i am going to start reloading for my 7mm rem mag build i am doing. i got most rcbs new equipment and have already purchased hornady eld match bullets etc. i have about 50 rounds of once fired brass and another 60 rounds of std hornady white tail 139 grain that i got for gifts at christmas. my plan was to use the box ammo to kinda sight in and use the once fired to start some load development. but my once fired is all kind of brands....should i shoot my box ammo first then use those to start load dev. or should i just start with new brass. if new brass? i have seen lapua is the best but i have a hand primer and have seen issues with this and lapua primer pockets being so tight. any other brass suggestions and places to buy? i have looked at the standard places (buds, midway, cheaperthandirt) but they do not have a very big selection. thanks guys

have you looked at www.brunoshooters.com yet?

One theory is that the first firing in your rifle forms the brass to your chamber. If that case is defective, the first firing will reveal it. Once fired has passed the pressure test.

I told my wife I reload to save money. After 43 years I expect the savings to start shortly!

Rich

Welcome to the forum

No need to start with new brass.

You can re-size brass for your 7mm RM that will more closely fit the chamber and lend to better accuracy.

The 7RM being a "belted" cartridge you will no doubt hear about headspacing off the belt.

Ignore that advice and remember that the shoulder is what you will concentrate on in all of your future loadings.

There are tons of places to buy components....the internet is the king

Personally I like to sort my brass by brand and keep them separate for my uses.
I hear Lapua is good brass however you don't need to have top of the line there is a lot of brass out there that is perfectly suitable for reloading, I happen to use a lot of WW brass.
I found a link to some other 7 mag brass.
http://rmrbullets.com/shop/cas...lled/?v=7516fd43adaa that is unfired, like Ted said use brass fired in your gun, less complicated that way.
If I were you I'd use mid grade brass rather than Lapua and use the cost savings to buy more bullets and powder. Shoot up the factory loads you have and that brass will be fine.

thanks for all the info. i think i am going to shoot my 60 rounds of box ammo first and use those for my reloads. i do not yet have a round fired out of this gun and this will give me better idea of coal etc.

The key part of reloading is the "re" prefix denoting using brass that was previously fired so your 1st fired should be fine.
Since that brass is mixed brand, sort it into lots with same head stamp and be sure to full length resize since it wasn't previously fired in your chamber.
After sizing,, w/ mixed brass, I like to trim it all to the same length. I use the Lee Case length gauge & shellholder as it does a perfect job every time. You'll need a case trimmer cutter and stud to go with the length gauge. Both are available at Midway for around $10. I chuck it up in an electric drill on low speed and trim away.
As for your box ammo, you'll be able to back off on your size die & extend life of your brass by partial full length resizing the brass that was previously fired in your chamber. (I usually insert a dime between shell holder and bottom of die when setting my die up for this.)
Get a couple of good manuals and enjoy your new hobby.

i have the lee case trimmer....thanks for all the info guys. i was planning on resizing and trimming all the once fired brass i have anyway that did not come from my gun

Sort , FL resize, trim, tumble, champher, reload and use in that order. roger

I have 7 rem mag from 1968 .I had it ,mag na ported back then for 60 dollars ..We used it for deer and best load was speer 160 gr bullets and using 4831 powder ..Light bullets blow deer all apart but speer 160 gr was best on my reloads and deer i shot ...

To this day I still like Speer bullets very much ..

welcome I am new member here also folks here are experts for sure...My expert is what works on deer hunting here in pa and why ..many calibers and 100s of deer shot with many different bullets and what we saw...

Just keep the brass segregated by make. No need for new brass, in fact, brass fired in your rifle is better than new.

I can not over emphasize the importance of NOT full length sizing.

i plan to only neck size besides the brass that is once fired but not in my rifle....shouldnt i full length size?

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
I can not over emphasize the importance of NOT full length sizing.

''

I must be it wrong, cause I have been full length sizing for 40+ years on 100s of thousands of rounds.

Oldschool'

Throw away all of your mixed brass. Buy 100 cases of the same lot number of the manufacturer of choice and fire form them when working up your accuracy loads. Refine your accuracy loads with the once fired brass.

Agreed with Dave. The other stuff makes for a good first fouling shot at the bench...

What brass do you recommend?

oldschool,

I've used both Winchester and Hornady brass for over 40 years and never had a problem. Others have however.

Nothing wrong with having 50 and 50 of two makes. Definitely don't throw them away. If you are only neck sizing, realize that those fired in another rifle may not fit yours, or may.
I have had some soft WW brass though. You have to start somewhere; don't over think it.

quote:

Originally posted by df06:

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
I can not over emphasize the importance of NOT full length sizing.

''

I must be it wrong, cause I have been full length sizing for 40+ years on 100s of thousands of rounds.

I started handloading 40+ years ago and was
taught by my tool and die maker father how to do it with precision (dad was a 42 year die builder)......myself
This past september marked my 30th year as an injection mold maker.....so we know our way around a shop and all thing measurements and trig

I just started reloading 6 years ago

There is a big difference imo

If you choose to shove that shoulder down as far as the die can stroke then by all means.....it is you're brass

I myself will take advantage of fired brass and fit it to my chamber.

This is possible even with brass fired from another rifle or even multiple rifles.

A fired piece of brass is just waiting to be "fit" for best accuracy and optimized case capabilities

This is a prime example of how easy it is to over work brass or "wear out"....it doesn't do much for accuracy either

7mm RM once fired brass

Calipers set at zero accross the shoulders center line datum



This is "by the book" shell holder to the die...full sized



Yes chamber depth will vary and so will die depth but a piece of brass sized to optimize precision should just be bumped .003/.005

most of the belted type cases do much better when you ignore the belt and use the shoulder like a regular rifle.

I would save any brass fired in another rifle until you get a better handle on what your doing.
sometimes that 'other brass' presents issues your not quite ready to deal with.

keep things simple to start get some rounds under your belt [not a pun] then as you figure it out start branching out a bit here and there.

the first consideration in reloading is your safety, err on the side of caution and function over that last few fps or .1 of accuracy.

An interesting side note if you will.

Twenty years ago I shot a lot of Bench Rest. Hunter Bench Rest was shot on a target that looks like a domino with six pips. Two wide, and three high. At 100yds the ten-ring was 3/4" diameter, and the 1/8th inch dot (iirc) was the "X". One bull was for sighters, the other five you fired one shot on each. You then had to move the rifle on the rest, and that required a bit more in gun handling skills than putting five on one without having to move the rifle and refocus after each shot.

The rules stipulated a rifle weight, with scope of ten pounds, two ounces, and a maximum 6X scope.

Anyway, most of the shooters went to great lengths to uniform brass, by weight, etc. Case necks were turned to an even thickness, to match chambers that were spec'd to match those turned neck cases with a chamber clearance of .001" on a loaded round. Some shooters would buy a bulk lot of 500 cases, and after FL sizing them, trim to length, uniform the flash holes, recut the primer pockets to a uniform depth and use one 50 round box for the entire season. Lots of work.

The second year I shot, an HBR 100/200/300yd match was held in Colorado, called the Firewalker. Eric Ambler won the Grand Aggregate with a .308 Win. I visited him before the match, and we went to the range. He picked up ten pieces of 308 factory casings from the firing line, one of every commercial brand, and two LC cases. We went back to his shop, he was a gunsmith, and he used a hydraulic press and full length sized all of those cases and trimmed them to length. Then he turned the case necks to fit his chamber, and loaded them for the match the following morning.

He won the 100 yd match with what he termed his "Kennel Club" cases; a dog from every town, as it were. He finished 2nd at 200, and, iirc, 2nd at 300yds. He won the overall based on total score.

I stopped obsessing about brass as much after that. I just buy LAPUA if they offer it in the cartridge I want to shoot.

Sort them if it makes you feel better. Most hunting rifles can't tell the difference.

You will now hear from the true "experts" on AR, but I think I am the only poster here of this group who has competed in Bench Rest matches, to include the Super Shoot.

Actually, belted magnum is the only case I recommend you start with new ones.

There are far too much variations in the belted magnums chamberings - even you full length size some fired brass, it might not fit in your rifle.

We get quite a few like these incidents here, especially with European rifles.

In fact, I was rather shocked the other day, as we were given a whole bunch of once fired Lapua brass.

Would you believe it will not chamber in 3 of our rifles, despite the fact it was full length resized!!

I guess I been doing it wrong for over 50 years

The only new brass I brought was some 458wm I needed to form 416T. Or when I could not find some use brass or brought in a garage sale some old reloader had. New brass has not been a high priority for me.

Most of the time it was mixed brass I picked up on ranges or was given to me.

I very seldom sort my brass only trim it once in great while if then most likely just dump into the scrap bucket, full length size every thing.

If I was shooting a rare hard to find brass I most likely be a lot more careful with it. But for the common find any where I don't take good care of it shoot if it stops working well throw it away.

I shoot a lot but I don't shoot any one firearm a lot except for my 223 P dog rifles with them I have more brass then I could wear out in a life time.

I went through the whole trim, neck size, turning necks and all the other gyrations to have perfect brass. I found I rather spend my time hunting shooting and doing other fun stuff.

I found it just a lot easier to accumulate more brass.

I like and have fun reloading but I make it as easy as possible.

Pistol calibers I even take less care of. My common caliber handguns get shot a lot more.

quote:

Originally posted by Lamar:
most of the belted type cases do much better when you ignore the belt and use the shoulder like a regular rifle.

I would save any brass fired in another rifle until you get a better handle on what your doing.
sometimes that 'other brass' presents issues your not quite ready to deal with.

keep things simple to start get some rounds under your belt [not a pun] then as you figure it out start branching out a bit here and there.

the first consideration in reloading is your safety, err on the side of caution and function over that last few fps or .1 of accuracy.

A lot of truth here. I set all of my sizing dies so there is just a hint of resistance on the last bit of travel when closing the bolt. And yes that means if I have more than one rifle in a particular caliber I may also need more than one size die.

Excellent discussion. I will would like to point out there is a difference between "handloading" and "reloading". All manual reloading is handloading but not all handloading is reloading.

When I was loading .308 ammunition I was handloading because I never used fired cases only new brass. There are small specialty ammunition makers who manually load each cartridge. They are handloaders, not reloaders. And there are huge commercial ammunition suppliers who use automated industrial machinery to load refurbished fired cases by the millions. They are reloading but not handloading.

I am a proponent of both reloading and handloading. I find nothing wrong with someone who is purchasing brass to make his ammunition in addition to, or instead of, reloading cases. I also find nothing wrong with the guy who is begging brass at the range because he only makes his ammo using fired cases.