Virgin brass, where to start?

[Orcon]

My current stock pile of brass (about 300 pieces) has become discombobulated and some necks are seating bullets differently, some primer pockets are much looser than others and I've no way of telling how many firings any given piece has seen. Previously I'd been using Hornady Match brass due to local availability, reasonable quality and low cost. Recently Hornady brass price has equaled or, in some cases, exceeded the price of Lapua brass. So the only logical thing to do is just scrap (or tuck away) the old brass and start fresh with Lapua brass, 500 virgin cases arrived by post this afternoon.

I don't get down to the nitty-gritty of weighing, CCing or sorting brass by zodiac sign but I would like some tips on extending brass life and how to keep them segregated by firings.

My typical routine with new brass is as follows:

1. Neck size to return to round any mouths dinged up in shipping
2. Measure length, trim any exceeding max
3. De-bur flash holes (probably not required here)
4. Prime, and load with starting charge weight
5. Fire form
6. Clean and then shoulder bump -.003 from fire-formed base to datum
7. Reload per Dan Newberry's OGW method

Should I just skip step over 4, 5 and 6?

 

[rg1]

Not a match or long range shooter but I would skip the fireforming. I do case neck sizing on new cases, check length, uniform primer pockets and deburr the flash hole if necessary. If using the same manufacturers cases I load and shoot with the same load data. Having a 6.5 Grendel and both Hornady and Lapua cases, in this instance the cases are too different. Need to work up loads in your new Lapua brass. The smaller flash hole in Lapua cases gives different results than Hornady. The high prices for new Hornady brass especially in some calibers makes it almost more economical to just buy factory loaded ammo and end up with once fired brass. Hornady makes some very good ammo that's often hard to match with reloads? Off topic but I once bought a 100 bag of new factory brass and loaded and didn't shoot. I needed some new brass for a project so I pulled the bullets of this 100 round bag. About 10 of the hundred had contaminated powder that turned black and clumpy and hard. Only thing I can think that caused this is lubricant used in forming at the factory wasn't removed. Point is now I tumble brand new brass just to make sure nothing is there to contaminate powder.
Again, I'd skip fireforming myself and do a completely new workup as there is a difference in Hornady and Lapua brass. I do prefer Hornady brass for my 6.5 Grendel.

 

[WestKentucky]

Fire forming produces only slightly better accuracy in most guns. For any purpose other than competitive accurate shooting your going to be as well off by just treating it like range brass. Size it, trim it, load it.

 

[IWAC]

Extend your brass life by shooting softer loads...the starting loads listed in the manuals. Some people are of the mind that soft loads shoot more accurately, and I don't think the animals will walk away. .
Be sure your sizing die is set for closest fit to your chamber possible, but, don't turn it into an exercise of balllistic proctology. There are enough of us in the field as it is! Keep your brass segregated in 50 or 100 round lots, (boxes) and keep track of firings. After about 3-4 firings, anneal the case necks by Ed Matunas' method, which is cheap and effective. Take a household emergency candle, the ones that are sold by the box...~6" or so long; They produce enough heat to anneal brass, per Ed. Hold the case about halfway between the shoulder and base, (bare fingers) twirl the case neck in the candle flame until it gets too hot to hold, and drop it onto a wet towel.
Somebody said brass won't anneal differently on the side that hits the towel. I'm not sure, so I use a bucket of water, and dry the cases later. YMMV. Shoot one batch of 50, keeping a record of firing, anneal every 3-4 firings, or whenever you notice split necks/cases. Some guys anneal new brass right out of the box. Me, I'm not sure if that's necessary.
Separate the older brass whose primer pockets are too loose, or have developed other visible flaws, discard them, anneal and shoot the others. You'll maybe get 1-2 good reloads, or more. That's a plus for you. I've got about 300 new, unfired brass, and about 150 several times fired and mostly annealed cases for my rifle, and those will last me a loooong time! Good luck!

 

[boom boom]

Thanks IWAC for the tip on annealing. Learned something.

 

[MtnCreek]

Lowes & HomeDepot have clear, stackable containers. I like the ones that are about the size of a shoe box, but longer. I cut an index card sized piece of cardboard and write the brass info and rifle info on that and place it in the box with the brass. Once brass is fired, it goes in another container unless all brass from the original container is used. Every firing, the card gets updated with a hash mark. For me, it helps to keep the cartridges in those plastic, flip top boxes. I write whatever info I want on a piece of paper and tape that to the inside of the cartridge box lid. Keeping brass sorted by firing has greatly reduced unexplained 'flyers' for me.

What cartridge are you shooting?

Edit: Size the new brass, either FL or neck w/ an expander ball. Don't bother with flash holes on lapua. I would uniform the primer pockets, but may not be necessary. I would go strait to load workup with the new brass unless there was something strange going on (like forming from one cartridge to another or correcting major cartridge headspace problems).

 

[Orcon]

The brass in question is for my .308 WIN. I do load for several others but the volume is quite low compared to the 308 and much easier to track. Most of the blame for the mix up was me being lazy and instead of prepping my once fired stuff geabbing a new box and loading it up.

I use coffee cans for sorting brass, one for dirty and one for clean. Once resized and prepped they go into an MTM flip top so I know they are ready to prime and load.

As for annealing, I haven't started down that path due to cost and not wanting to muck up good brass. Thanks IWAC for reminding me of the candle method, I had read something on it when I first started reloading but completely forgot about it. Must have gotten lost in the weeds.

 

[Bart B.]

Brass life can be 50+ reloads for decent .308 Win brass. Some folks get a lot more. Here's how they (and I) do it:

* Deprime fired cases in a separate die (oversize for case so they go in easily) then clean them. Keeps your sizing die clean.

* Lube all cases uniformly so they'll size down to consistent dimensions and headspace.

* Full length size fired cases in a standard die with its neck honed out to .002" smaller than that of a loaded round. Don't need an expander ball coming back up through the case neck which often bends it a little bit. Set it in the press so sized cases' shoulders are set back .002 +/- .001" (for bolt guns, .003" for semi autos). Use Redding competition shell holders of the right height to stop the die against and sized case headspace will be more uniform than stopping the shellholder a few thousandths below the die.

* Prime, charge and seat bullets as needed.

New, unprepped cases with maximum loads can shoot as accurate as reloaded ones if your chamber's at SAAMI minimum; 1.630 inch. If it's greater, then a new case will stretch a lot between head and shoulder when fired. The thin wall side will stretch more and make the case head smack the bolt face off center causing the barrel to whip to a different angle at the muzzle when the bullet exits. If this were not true, then good lots of commercial match .308 ammo with new cases would not shoot under 3/8 MOA at 100 yards which it does in good test barrels. Even M1 and M14 rifles shooting .308 ammo shot most accurate with new cases; their out of square bolt faces made fired case heads out of square and resizing them never squares them up.

Sierra Bullets doesn't prep their cases used to test their stuff for accuracy. They don't work up loads for each cartridge used nor weigh powder charges. Same load and metered powder from a measure makes their best match bullets shoot under 1/2 MOA in their 200 yard test range with new components and barrels. That's the size of benchrest aggregate records largest groups made with several 5- or 10-shot groups. Some high power rifles shooting new .308 Win. unprepped cases at 600 yards have tested that well, too.

All that case prep and fire forming is not needed for .308 Win cases. Uniforming necks with a neck only die may or may not help; depends on quality of the brass. However, if all that preliminary stuff makes one feel better, do it. The ammo knows nothing about it nor does the rifle.