Question on Brass prep

[solman]

I have been reading about some extra steps to take for reload accuracy. Such as;
Flash hole deburring
Primer pocket uniform cutting
segregating cases by weight
perhaps annealing
many other steps are listed in the various loading tutorials.
My question is this. Having only a 100-200 yard range here on the east coast, does all this extra steps pay off?
I can understand the value of choosing a good bullet and powder and working up a good reload, but this other stuff has me wondering.
Any input on this is much appreciated.

 

[Reloadron]

Flash hole deburring
Primer pocket uniform cutting
segregating cases by weight
perhaps annealing
many other steps are listed in the various loading tutorials.

All of the above or none of the above depending on the gun you are loading for. The guys shooting 100 and 200 yard bench rest rifles do all of the above and much more in their accuracy quest. Now if you are loading for a Remington 7400 hunting rifle or any low end hunting rifle then no, I doubt any or all of the above will make much difference.

Just My Take....
Ron

 

[Axis II]

I was on a journey to make the most accurate round I could for my 223rem and 100yard range. I tried seating depth, trimming, debur, chamfer, primer pocket uniforming and noticed no difference and probably because I have a cheapo savage axis. The gun still shoots 5 shots touching so I'm good with that.

 

[HDMontana]

Myself, i clean the brass and debur flash holes on the once fired brass. Usually don't debur this brass again. Trim to length. Then I load them. This is for rifle. Don't trim or usually worry about the flash holes on pistol brass.

 

[Driftertank]

Never drilled or deburred flash holes, myself.

For my bolt gun, i typically neck-size for 2-3 loads, then FL-size if it starts to get reluctant to extract.

For my semi-autos, FL resize every time.

Trim to length, chamfer and debur mouths.

I figure, with good brass, bein as i dont shoot benchrest, usually shooting off a bipod either prone or seated at a bench, then sorting brass and heads by weight, turning case necks, using a concentricity press, that sort of thing is likely all wasted effort when it all comes down to the meatbag pressing the trigger.

 

[Fire_Moose]

I like to use the flash hole uniformer to get a nice cone shape for the primer to start the powder up. I dont think I can shoot well enough to tell an actual, on paper difference.

 

[Blue68f100]

Getting the brass volume closes to the same will give you the most gain. Some brass varies a lot while others do not. If you use a high quality brass you normally don't have to worry about it. I do all the above and some other things. One of the thing that causes fliers is bullet runout (concentricity). If this is greater than 0.003" it starts hurting your accuracy, and the cause of a lot of fliers. Can be hard to correct if your bolt face is not square. The key is to have every thing the same as possible from round to round to batch.

 

[mdi]

Accuracy if from consistency. If you are trying for 1/4" groups @ 100, then you will do all of the steps mentioned and do them all exactly the same. Personally, I don't go through all the steps mentioned and concentrate on other methods; same headstamp, same case length, same bullet diameter (it's surprising how much variation there can be in a box of bullets) and I weigh every charge. I am very happy with my results just using these (my 308 Ruger American will give me 7/8" groups and more often than not, around 1").

But, IMO, there is no "wasted" time when reloading as I like it all from researching a load in my manuals to gathering components, prepping brass and reloading, recording and studying results...

 

[hdwhit]

solman wrote:
My question is this. Having only a 100-200 yard range here on the east coast, does all this extra steps pay off?

What is your objective? If you are going to be shooting off a bench in a quest for 5-shots, 1-hole, then you'll need to do all of what you have planned - and more. You'll probably also need to start neck-sizing the brass and feeding it in one round at a time so that you don't have an undersized case flopping around inside the chamber.

On the other hand, if all you're looking for is firing five round strings with near-MOA consistency, then none of what you have planned is likely to have any significant impact.

Before you go to sorting cases by weight or uniforming primer pockets, look at your projectiles. How consistent are they both in terms of weight and their dimensions? The projectile is the piece that is actually acted upon by environmental forces so inconsistent projectiles will have more impact on accuracy than whether your flash holes are all deburred.

Next, how consistent are your powder charges? Throw 20 or 30 charges from your powder measure and then compare them. How much variability have you got; 3%, 5%, 7%, more? Differing powder charges produce different velocities. Different velocities mean that some projectiles move to the target slower than the others, but gravity is working on them for the whole duration of their flight, so they will be closer to the ground when they arrive at the target. For maximum consistency, throw each charge into the pan of the scale/balance light and trickle them up to the absolutely same weight.

Until the projectiles and the powder charge propelling them are as uniform as possible, the inaccuracy caused by their inconsistency will overwhelm the improvements attributable to weighing cases or annealing necks.

 

[Bfh_auto]

Doing everything you mentioned took me from .75-1" groups at 100 to .5-.75 at 100.
Now I just sort brass once, trim, size and shoot.
I noticed a bigger difference making 260 brass from 308 and turning the neck to fit the chamber.
Annealing is worth the time once you figure it out.


Shooting at targets with boxes instead of dots helped my group size. Hold on a corner.

 

[Varminterror]

The 100/200 yard game is an incredibly exacting, ridiculously meticulous game. I’m happy shooting PRS type matches at long range, CMP/NRA-HP Service rifle, and desperately miss 600/1000 F-Class, but 100/200 is a crazy game to me... painfully meticulous...

Annealing may not mean much if you’re shooting a factory rifle, and especially won’t mean much if you’re shooting cheap brass and not neck turning. Uniforming primer flash holes and pockets is a 100/200 benchrest last time, and will do nothing appreciable for a factory rifle. For my time at the bench, neck turning, annealing, trimming to uniform length, and weight sorting are the best brass prep steps in which I place faith. It’s been proven time and time again, new full length sized brass out shoots any neck sized brass, and proven time and time again flash holes and pockets are somewhere between voodoo and a splitting hair advantage...

Most guys I have helped start shooting and especially reloading for precision rifle are way too focused on the wrong things... neck turning for a $500 factory rifle is just a silly pursuit. Burn out a barrel this year learning how to shoot, when you rebarrel for the end of the year, THEN you’ll know what your brass and load need from you to shoot well, at both benches.

 

[jmorris]

I think a better product is a better product, doesn’t matter if you are trying to make your one hole groups a smaller hole or turn a gun that shoots 5” groups at 100 yards into one that shoots 4” groups.

It’s actually easier to increase accuracy on something that shoots real bad vs one that’s very accurate.

All that said, if you don’t need it, all the extra work could be a waste of time. I suggest picking a batch size and try one batch doing all the extra meticulous work you can and another batch just sized and trimmed. Now go shoot them side by side and see if the difference in performance was worth the extra work, to you.

 

[Walkalong]

he 100/200 yard game is an incredibly exacting, ridiculously meticulous game.

It is that. No doubt, but I loved it. Very frustrating at times. You get to eat a lot of humble pie shooting Benchrest.