New brass - need case prep?

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Different strokes/ different folks ... reaming is easy, can't hurt, may help, and is just smart if the brass will be used in a gun with a free floating firing pin.
/B
 
I receive lots of new brass that shipping has caused a lot of no longer perfectly round mouths. I resize all new brass.
 
h29zo102.jpg Yea. Definitely trim, resize and otherwise screw around with new brass. Also, since Murphy is alive and well, when you buy new cartridges, be sure to take them apart, resize the cases and make sure the ammunition manufacturer loaded them properly.
 
Match grade barrel being the key there IMHO. ;)

Those who want to post their opinion to prep new brass should be free to do so without insults, just as those who post the opinion to not prep new brass should be able to do. :)
 
Those who want to post their opinion to prep new brass should be free to do so without insults, just as those who post the opinion to not prep new brass should be able to do.
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Yep. But NOT doing anything to new brass? Take a long look at the mouth of bulk brass. Is it round? No? Well just shoving a bullet in will make it round,,,---right? Sure will, but in doing so, it will get scraped up and cannot be as straight as it would if those out-of-round-mouths were at least run through a sizer, then inside chamfered. Is the mouth square? Probably not, so it should be trimmed to clean up the shortest one in the lot, then trim all of them to that length. THEN inside-outside chamfer.

Now take a 10X magnifier, look at the mouth of new brass. Looks kind of like a mountain range in the rockies!

If all you are doing is fire-forming the brass to prepare for some real accurate loads, then load them without any prep. Use some bullets that have not been very accurate, some powder that didn't work out as planned, and maybe some primers that were decapped live. Then go have fun busting clays on the backstop.

As handloaders, we strive for consistency. New brass that has not been prepped cannot be consistent. A little time spent before loading those new cases can result in accurate ammo.

There seams to be a discrepancy in terminology in this thread. In my understanding, primer pocket uniforming and flash hole reaming is how it should be stated.
 
[SARCASM]
Yea. Definitely trim, resize and otherwise screw around with new brass.
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[/SARCASM]
If you pay the price for Norma brass you do kind of expect them to do those steps for you.
/B
 
As handloaders, we strive for consistency. New brass that has not been prepped cannot be consistent. A little time spent before loading those new cases can result in accurate ammo.
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correct and as such until a piece of brass has been fireformed and can be neck sized to my chamber I not wasting extra time and brass life on pre fireform case prep. After all cases are fireformed then I'll do my precision case prep, after all every sizing you do at the start of a piece of brass's life cycle is one less loading you get at it's other end.

Another myth is just how much folks expect from case prep. Try it some time, prep 20 cases to the nth degree and the haphazardly grab 20 virgin cases from a bag and shoot em against one another with a friend loading the gun in a blind test. Unless you have a darn accurate rifle you'll be very very hard pressed to find a measurable difference in the groups produced.

IMO brass prep is one of the smallest variables in producing an accurate load being far far surpassed by finding the optimum charge.
 
Another myth is just how much folks expect from case prep. Try it some time, prep 20 cases to the nth degree and the haphazardly grab 20 virgin cases from a bag and shoot em against one another with a friend loading the gun in a blind test. Unless you have a darn accurate rifle you'll be very very hard pressed to find a measurable difference in the groups produced.

IMO brass prep is one of the smallest variables in producing an accurate load being far far surpassed by finding the optimum charge.
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Agreed. It takes a world class rifle and a very good shooter to tell the difference.

I still like to prep new brass. Size, trim, de-burr and chamfer. :)

I do not do anything with the primer pockets or flash holes on brass to be loaded for standard chambers and stock barrels (No matter how good). It's a waste of time IMHO.

World class target rifles are another matter.
 
Being an "old guy" myself, I will chime in with the other "old guys". IMHO at the very least, new .223 brass (perhaps with the exception of Lapua) should be lubed and run though a sizing die. I have been doing it for years and (in fairness) I have never shot new brass that I did not size first. When I got my first batch of new Lake City brass a few years ago, one quick visual inspection revealed that many of the case mouths were out of round and may not have even accepted trying to seat a bullet without being resized. I have just been doing it that way ever since. My dime, my time.

Historian
_________
"A genaral dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of a common enemy."

Samuel Adams
 
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