Is once fired brass giving anything up to new brass?

[bigngreen]

Noooo, if your really interested in bringing the best to your reloading bench to work with it does NOT start with random once fired brass. If the brass was fired from an over sized or crooked chamber you will never get that memory out of that brass unless you take down in size beyond new then fire form it in your chamber. That first firing in your gun set that brass up from there on out. I'd rather run 20 pieces of the best brass than run 200 once fired likely from radom guns and lots.

 

[Starlite]

We all know you can take an aspirin for heart attacks and headaches. However it won't help with the potential pain in the astir from dealing with someone else's brass. IMO just buy bulk new brass or buy ammo when you see it on sale. I've never personally experienced reloading those calibers so I can't offer an opinion on how many reloads you'll get but I'd say it's still cheaper then buying factory ammunition.

I think you said you wanted to shoot something other the ELDX/M.

Here is some Food for thought.
Play at your own risk.

As an experiment I once pulled some 143gr 6.5CM off factory ammunition. I scaled the powder ( can't remember how much it was off the top of my head ) but I'll assume was superformance as that was written on the hornady box ammunition. I re scaled the powder for a latter test. I was careful not to go over the amount and never added another source powder as this is a recipe for disaster. A topped off the brass with a 142 SMK. GOT some good blind data (as I'm not totally sure if it's "store bought " superformance powder). It actually shot well out of my bergara.
I guess my point is; with a little thoughtful effort, you don't have to waste the powder and primer. You can fire-form your brass and get some velocity/accuracy data. You just have to load similar weight and style pill.

at the end of the day I only use and trust my own loads and brass.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Hello all and thanks for the thoughts on this question.

So I am looking at trying to raise my reloading game from what I presently do, which is reload factory ammo that I have shot from my specific rifle to once again be used for that same rifle (basically fire form).

If I was to buy some once fired brass from a reputable source and brand (example: Once fired Lapua brass from a reputable gun builder that really is only firing it once before selling), am I giving anything up other than the first firing?

Could I anneal the brass when I get it, resize it and start from there? It's a significant savings for the calibers I'm looking at, 338 LM, 300WM, 7mm RM. And some of the NEW brass I'm looking for is out of stock and has been for a while which is another reason I'm looking at this.

All the rifles I shoot are custom and produce sub .5MOA with factory ammo that I shoot but I want to change to load something other than ELD-M/X.

All chambers are simply cut to accommodate standard dimensions IAW SAAMI. Nothing special on my end.

Thanks in advance!

If you are looking at 300 Win Mag brass and 7mm Rem Mag brass. You can develop them from 338 Win Mag, 264 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag, and 300 Win Mag brass. Have to be full length size (LUBE YOUR CASES) to what ever case you are trying to make. Trim to length, and anneal them. Fire form them with reduce powder load. Again check lengths and cut neck thickness. A second annealing wouldn't be bad either. Check case weight after completing the resizing
process. Your head spacing is on the belt not on the shoulder area. That the neat part of that.
The other THING is you have to pay attention to which case you are doing what with. EXAMPLE: I load for 3 308 Nor. Mag rifles and the brass is expensive to buy 308 nor mag case. I generally change convert 300 Win Mag case to the 308 Nor Mag case. I load for 4 25/06 rifles at times. They all chamber differently. So I use different head stamp case for the different rifles. So I use a combination of 25/06, 270, 30/06 to achieve it. One different manufacture of case to get the job done.

SSS

 

[hunter0528]

I picked up a couple 100 rounds of 300 win from Bartlett (gibrass.com) They are all Federal match (same as I got a chance to fire as the 300 Win Mag Sniper ammo)
300 Win Mag Once-fired, military contract loaded by Federal Cartridge, FC12 headstamp.
Primers are not crimped in. Cleaned and polished.
Should be same lot number. Nice clean brass.
$60/100; $$275/500; $500/1000