Getting ready to load and shoot new brass. Should I seat the bullets to the lands and load a starting load of powder to fireform the brass ? Or, just load my normal hunting load and shoot ? Does it matter ?

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Originally posted by Jim Hundley:
Getting ready to load and shoot new brass. Should I seat the bullets to the lands and load a starting load of powder to fireform the brass ? Or, just load my normal hunting load and shoot ? Does it matter ?

I F/L size prep load & Shoot in all regular rounds. Only fireform for odd ball AI etc!

Does it matter?--Maybe--depends on the fit of the new brass to your chamber. You might want to take the measurements from an old, unsized brass case fired in your firearm and compare those measurements with your new, unsized, unfired brass. If the measurements are close go ahead and load/shoot as normal. If there are obvious differences, fireform as you described. Hope this helps. Have a great day.

If the cartridge is a standard round/chamber, load and shoot with your hunting load. The next loading may be slightly more accurate as factory new brass may be undersize. To fireform a wildcat cartridge, the pressure has to be high enough so the brass fully expands to the chamber. Light loads may not work well.

Thanks very much !
Jim

If you are shooting a standard caliber, then I would suggest that you full length size all cases and load as normal. For hunting ammo I load 0.030 inch off lands with normal bullets and 0.050 inch off lands for Barnes TSX.

For the 280 Ack Imp, I load normal 280 Rem loads and the dimensions are for a crush fit at the neck. Again I seat the bullets as above.

I recently went through this again with new WW in a factory spec .300 WM chamber.

The headspace of the new brass was very short; around 0.4-0.5mm shorter than once fired.

Results were appalling. A 1/2 MOA rifle was shooting between 2 and 3 moa and in some cases worse.

As the responders have said; it depends on the headspace and fit to the chamber.

Ideally a slight jam ensure the best fireforming, allowing for the potential pressure increases because of that. I also find that the reduced case volume of new brass can result in increased velocity and therefore obviously pressure is higher.

I've generally not bothered with a jam when fireforming and have had no problems. This batch of brass is the worst I've experienced so far in this rifle with regard to accuracy when fireforming. I always shoot WW.

Thanks to all for the advice. It is appreciated !
Jim

You have to be very careful when you buy new brass or new factory made ammo because the makers of brass and ammo don't know what they're doing. By all means, ALWAYS size and trim new brass and, for those times you aren't rolling your own, disassemble any new cartridges you buy and:

1. Weigh the powder to be sure all the charges are within 0.01 grain of each other. You know, sometimes the manufacturers screw things up and have to have ammo recalls.

2. Resize and trim the cases because they may not be dimensionally correct.

3. Weigh all the bullets and measure them as well. Discard all bullets that are more than 0.001 grains off the weight they're supposed to be. Also, trash all bullets that are more than 0.002 inches shorter or longer than they're supposed to be.

4. Then put the powder back in the cases and reseat your bullets. You will rest happy knowing your cases and bullets are dimensionally correct and the powder charges are correct.

Do these things and your life will be much better and safer.



A sad example of using new brass with no prep work.



Another example of the sorry results of reloading new brass with no prep work.

What kind of scale are you using that is accurate to .001 grain? Have never seen one better than .1 grain. (That would be 1/70,000 of a pound.) Never mind, I couldn't afford one anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
You have to be very careful when you buy new brass or new factory made ammo because the makers of brass and ammo don't know what they're doing. By all means, ALWAYS size and trim new brass and, for those times you aren't rolling your own, disassemble any new cartridges you buy and:

1. Weigh the powder to be sure all the charges are within 0.01 grain of each other. You know, sometimes the manufacturers screw things up and have to have ammo recalls.

2. Resize and trim the cases because they may not be dimensionally correct.

3. Weigh all the bullets and measure them as well. Discard all bullets that are more than 0.001 grains off the weight they're supposed to be. Also, trash all bullets that are more than 0.002 inches shorter or longer than they're supposed to be.

4. Then put the powder back in the cases and reseat your bullets. You will rest happy knowing your cases and bullets are dimensionally correct and the powder charges are correct.

Do these things and your life will be much better and safer.

If this is a serious post, it's among the biggest piles of bullspit I've ever read!

I suspect it's actually the best tongue in cheek post in a long time.....

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Hundley:
Getting ready to load and shoot new brass. Should I seat the bullets to the lands and load a starting load of powder to fireform the brass ? Or, just load my normal hunting load and shoot ? Does it matter ?

No fireforming required....resize to correct dented necks and deformaties and load them as you want.....Watch for bad cases as they do happen and new brass don't seem to be culled for blatantly obvious deformaties.

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I suspect it's actually the best tongue in cheek post in a long time.....

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Originally posted by Antelope Sniper:

quote:

I suspect it's actually the best tongue in cheek post in a long time.....

+1 I think it's a spoof against the anal types that cut little 4350 logs into pieces so's they can be accurate to .001 grains.

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Originally posted by wasbeeman:

quote:

Originally posted by Antelope Sniper:

quote:

I suspect it's actually the best tongue in cheek post in a long time.....

+1 I think it's a spoof against the anal types that cut little 4350 logs into pieces so's they can be accurate to .001 grains.

He's only anal about how he measures his groups!

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.211" center to center..... .570" center to center