My .300 blackout brass nightmares

[TheDomFather]

Ok so who else has purchased once fired remanufactured .300 AAC blackout brass and found the case mouths cut at a slight angle? Is this a big deal? Who has a great way to trim .300 blackout brass?

See the video below for my trials and tribulations:

 

[cfullgraf]

I have not bought 300 Blk cases in a long time and not many of them were re-manfactured cases from somebody. But, they were fine.

I've made a bunch from 223 Rem cases over the years. My primary trimmer is a WFT trimmer by Little Crow Gunworks. Runs off a drill motor They work well. Their newer versions may work better but I have not tried them. There are a couple other companies that make similar trimmers with slightly different features but I am afraid I've slept since I last remember their names.

One problem, these trimmers can be hard on the hand holding the case particularly if arthritis comes into play.

Gracey, Giraud, and Dillon have power trimmers but they can get pricey. They are very good trimmers though.

I also have a L.E.Wilson/Sinclair trimmer that works great and is easy on the hands but it has a low rate of production.

The Lee trimmer system is budget priced and functions well. It can be chucked up in a drill motor or some folks use their drill press or lathe. The case rotates instead of the cutter unless using a drill press and the case holding system can be mildly frustrating at times.

There are several "lathe" style trimmers out there. My first one was an RCBS unit I bought new around 1980. I probably have not used it since about 1981. It was too difficult to get uniformly trimmed cases. Actually, the ones on the market today have a better method of holding the case so that you get a uniform cut length. Similar to the Wilson/Sinclair, production is slow.

Some of the die manufacturers make trim dies. I have a couple in form die sets I have but not for 300 BLK, I think. You put the case in the die and cut/file off the excess. Slow production rate particularly if you have a lot of material to cut off each case.

I think Lyman, Forster, and others have trimmers on the market but I have no experience with them.

 

[hdwhit]

The Dom Father wrote:
Is this a big deal?

Sort of.

It's not a big deal in the "my gun is going to explode and kill me" way, but it can adversely affect accuracy (unequal forces on the bullet as it leaves the case mouth upon firing) and it will be impossible to get a uniform crimp (if you crimp).

You paid some good money to get new (maybe more correct to say "newly converted") brass. You should expect the work to have been done correctly. I would ask for my money back.

If you don't want to do that, then as long as the shorter side is still at least at the trim-to length, you should be able to even them out by trimming them square. I use a Forster case trimmer that I've had for 30 years that does fine and which I would recommend, but all the equipment manufacturers make a case trimming system of one sort of another.

 

[clearcut]

The newer RCBS power trimmer works great for me .

CC

 

[Kaldor]

I use a WTF2. Works great, and adding a caliber is like $20

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/wtf2-trimmer-tricks-and-tips.823476/

My pics stopped working, but the info is good

 

[444]

I also use the Little Crow, Worlds Finest Trimmer. I am not sure it is the best (it may be for all I know), but it is fast.

https://littlecrowgunworks.com/?v=7516fd43adaa

I am kind of unusual in the .300 Blackout world because: 1) I don't shoot an AR15 and 2) I am trying to shoot for extreme accuracy. FWIW: I am shooting a Ruger American Rifle.

So, I started shooting this rifle using some brass I bought on-line and I was getting mediocre results. I tried all kinds of powders and all kinds of bullets. I trimmed the brass to uniform lengths. I uniformed the primer pockets, I deburred the flash holes. I moved on to neck sizing using a LE Wilson hand die with a collet neck sizer and seating bullets on an arbor press using LE Wilson seating die.......................... in my endless quest for accuracy I started sorting my cases by weight and I realized that these cases I had were all over the map as far as weight was concerned. They wern't consistent at all. I am sure you know this but case weight possibly reflects internal volume...........consistent weight means you have a good chance of getting consistent velocities..........

So, I decided for my purposes of shooting for extreme accuracy (as extreme as I could get with the rifle I was using), I was going to buy commercial brass. I first bought Norma and later Lapua brass. FWIW: the other day I actually shot a 5 shot group at 200 yards using subsonics that measured 2.4 inches. FWIW: shooting subsonics at 200 yards requires very low standard of deviation numbers or else you get bad vertical stringing and I just wasn't getting those low SD numbers with case weights all over the place.

My best supersonic load will shoot under and inch at 100 yards if I do my part the vast majority of the time.

I wouldn't buy this quality of brass in this caliber if I was just blasting junk and doing mag dumps. But, for what I am doing (shooting from a bench at paper), it was well worth it for me to buy top tier brass and never look back.

 

[TheDomFather]

I also use the Little Crow, Worlds Finest Trimmer. I am not sure it is the best (it may be for all I know), but it is fast.

https://littlecrowgunworks.com/?v=7516fd43adaa

I am kind of unusual in the .300 Blackout world because: 1) I don't shoot an AR15 and 2) I am trying to shoot for extreme accuracy. FWIW: I am shooting a Ruger American Rifle.

So, I started shooting this rifle using some brass I bought on-line and I was getting mediocre results. I tried all kinds of powders and all kinds of bullets. I trimmed the brass to uniform lengths. I uniformed the primer pockets, I deburred the flash holes. I moved on to neck sizing using a LE Wilson hand die with a collet neck sizer and seating bullets on an arbor press using LE Wilson seating die.......................... in my endless quest for accuracy I started sorting my cases by weight and I realized that these cases I had were all over the map as far as weight was concerned. They wern't consistent at all. I am sure you know this but case weight possibly reflects internal volume...........consistent weight means you have a good chance of getting consistent velocities..........

So, I decided for my purposes of shooting for extreme accuracy (as extreme as I could get with the rifle I was using), I was going to buy commercial brass. I first bought Norma and later Lapua brass. FWIW: the other day I actually shot a 5 shot group at 200 yards using subsonics that measured 2.4 inches. FWIW: shooting subsonics at 200 yards requires very low standard of deviation numbers or else you get bad vertical stringing and I just wasn't getting those low SD numbers with case weights all over the place.

My best supersonic load will shoot under and inch at 100 yards if I do my part the vast majority of the time.

I wouldn't buy this quality of brass in this caliber if I was just blasting junk and doing mag dumps. But, for what I am doing (shooting from a bench at paper), it was well worth it for me to buy top tier brass and never look back.

Excellent info my friend, one of the things you can try is weighing the empty case and then filling it to the rim with water to find volume and try to match them up that way. I am just trying to get my .300 blackout going and have been shooting some factory ammo. These were going to be my first reloads which I will likely work on tomorrow. I guess I got what I paid for.
Thanks again,
Dom

 

[jmorris]

I built a few devices for converting .223 to 300 blk, developing one for a local business. In testing and tuning I wound up with so much brass I wound up buying a barrel and putting one together.

Anyway, this was the 2nd generation and it made many thousands.



The last one I made can really turn them out though, I don't have any videos of it uploaded but it's a lot more like a horizontal mill, in that the arbor is held at both ends, it's also direct drive.

They use a Camdex for final trim, I use a Dillon trimmer with a GSI tool head (left).

 

[RussellC]

I use the WFT for 300 BO, chucked in a drill, which is clamped in a vice. I use a little jig I bought on ebay along with a harbor freight 2" round power saw, 30 bucks or so on sale to cut off the .223 brass. Right now. I am using Lee 300 BO dies to form the brass.

Russellc

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Any batch of brass needs to be checked for OAL & squareness. Having a batch with uniform length makes reloading easier. As others said, if you aren't happy, contact the retailer.

A trimmer should be part of you tools. Semi-auto brass needs trimmed after sizing. To extend brass life you also need to anneal the necks every few loadings or cracking will occur.

The brass in your video also needs to be chamfered and deburred, as does any brass after trimming.

Also, this is addressed in reloading manuals. I suggest you review one before purchasing any tools. It can prevent unneeded spending.

 

[RussellC]

I also bought some average priced 300 BO ammo from Remmington. I was surprised to see they were using Barnes brass, which seems to be fairly high quality. I shot it, cleaned it, sized it, trimmed it and primed it.

Russellc

 

[armoredman]

I find 300 Whisper brass every so often on my local range - want me to save it for you next time?

 

[Captcurt]

Any batch of brass needs to be checked for OAL & squareness. Having a batch with uniform length makes reloading easier. As others said, if you aren't happy, contact the retailer.

A trimmer should be part of you tools. Semi-auto brass needs trimmed after sizing. To extend brass life you also need to anneal the necks every few loadings or cracking will occur.

The brass in your video also needs to be chamfered and deburred, as does any brass after trimming.

Also, this is addressed in reloading manuals. I suggest you review one before purchasing any tools. It can prevent unneeded spending.

I second this. I bought re-manufactured Blackout brass at the local gun show and over half of it was over the maximum case length. It was made from 223 brass by some dufus who was in a hurry. I trimmed and chamfered for 2 days.

 

[mstreddy]

Another thing to look for in 223 converted to 300 BO is that some cases have thick necks. There are some posts here and elsewhere that break down which brands won't work well and which do for conversion. If it's LC, FC, WCC, and some of the others you're OK.