Virgin Rifle Cartridge Brass

[Mikee Loxxer]

I have virgin rifle brass for a number of different cartridges that I am loading for.

My question is “do I have to size the brass and potentially trim it prior to it’s first loading?”

If the answer is yes does this cold working of the brass reduce case life?

I am loading for the following cartridges.

.308 Win, 7.5 X 55 Swiss, 7.5 X54 MAS, 7.62 X 39, and 7.62 X54R.

 

[Bowfishrp]

Yes, for rifle brass it is always recommended that you size them and trim if needed. Some brass is much better than others and you can tell that the sizing is doing nothing. All the 308 Winchester brass I have bought has needed sizing...not always trimming though.

I would guess it is possible that it could reduce case life, but again the better the brass the less of an issue this might be.

 

[The Bushmaster]

bowfishrp has it...I doubt you'll ever know whether it shorteded the life of the case. I would also recommend that you resize new pistol brass and make sure it is the proper length, deburred and camfered...

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

Gotta vote with the big guys on this one. All new brass cases are made for a middle ground of use, therefore what is the right length for a milsurp will likely not be right for a more carefully built (closer tolerances) gun. You need to be building for your gun and it's magazine.

Build only a limited quantity (10-15) and go shoot them. Work with the results you got on that batch (feed, extraction, ejection, etc.) to build your next batch. Pay close attention to function AND accuracy. There is a close correlation between the two.

Might seem like a pain to go back and forth, but if performance is what you want I don't know of any other way to get it.

 

[FM12]

I full length size mine, and, if for an autoloader, use a small-base die. Then trim the brass remnants of brass in the interior around the flash hole. Then trim to length, chamfer,and polish.

might not be absolutely necessary, but it gives me the warm fuzzies knowing I've done this, which I consider the minimum.

ALSO...inspect your brass to make sure there is a flash hole in the primer pocket. Sometimes there isn't!!

 

[steve4102]

Yup, size it and do not forget to chamfer and deburr the necks.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I treat new brass just like once fired brass. All the case prep and inspections, etc.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[SilentArmy]

It shouldn't be necessary, but in many cases it is! I bought 400 pcs of .50 Beowulf brass to load up and some was longer than max length even brand new! The Lee die set specified in the instructions that you need not size new brass but the length was off so I started sizing to be safe! Nothing blows quite like having to pull down a few hundred rounds because you assumed that new brass is on spec!

 

[dmftoy1]

My experience has been that the case necks on virgin brass usually aren't perfectly round. After resizing them many times they're over the max length. (so I do as the others, fl resize, trim, debur, chamfer, debur flash holes)

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[USSR]

It is not necessary to resize virgin brass. In fact, if you run virgin brass thru a regular FL sizing die, all you are doing is reducing the neck (and opening it up again with the expander ball), and not even touching the case body. The one thing I would do with virgin brass (other than match prepping it) is, open up the case neck with a mandrel. For some reason, virgin brass tends to come from the factory with extremely small neck diameters.

Don

 

[The Bushmaster]

Wouldn't resizing the case do just that?? The purpose of resizing the "new" case is to insure that everything is correct and no defective case gotten past the QA system at the factory? The forfeiture of one reloading isn't much of a sacrifice when insuring everything is right before you load the case and find that it won't feed or even fit the chamber or take a bullet when seating.

For my peace of mind I will resize "new" brass, whether it be rifle or handgun...

 

[goon]

I always resize it and I always tumble it too.
I got into some Winchester brass once that still had lube on it. It contaminated my powder and I wound up removing stuck bullets from my barrel and pulling down ammunition.
Not fun.

Look at it like this - if you size and it doesn't need it you really aren't working the brass that much. All you're doing there is sizing the neck. You don't really lose anything.
If you size and it does need it, well it needed it anyhow.

 

[Hobie]

I run all new brass through the prep. You'd be surprised how much some cases are out of spec. Every once in a great while I'll find a defective case. Hate doing that after I've primed or charged or seated the bullet...

Reduce case life? How would you measure that given all the other variables? Would an average of 1-10th of a firing have any meaning?

 

[ocabj]

The only brass I load straight out of the box is Lapua. I did have one box of Lapua 308 brass that had some dented necks, so I had to run an expander ball through them.

But I typically open the Lapua box, prime and load. Some say you should at least neck size them since the necks will be tighter than they need to be. But I shoot virgin out of the box Lapua brass for my 600 yard loads (AR Service Rifle) and they work great.

All the other commercial brass I've used such as Winchester and Remington get full case prep treatment before priming and loading.