Check your new brass.

[Captcurt]

We had a thread not long ago concerning resizing new brass. I picked up some new Winchester 357 brass and started to load some deer getters. I loaded 12 and decided to go to the woods, but when I went to load my GP I had a couple of rounds that were really tight. I I went back to the bench to check it out. The tight rounds were caused by excessive case lengths. I checked several cases and found and much as .030 difference in length. Evidently I had set my crimping die on one of the short cases. When I crimped on the long brass it shoved the bullet in and put a slight bulge in the case causing the tight fit. A couple of cases were long enough to chamber tightly with no bullet. That could cause serious pressure on a hot load. So it might be a good idea to check your new brass for length. It might save you a lot of grief.

 

[troy fairweather]

good call, its worth the time to check

 

[jmorris]

I treat new brass the same as used brass, it all has to go through the same process.

If you don’t do that you are leaving consistency on the table.

 

[cw308]

With revolver and rifle brass case prep is very important . I'll size , trim to the same case length and chamfer , uniform primer pockets , deburr inside of flash hole making sure all flash holes are the same size . Crimping with a roll crimp all cases have to be the same length . I trim every firing to the center of the trim scale and keep them there . Seems like alot but makes for trouble free reloads . No short cuts .

 

[ReloaderFred]

I size and process all new brass. I have a .444 Marlin case on the shelf over my bench that left the factory without a flash hole to remind myself to continue this practice.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Hondo 60]

So it might be a good idea to check your new brass for length. It might save you a lot of grief.

Good post - thanks

 

[Patocazador]

My DIL bought a box of FMJ Remington .380 cartridges. Out of 50 there were 15 that wouldn't chamber all the way in her Ruger LCP. I eyeballed the shells compared to the brass of the ones that fired. The duds all had brass longer than spec.

 

[Jack B.]

Always inspect your final product. Quality control is very important when you manufacture a product.

 

[Axis II]

I purchased about 200 pieces of starline bulk from midwayusa.com for a good price a few years ago and it was all over the place as far as length. I rimmed them all to the shortest safest length but i was a little POD i had to do this.

My last purchase was Winchester 38spl brass and checking about 10-15pc it all fell within 1 tenth of each other.

 

[Blue68f100]

That's odd.

All the Starline brass I've got directly from Starline has all been ±0.001" on OAL and that's both handgun and rifle. Most all of it has been at min length on rifle and trim length on my 357mag brass.

 

[glc24]

I purchased about 200 pieces of starline bulk from midwayusa.com for a good price a few years ago and it was all over the place as far as length. I rimmed them all to the shortest safest length but i was a little POD i had to do this.

My last purchase was Winchester 38spl brass and checking about 10-15pc it all fell within 1 tenth of each other.

Maybe 'ol Larry gets the floor sweepings from Starline! Every case I ever bought from Starline is on the money, no exceptions!

 

[jonb32248]

I returned all my Winchester brass for my 22-250 and got a refund. Could only get maybe 2-3 reloads and found some with split shoulders right out of the bag of new. No more Win.

 

[Allen One1]

I treat new brass just like I would used brass. I check everything I can check to take any variables out of the load. Uniform the primer pocket, debur the flash hole, size it, trim it and chamfer it. Then you know where you are starting from and no surprises later.

 

[labnoti]

For .357, I use a Lee Factory Crimp Die which also resizes the case on the same stroke as the crimp, going in, and coming back out.