NP brass is "pretty"!!! That's all the accolades I can give it!!! Justin, I've got about 50 peices of 7mmMag NP brass if you want it......I'll bring it to Harrisburg in February!!! GHD

Charlie,...I'll see if I can get a pass from the "director" to come up this year After all week with the youngen while I'm in Wyoming,..she'll be looking for some paybacks But who knows,...maybe I get a cold or something one day during the week

Here's what happened, any ideas on why?
I was using brass (nickle plated) from factory loads for load development. I probably reloaded these about 6 times until I found a powder and charge that produced acceptable groups. I settled on 66 gr. RL22 (270WSM), which produced .7 to .9 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yrds. I bought a new 5 lb. can of RL22 in order to have plenty of the same lot # and proceeded to work up to 66 gr. using the new powder (with the same brass) and settled on 66.5 gr. producing about the same groups. I don't have a chrony to check vel. differances. Satisfied with these results, I loaded 20 rounds with new Win. (non nickle plated) brass. I ran this new brass through the size die to uniform the necks, deburred the flash hole, chamferred necks with Lyman VLD chamfer tool, all other components the same, as well as seating depth. This batch of wasted time produces approx. 3 inch groups at 100 yrds. I measured the headspace of the new brass compared to the old brass I was using (after resizing) with a Stoney point tool, and the new factory brass has the shoulder set back approx .003 more than my old resized brass. Could this make that much differance?
I loaded 3 more rounds with the new brass at 65.5 gr. powder and will try them this afternoon to see if anything changes. Any ideas on what to do next or the cause of my most recent failure?

Felcher, That much difference in Headspace could sure make a difference, that sounds like a lot of difference in your groups but I've seen it that much with all else being about as close as you could get it. I also have a shooting friend who used to use a VLD chamfering tool for his hunting rounds and rooted that component out as being the rat in one of his pet loads not shooting like it always had. I've been told that a VLD chamfer for a hunting round is not good practice and my pal proved it to himself. If your other rounds with the NP brass also used it though....doesn't seem like that would be the diff in changing to non NP brass. I have recently aborted most of my NP brass for reloading at any rate, especially in my 270 & 300 WSM's. I think there is definately difference in how the NP stuff expands and contracts in your chamber compared to non NP, and everyone at my range has had far more issues with 'sticky brass' in their rifles--especially WSM's with the NP stuff. I think you probably out to try your second time around reloads with the fire formed non NP stuff and see how that goes, if it isn't to big a deal I think I would load up 5 or 10 without the VLD chamfer also, I know that can be some kind of a factor too, and check that out.-- Good Luck--Don.

Thanks Don,
I used the VLD tool on all of the loads, so I don't suspect it to be the rat in this case. Do you know what the reason or logic is against using the VLD tool on hunting rounds? It seemed like a good concept to me so I started using it, and have not really heard any pros or cons about it until now. I am also not a fan of NP brass, but just used it cause I had it, for load development, and to keep from running through all my new brass. I can chalk that little savings effort up as another of my screwups.

Hey Felcher; I have had some good luck with NP brass and I reloaded it just like you, cause I had it, all the Winchester supreme factory ammo I like uses it so I had used it a lot until pretty recently. I have had no issues with the regular brass that I did encounter with the NP stuff, so my mind is made up. On the VLD chamfer, I have had several different folks tell me that you should be using VLD bullets with that taper on them if you are going to use the VLD chamfer tool. I've purchased a lot of tools from Sinclair and when ordering a Wilson trimming/chamfering kit I was going to buy both the VLD and the standard taper, and they advised against it (the VLD taper) for hunting rounds, for one thing the bullets I would load were not VLD bullets and they also suggested that the inherently reduced neck tension could cause bullets to shift during recoil if they were in a magazine during firing. Having said that I think we agree that if you were using that tool on your better shooting rounds that isn't probably the issue--NP brass is harder though and I suspect that the neck tension could be different with the non NP brass, but I really think your headspace difference is the issue. On of my hunting partners had as little as .002 diff in some of his reloads due to loading at different times and not checking his dies and there were similar differences in accuracy to what you described. I think the headsapce might be more critical in these Shot Action Mags then in some others, And I am certain that seating depth is real important. I have loaded many rounds for myself and some others where they actually shot better with significantly SHORTER seating and therfore OAL.--Go figure. At any rate I would try and equalize my headspace to my previous rounds as much as possible and also try a few with a normal chamfer just for another variable....
Regards--D.

"...with new Win. (non nickle plated) brass..."



You worked-up the load using fireformed old nickle plated brass, and then switched to new unfired brass (of totally different construction).