New 6.5 Creedmoor brass headspace seems a little short

[nealm66]

I haven't loaded any rounds with this brass yet. But yes I can measure base to ogive, and have measured oal with the bullet touching the lands using the Hornady tool.

A friend mentioned that I could "fire form" the cases by seating the bullets jammed a couple of thousandths for the first firing. But with 200 cases that's a lot of powder, primers, and bullets. Not sure I want to head down that path unless I really have to.

You will need to if you want good es/ds. Excellent time to practice off a tripod. Midway has factory seconds that shoot plenty good enough

 

[Carey Farmer]

You will need to if you want good es/ds. Excellent time to practice off a tripod. Midway has factory seconds that shoot plenty good enough

That's a good suggestion about practicing off a tripod while fire forming. I just bought a tripod, but haven't used it yet. I usually practice shooting off hand at 100 yards while breaking in a barrel, but hadn't extended that thinking to a tripod.

 

[nealm66]

It's really helped me. I hate fire forming but definitely has improved my tripod shooting. My offhand shooting is hopeless

 

[nealm66]

I watched a high power state match with a national champion smacking steel at 500 meters and was bsing with a few guys that say the rimfire matches are where to start.

 

[nealm66]

If you measure once fired and it's still short, run it through your fl die and measure again. It usually grows

 

[Carey Farmer]

Yeah. I once fooled myself into thinking I didn't need to bump shoulders when my once-fired brass was still comfortably short of brass that had multiple firings in that same rifle. Much to my surprise, discovered that I got 2 - 3 thousandths case length growth when resizing without bumping.

 

[nealm66]

Yup

 

[Starlite]

Silly question. I have several brands of CM brass and keep good notes so I might be able to help. My factory alpha brass is ~ 1.520" IIR (CBTD)

 

[Carey Farmer]

Silly question. I have several brands of CM brass and keep good notes so I might be able to help. My factory alpha brass is ~ 1.520" IIR (CBTD)

Thank you Starlight. I don't really trust the absolute values I'm getting from my caliper, but I think the differences between fired brass and the new brass are probably good. Do you have a difference between your fired brass and your unfired brass?

 

[spladi]

Prepping to load some practice rounds in my 6.5 Creedmoor target rifle with brand new brass. Checked brass length with a .400" comparator, and was surprised at how short the new brass is - about 0.007" shorter than fired brass from that same rifle. Checked my "go" gauge and the new brass is .005" shorter than a "go" gauge. Pulled a bullet from a Hornady factory round and the new brass is .006" shorter than the unfired Hornady case.

Should I be worried about this much extra chamber headspace compared to new brass length causing case - head separation?

Usually new, non-belted brass is at most a couple thousandths shorter than my fired brass.

You could load the bullets to touch the lands = 0 headspace and most all the fireforming will be in the neck and shoulder area. Personally I do not worry about head separations when Fire forming and later on watching how much I bump the shoulders.

 

[jerry moore]

new brass 4 to 8 thous not uncommon is my exp

 

[Carey Farmer]

You could load the bullets to touch the lands = 0 headspace and most all the fireforming will be in the neck and shoulder area. Personally I do not worry about head separations when Fire forming and later on watching how much I bump the shoulders.

That's probably the safest approach. Work up a load with the bullets touching the lands, shoot that load until all cases are fireformed, then run a jump optimization ladder.

 

[Carey Farmer]

new brass 4 to 8 thous not uncommon is my exp

Thank you Jerry. I haven't been hand loading very long, so it's really helpful to get some perspective from those who have. SAAMI does allow cases up to 0.007" shorter than spec cartridge base to datum length - I just haven't seen that in the cases I've bought.

 

[hoot1848]

Prepping to load some practice rounds in my 6.5 Creedmoor target rifle with brand new brass. Checked brass length with a .400" comparator, and was surprised at how short the new brass is - about 0.007" shorter than fired brass from that same rifle. Checked my "go" gauge and the new brass is .005" shorter than a "go" gauge. Pulled a bullet from a Hornady factory round and the new brass is .006" shorter than the unfired Hornady case.

Should I be worried about this much extra chamber headspace compared to new brass length causing case - head separation?

Usually new, non-belted brass is at most a couple thousandths shorter than my fired brass.

I have run into the same problem with multiple manufacturers I think it's a cost cutting method from the manufacturers small bits of hundreds of thousands of rounds add up that or just **** poor quality control I have no idea which