I've got some new unfired 404 Jeffery brass and would like some advice concerning the merits, or not, of fireforming this brass before reloading with designer bullets. It's Norma brass and my thinking is that it would nice to have the shoulder be chamber-formed before I start reloading with real bullets. Is this worth doing? How does one do it?

for a hunting rifle i would just reload and shoot. check each round making sure they chamber.
I would want my brass sized to the point where it would chamber and cycle through with out any issues.
If you only neck size after you fire the brass it will fit the chamber better but thats no gurantee that it will shoot any better.
load five and shoot load the same five a second time same load and compare.

First of all, I don't resize or trim new factory brass before reloading it. I never have and never plan to. My only concession to prepping new brass is sometimes chamfering the neck.

In comparing accuracy of factory new brass vs brass that has been neck sized, if anything new brass seems to shoot more accurately than neck sized brass; most of the time there isn't any difference.

WInk, I don't get much stretch in my .404j. min. spec. chamber I guess. I just partial size to get the necks round, chamfer & load up. I've got loads breaking 1.5moa routinely & 1moa occasionally. For a DG rifle w/ 5x scope, I'm happy w/ that. You could make a false shoulder buy necking up w/ a 44mag die then partial size down to hold the bullet.
I only do the false shoulder when making brass from 375RUM. I just partial size w/o the expander until I can get the case to chamber. Then pistol powder, cream of wheat & a wax plug. I only did this to see if I could make acceptable brass from cheap RUM brass. It works, but more trouble than it's worth since 404jeffery brass is readily available.

Fred,

What pistol powder load, weight of cream of wheat and what wax do you use? I have never fireformed brass and am unfamiliar with the process. Any help and instruction is appreciated.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Grumulkin:
First of all, I don't resize or trim new factory brass before reloading it. I never have and never plan to. My only concession to prepping new brass is sometimes chamfering the neck.

QUOTE]

What brand of brass are you using? All of the Win and Rem brass I get comes with the necks so dented and mangled it is impossible to chamfer or seat a bullet.

Wink
You are going to develop a load for your "designer" bullets. Use this to "fire form" your brass.
Two birds with one stone so to speak.

muck

There is no need to fire form them at all.

As an example. I neck down 404 brass - Norma or RWS - to 375. Load a normal hunting load, and take them hunting to Africa.

Once fired, they beautifuilly formed and ready for the next safari.

I agree with Saeed. Fire forming is really a waste of time and powder unless you are getting brass ready for a bench rest rifle.

Wink, you can use just about any pistol powder, I use 15gr of Unique or 20gr of 4227. You'll have to experiment a bit to get well defined cases. Place a small tuft of Dacron on top of the powder, fill the case to within a 1/8" of the mouth w/ cream of wheat or other fine grained cereal, then seal w/ ordinary candle wax. I use a std. rifle primer. Point in a safe direction, slightly elevated seems to work better than straight or down, & fire away. It's tedious, makes a bit of a mess but does yield a decent case that is much cheaper than Norma but do to the slightly smaller rim, I only use them for practice rounds. It works in a pinch but I have mor ethan enougfh 404jeffery cases to last quite awhile. I enjoy shooting it but it's not an all day plinker.