Fireformed brass in a different rifle

[bikemutt]

As my hand loading journey progresses I'm once again reminded that I'm very capable of making silly mistakes. I worked up a starting load for a Ruger No. 1 rifle chambered for .223 Rem. The SAAMI maximum seating depth of 2.260 looks like it should work very nicely for the No. 1 leaving the ELD-M 73 grain pill about 35/1000 off the lands.

Now for the mistake; I used brass fireformed in my Savage 10 . The rounds chamber just fine in the No. 1, any risk in just shooting them in the No. 1?

I don't really want to shoot them in the Savage as that rifle prefers a longer seating depth with the ELD-M bullets.

Thanks

 

[Berger.Fan222]

As my hand loading journey progresses I'm once again reminded that I'm very capable of making silly mistakes. I worked up a starting load for a Ruger No. 1 rifle chambered for .223 Rem. The SAAMI maximum seating depth of 2.260 looks like it should work very nicely for the No. 1 leaving the ELD-M 73 grain pill about 35/1000 off the lands.

Now for the mistake; I used brass fireformed in my Savage 10 . The rounds chamber just fine in the No. 1, any risk in just shooting them in the No. 1?

I don't really want to shoot them in the Savage as that rifle prefers a longer seating depth with the ELD-M bullets.

Thanks

I assume you mean neck sized rather than full length sized.

There is no risk if it is a starting or moderate load. When shooting hotter loads, it is recommended one stick to the same (make, model, and lot) brass that one worked up the load in, so I would segregate brass by rifle with hotter loads unless and until you've worked up the same load in both rifles.

Sometimes you get lucky and find two rifles with chambers close enough that you can neck size only and share brass between rifles and get good accuracy from both also. More likely, one chamber is smaller than the other so you can neck size brass from one (smaller chamber) and it fits in the other (larger chamber) but not vice versa. I would bet your Savage 10 has a slightly smaller chamber than the Ruger #1. Consequently, the brass you ended up with is slightly larger than had you run it through a full length die but slightly smaller than had it been fired in the Ruger #1 and neck sized.

If in doubt, some time and care with a micrometer should confirm or refute the above possibilities.

 

[243winxb]

Now for the mistake; I used brass fireformed in my Savage 10 . The rounds chamber just fine in the No. 1, any risk in just shooting them in the No. 1?

Minimum vs maximum chambers, may be as much as .010" to .012" difference.

Case stretch should be checked, head to datum, before and after firing. To much can cause a case separation.
Not a normal problem. Just worth checking, as my No. 1's were on the large side.

One firing is not going to hurt the brass, for the most part.

Do keep brass separated for each rifle.

 

[bikemutt]

I assume you mean neck sized rather than full length sized.

Yes, the brass was neck sized, not full length.

 

[Sunray]

The whole off the lands thing is a load tweaking technique that makes little difference anyway.
However, you've gotten lucky. There's no safety issue involved though. In most cases, brass fired out of one rifle will not fit another if you don't FL resize. Firing ammo that fits won't bother anything.
2.260" is the max OAL with the bullet. It'll work in any .223 chamber.

 

[quaid]

I read this as you loaded a load tailored for your ruger into brass fire formed for your savage. The bullet to lands distance is based on oal length so that is unaffected by brass length.

Fire forming brass can result in long brass for a long chamber that will not fit a tight chamber- while both chambers are to saami spec. You may find formed ruger brass does not fit your savage.

I'm also assuming you inspected the brass for failures in the prep stage for your savage.

If the action closes completely youre good to go.

 

[someguy2800]

The brass fired in the savage cannot possible be any smaller than a full length sized case, so if the round goes in and breach block closes without binding then there is no issue.

 

[bikemutt]

Just to clarify, I used brass fired in the Savage. I neck sized and trimmed them to 1.750. I seated the bullets to a COL of 2.260, SAAMI maximum.

The Ruger has a shorter chamber than the Savage but it's certainly long enough for a COL of 2.260.

Since we're talking about 50 rounds, I guess the question once I've fired these in the Ruger, do I now use them as Ruger fireformed brass, or best to FL size them and start over?

 

[FROGO207]

That answer would be, if I had enough brass that I would not miss 50 for the Savage I would just continue to use them with the Ruger. If you are worrying about having a mix up again the answer is to make sure you can tell the difference of where the brass was used easily. With my segregated brass I put them in a ZipLoc freezer bag with a label stating what they were shot from/number of times shot and it stays with them after processing/reloading till I shoot them again. YMMV

 

[someguy2800]

I used to sort everything by headstamp so all the lake city brass went with gun A and all the federal brass goes with gun B. Now I only have one gun per caliber because its too much hassle to sort everything out that this brass is for this gun and this brass is for that gun and this gun likes this bullet and the other one wants another bullet and seating depth and the point of aim is different and blah, blah, blah... From now on, one gun per caliber and one, mabey two loads per gun for me.

Oh and for the sake of reliability I full length size every time for single shots.

 

[bikemutt]

Thanks Team-THR, this was a mixup that should not have occurred. I do keep brass segregated, just selected the wrong bag. Maybe it's along the lines of "you didn't hear a thing I just said did you?"