and the great details...

I knew I could count on you guys, thank you very much and I'm sure glad I asked!!!

If the virgin brass is gonna be hunted with, I'd give it a full prep. Don't forget, in a safe place, to cycle all of it thru the rifles that it will be used in.

+1.

It's a good idea to FLR new brass. It's not always needed but if it's only needed 1 out of a hundred times the one time you didn't do it would be when you are on a big hunt with a trophy in sight and your brass wouldn't chamber! I talked with one guy who was varmint hunting with a guy who had loaded 1500rds of 223 without resizing - none of which would chamber - he now always FLR's!
It's a BAD idea not to lube the case however. No lube in the neck will make the expander ball stretch the neck out, usually unevenly from case to case. Lube them and you won't have a problem. If the effort required to resize seems excessive it usually is and you need to change something.

It's also an excellent idea to work all the rounds you will be hunting with through your rifle. If you have a Mauser or an M-70 it's easy, just remove the firing pin and run them through while still pointed in a safe direction. Other rifles will let you work rounds through with the safety on. If possible pull the firing pin when you do it but with or without the firing pin always keep pointed in a safe direction.

FLR and practice chambering hunting rounds are ounces of prevention that can save tons of cure.......................DJ

I resize / uniform all new brass after encountering this mess. These are some brand new Winchester 300WSM brass I picked up last summer. As you can see the case mouths were a real mess. A size and trim made it all right.



hangunnr

When FLR I've never lubed inside the necks on fired brass so I'll give it a try...

I can feel some tension for sure when I pull it through the neck...

I'm sure a light swab of lube will make it much easier...great tip!

hangunnr,

Thanks for the example and what one may run up against in virgin brass...

So far only been resizing my once-fired factory fodder...

What Hot Core said.
I use powdered graphite to lube necks, inside and outside, and Imperial Sizing Die wax for case bodies.

Don

If the brass chambers then why do a FLR? Uniforming the case mouths is another story AND checking length of the brass -WW is usually all over the place length wise.

If the dings in the mouth are kinda extreme that the resizer ball may crush the mouth, you can slip a metal dowel or a phillips screw driver into the mouth and kinda round it out before running it thru the die.
I roll my cases on a oiled stamp pad and to oil the inside of the neck, as I pick each case up I press the mouth into the pad like I'm trying to cut a little biscuit out of the pad. It doesn't take much.

Thanks to everyone for your responses...

I will lube and resize all my cases to insure uniformity and prep as usual...

Great tips from many, thanks!

If you elect to inside lube your case necks when FLR-ing, I suggest you be sure to clean the lube out afterwards with something like Q-Tips. Otherwise when you drop powder into them in loading, part of the powder will invariably stick in the necks of the cases and not accompany the rest of the charges into the cases.

Seating the bullets will scrape it off the inside of the necks, but by that point those bits of powder will be lube contaminated. Perhaps no big thing, but offends my sense of propriety for my own loads.

Also, I suspect leaving varying amounts of lube in the case necks will cause un-needed variations in "bullet-pull".

Good point Alberta Canuck. But being lazy I just toss em back into the tumbler to clean all the lube off in and out............................DJ

Better yet here's a tip for ya. Go find yourself a can of Graphite powder. Then all you need is a brush of the rifles caliber. Put a little graph. powder in the neck and slik city. Also no contamination issues.
Been doing this long tam now.

I got into a habit of always resizing new brass with a neck sizer die.. that way I don't have to lube them...

As far as lubing the inside of the neck of a case....

I use to do that all the time.... however it finally dawned on me that, what is the one place each neck touches in the sizing operation?
The expander ball!

So nowadays, I just take the expander ball out of the die, and lube it with a shot of WD 40... then let it sit.( actually I do this AFTER I have used the die for several hundred cases... and then the WD 40 has soaked into the metal for the next time I use it)....

For my Lee dies, which the spindle and expander don't come out as easily.. I just give a shot of Remington Dry Lube into the case and let it sit.. and then relube it when it starts to get hard to size again....

I figure if the dry lube is supposed to work well on rifle bolts, it will work just as well on a die's spindle and expander ball...

this has proven to be a whole heck of a lot more convenient and less effort, than lubing the inside of case necks...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Late-Bloomer:
Most of you know I'm a newbie hunter and reloader...

Should I FLR my brass first or it doesn't matter?

Yes, at least neck size it to round out the mouth and uniform neck tension.