my experience has been if i change to new brass that is of another brand or maybe same brand but noticeably different in hardness or thickness then yes, i will see some change in accuracy. on the other hand, if i change to new brass of the same lot that i had been using then no, i havnt seen change in velocity or accuracy. last year i had an experience of my groups opening up somewhat in a 6.5. i had started out with what i would say was descent brass. as it wore out i changed to a new batch. things were going well and suddenly after 3 reloading's my accuracy was diminishing. i adjusted my load to find i couldn't get it any better than what i was shooting. someone on this forum had talked about brass issues and it sounded similar to my problem. i ordered and started using a high quality brass. my groups were back in to the best they had been and the powder charge was the same. when i start loading new brass from that batch, i don't see any difference between the first firing and the second. im definitely not saying that it doesn't happen but the 2 rifles i have been working with this year has stayed in the node. i have though read many posts of people warning about first firings, and i wont doubt it because that is when the brass will expand the most. hope it shoots good for you and you don't have to chase the node.