Maintaining Consistency In Your Brass

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Maintaining Consistency In Your Brass

Maintaining Consistency In Your Brass
By Jim See

My last article on brass prep centered on preparing new brass for loading. This article will cover maintaining that brass for long life and the processes I use in my brass loading prep. What I am outlining is what I do; I might spend more time in some areas and much less in others. Basically it boils down to how I can load match quality ammo as efficiently as possible.

When we fire our brass for...

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[Kerryt38]

Great article Jim!!! While I anneal and trim after every firing because it only takes me less than an hour for each and then I can skip either or both if I'm pressed for time. I love that you show that people don't need a $200-$300 die to make great quality ammo. If you are spending more on a die buy adjustment features that make loading easier don't spend extra on a brand name that's exactly the same die just more expensive. It's not 30 years ago when there was a huge difference in quality.

 

[Shootin4fun]

Interesting, after all the hoopla over neck sizing, and using the right bushings, no expander ball, etc., here we are back at square one, FL, bump the shoulder .001. I can see a good argument for it (FL every time), even though I got into neck sizing about a year ago (after 40 years of FL only) and feel it is easier on the brass. I have not gotten into annealing yet as the machine to do it efficiently is over $400 but I know it's the next step. Agree 100%, you don't need $200 dies. Under .25MOA is not uncommon with RCBS or Hornady dies.

 

[cetacea]

Good article, but would like to add one point---neck turning. If you measure virgin brass necks, there may be as much as .005 difference from one side the to other. My theory is, when fired and one side of the neck touches the chamber before the other, the bullet starts out crooked. I neck turn all my brass so necks are consistent. Have improved 100 yd groups as much as 1/2" in a number of varmint rifles.

 

[cetacea]

Forgot to mention, I also use a Sinclaire neck expander as the last prep step. Have an AR-15 223, Rem 700 .204, and a Rem 700 6mm/284 that all shoot under 1/4" moa at 100 yds.

 

[Kerryt38]

Forgot to mention, I also use a Sinclaire neck expander as the last prep step. Have an AR-15 223, Rem 700 .204, and a Rem 700 6mm/284 that all shoot under 1/4" moa at 100 yds.

Good article, but would like to add one point---neck turning. If you measure virgin brass necks, there may be as much as .005 difference from one side the to other. My theory is, when fired and one side of the neck touches the chamber before the other, the bullet starts out crooked. I neck turn all my brass so necks are consistent. Have improved 100 yd groups as much as 1/2" in a number of varmint rifles.

If you use high quality brass to start with you probably won't notice any improvements by neck turning. There are some instances where you need to neck turn, but by and large with quality brass it isn't necessary.

 

[Jim See]

Thanks for the replies guys. On neck turning, I typically only do this if I need to fit my brass to a tight necked chamber. Best accuracy seems to come from at least .004-.006" clearance in most chambers. I wrote this article about 5 years ago and still use the same process for the most part.When I need 300 rounds for a single 2 day match i seek out what is easy and works for sub 1/2 moa accuracy. if I was in Benchrest I'm sure my process would need some refinement.

 

[Shootin4fun]

Good article, but would like to add one point---neck turning. If you measure virgin brass necks, there may be as much as .005 difference from one side the to other. My theory is, when fired and one side of the neck touches the chamber before the other, the bullet starts out crooked. I neck turn all my brass so necks are consistent. Have improved 100 yd groups as much as 1/2" in a number of varmint rifles.

I think that by the time the neck has expanded enough to touch the chamber, it is no longer in contact with the bullet.

 

[duckhunter175]

Great article- have a question or two-- sent you a pm.

 

[birddog 68]

I found this article on accident and is very interesting. I was taught and still always clean the primer pocket. Will seating primers into a dirty pocket speed up the loosening of the pocket?
I realize that this is 4 years old but the author has been on recently. Thanks for any response, I am still learning.