Hello - this will be my first batch, so please bare with me!
I have some once fire .308 brass that I have already resized and deprimed. I have not measured the brass (awaiting delivery of calipers) and my primers were delivered today.
Would I be able to prime this resized brass then trim (if required following measurement), or am I better off waiting to trim the brass then prime?
I have not gotten round to buying a manual yet. I will be getting one prior to loading any powder & bullets for sure.
Thanks all.
If you will permit a newb to weigh in......I'm about 8 months ahead of you, having gone back to reloading after nearly a 50 year layoff.
At this point, do nothing more until you get your calipers and at least one reloading manual, and 2 or 3 is more better. Manuals contain "how to" info in the front, and cook book type recipes for the various calibers in the back. The reason for more than one is that none of these are entirely generic. Almost all of them are produced by vendors and each is written from the perspective of what the vendor is selling. So while each has something valuable to offer, each will take you down some rabbit hole. But in general, there are common themes that show up in all of them. Those are the keys to focus on. Another reason for having more than one is that reloading data varies in most of them. There are no absolutes as far as START and MAX loads. Before you do anything, consult with more than one source. You will find load data is a range, more than a set of absolutes. Stay in the range to stay out of trouble.
One of those is trimming cases. I would strongly disagree with anyone who says that is not important. Case length tends to grow with each reload to the point case neck will eventually get jammed into end of chamber and that will get you a major pressure spike not related to anything but a constriction in the chamber. Found some ammo boxes in my Dad's old stash from 50 years ago, and he had made notes on them like "Barker" and "HOT". These were with middle of the road starter level loads, and no where near enough powder to be causing pressure problems like he was seeing. I remember most of what he was doing, and trimming cases was not part of it. My guess is he was running into dangerous pressure levels because the cases he was loading where being jammed into the throat of the chamber.
So when I was looking for a means to trim cases, the guy who sold me a large chunk of my equipment told me about the Lee case trimmers. The kind you chuck up into a drill, insert the rod, pin on the end of the rod passes through the primer hole to register on the shell holder. Trims cases to a very precise fixed length.....no measuring or anything on your part. For the 270 Win, SAMMI spec for case length is 2.540". Trim to length from reloading manuals is 2.530". The Lee trimmer will consistently trim cases to 2.538". Within less than 0.001 each and every time. But what that means is that with each firing and subsequent resizing, cases tend to stretch to 2.543 so each gets trimmed with each reloading.
That system consists of three components......the shell holder.......the cutter end.......and the calibrated length stem for each caliber. Each stem costs about $10. So if only doing one or two calibers, that option seems to offer the best solution as far as accurate, effective trimmer at a bargain basement price.
So my process takes place in 5 steps:
Case Prep:
Inspect fired case for damage. If it passes.......
Lube Case....brass outside and I run a mica coated wire brush inside neck, which cleans and lubes inside of neck for the sizing die mandrel. Lube is funny stuff. Must have it to keep case from sticking in resizing die, but you actually need very little. Less is more.
Deprime and size case.........then wipe off the lube. If I plan to tumble, will deprime only. Will resize after the rumble in the tumble.
Measure case length and trim as needed. New brass or once fired factory may not need trimming.
While case is chucked up in trimmer, hit it with chamfer tool to put micro bevel on inside of neck to help with bullet seating and debur outside of neck.
Blow out case with blast of compressed air to get any shavings or tumbler media blown out.
This is like a good paint job. Prep is everything and for me takes up well over half the time to load a round. Maybe more.
Prime Cases:
I seat primers by hand. Feel each bottom out, and it better be firm. If not.....and it's a loose fit.....that is indication case has reached the end of the line. Will be the last time loaded or if really bad, pull primer and trash that case now. At this point, I have a fully prepped case, with primer. Nothing left to do but drop powder charge, seat bullet and crimp.
Drop Powder:
I'm using mostly stick powders, so may use a powder measure to get close, but then weigh and trickle up each charge to get exact same charge. Slow, but I'm low volume and favor accuracy over speed.
Seat Bullet:
Again, I'm loading hunting ammo, and have found that once I get the load right, chasing the lands is not needed. Recently printed a 4 shot .75 MOA group with 3 holes touching at 100 yards.* I don't need to be better than that. So I'm seating to COL for the bullet, and all under SAMMI spec length. (* I didn't think that I or the gun were capable of that level of accuracy, but we did it. Fun stuff!)
Crimp:
I'm loading hunting ammo, none of it anywhere near the lands, all of it to nearly book COL, so I crimp each round. I'm using Lee Factory Crimp, vs the crimp feature of dies that allow it.
And that, as they say.......is that. I'm finding that once the load is sorted out and dies are setup for what I want to do, I can load a box of 20 rounds......start to finish....in just over an hour. Could do double that in far less than two. That is a lot of hunting ammo for a guy making one shot kills.