Fire forming brass, does it make a big difference in accuracy?

[LivewireBlanco]

So I'm reloading for my 30-06 and trying to find the most accurate load with a particular bullet powder combination. My problem is that I only have 12 rounds of fire formed Remington brass to start with. I do have some resized brass that is Remington but in my quest for working up a good load how big of a difference will it make if it's not fire formed?

 

[Dthunter]

Every rifle is different. Some rifles see dramatic improvement with fireformed and neck sized cases.

You have to shoot the rifle both ways to know exactly how
Much improvement there is.

 

[hueyville]

+1. Every rifle has its own personality.

 

[bluetopper]

You're not expanding the brass to a different caliber are you? Why does it need to be fireformed?

 

[243winxb]

New factory brass will group about 1/4" larger @ 100 yds (243win.) 5 shots.

 

[witchhunter]

Do you mean brass that has been fired in your rifle and neck sized or FL sized brass that hasn't been fired in your rifle? If your brass is FL sized, it shouldn't matter. I feel that neck sizing does matter in most instances, but not always. All of my rifles are extremely finicky about every little thing, my friend buys a new gun, it shoots one hole groups with mixed ammo....

 

[rcmodel]

The shooting practice you get shooting groups with un-fire-formed brass will make your groups smaller then firing fire-formed brass.

rc

 

[LivewireBlanco]

Thanks for the input guys. I guess I just need to put some rounds down range and see what the rifle likes.

 

[fguffey]

You're not expanding the brass to a different caliber are you? Why does it need to be fire formed?
__________________

I pull the trigger then ejected a once fired case, seems the fad is pull the trigger then eject a fire former case. Pulling the trigger to become a ‘fire former’ is a short cut. I have forming dies, moving the shoulder is the difficult part. The difficult part is knowing where the shoulder is located in reference to the bolt face, for those that understands ‘datum’ it is about knowing where the bolt face in reference to the datum/shoulder is located, in thousandths.

F. Guffey

 

[LivewireBlanco]

I'm just talking about firing it to conform my brass to the chamber of my rifle, not putting it in a forge or anything crazy like that.

 

[Dthunter]

I have had .308's shoot unfired brass loaded with a given charge of Varget shoot into 1-1.25".
Then took those same cases, neck sized them, reloaded them with the same charge of Varget & seating depth/bullet etc. The resulting groups were sub 1/2" consistantly!

Then I have had rifles that defied that and shot VERY CLOSE to the same 1/2" groups "WITHOUT" fire forming yet.
Upon reloading those cases for that rifle, it was harder to beat the groups with unfired cases. Its a crap shoot that way.

I "tend" to get better accuracy with fire formed and neck sized cases. About 98% of the time.

So you make Your own conclusions on my experiences.

Now if you sort/uniform the primer pockets/flash holes/case length/case weight/neck thickness/fire form/and neck size, you will see an improvement again! But it winds up being ALLOT of work!

It all depends what your goals are. Thats what my standard brass preperations are. I do it to nearly all my rifles. A bit "OCD" maybe, but very rewarding on the paper & target/game animals!

 

[exdxgxe4life]

+++++1 Dthunter

 

[twofifty]

the Zen thread

 

[LivewireBlanco]

Zen thread?

 

[fguffey]

Urban Dictionary: zen


www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zen


One way to think of zen is this: a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It also is ...

F. Guffey

 

[kelbro]

As with many reloading questions... it depends

Had some rifles shoot better with FF brass and others that shot the best with FLR brass.

There really aren't many shortcuts in this hobby.