Loading New Brass

[SlimPigguns]

With new brass, do you resize them before their first loading? My practice has been to do inside & outside neck and primer pocket with a deburring tool and then load them. I recently read a post where the cases were resized before loading. I cant see a point to this, but maybe I am missing something. Any comments welcome - Pete

[buckfever 1]

I usually resize and check for uniform length.  I have had great bags of brass where it was a waste of time and I have had others that were slightly out of spec. for both areas of concern.  I think it come down to which machine they get done on.    Buckfever

[stimpylu32]

I always run new cases through a FL sizer die just to true the case , I also trim the brass after this to be sure that I start with a uniform case . Like buckfever said , sometimes their OK but other times they look as if they have been hit by a train . 

It does take a little more time but it does help with consistency from load to load .

stimpy

[beemanbeme]

If it is new brass, I do as little as possible. I check a couple to make sure they are within specs lengthwise and to make sure they'll fit in the chamber (I've never had new brass that wouldn't) and then I bunp the resizer ball thru the neck to round it up and then I load 'em up and shoot 'em. Who cares if they're true or not? Gotta chamfer the neck a little unless you're using BT bullets.
Once they're fireformed, I trim to a uniform length, and do any other case prep chores I'm inclined to do. Any rounds that were really out of the group during fire forming are marked and given a second chance. If they screw up a second time, into the brass bucket they go.
I'd rather spend my time on the range practicing my bench technique and shooting and fire culling my brass than in the shop measuring and weighing. Even after you've done all that weighing and measuring, you've still got to shoot it to see if it's right.

[Tom W.]

I ain't so picky as to weigh it, but will F/L size it, trim it, and clean it up a bit before I load it.. I've had some that the case mouths looked like waves before it was trimmed....

[huntswithdogs]

Full length, clean up primer pockets, check lengths and deburr the necks on all new brass. If I could find my flash hole tool, I'd redo them also.

[K.K]

I have also been tumbling them. I read somewhere that new brass comes with a coating to prevent corrosion, and that tumbling removes this before FL re-sizing.

[LaOtto222]

Well it depends for me. If it is a pistol round, I use carbide dies and run them in to square every thing up, I then trim to length and then chapher the case mouth. Now I am ready to start reloading. For my 30-30 and 22 Hornets - I full length size, debur the flash hole and uniform the primer pocket, then trim to length, and champher the case mouth, then I am ready to go. With my 221 FB, 222 Rem and 223's - Full length size, deburr flash hole, uniform the pockets, trim to length, neck turn to uniform the necks and then full length resize again, just to make sure the necks did not get out of alignment when turning and the champher the case mouth. The 222 family of cases are easy to neck turn - I just chuck them into a 3/8" cordless drill and run the neck turn tool into the neck...presto turned neck (that is why I full length size the second time. I do tumble some along the way depending on where I am at in the process. I do not weigh cases.

[Tn Jim]

I agree with Buckfever and Stimpy. I've bought new brass that the case mouth was out of round and over length to boot. If you do a complete prep on your cases, uniformity will be good from the very beginning. It is time well spent IMHO.

[Glanceblamm]

I agree with Buckfever and Stimpy. I've bought new brass that the case mouth was out of round and over length to boot. If you do a complete prep on your cases, uniformity will be good from the very beginning. It is time well spent IMHO.

Count me in as #4 as this has also been true in my experience.

[woodchukhntr]

I generally just check O.A.L., trim to length and chamfer if needed.  Actually assuming the brass is the same brass as is used on factory ammunition, nothing should have to be done.  However, for the best accuracy "blueprinting" the brass will pay off.

[Graybeard]

Straight wall pistol cases I usually size first just to be sure I get a good tight hold on the bullets. But for bottle neck cases I most often do not size before loading the first time. If the mouths are really messed up I might but I have a tool to use to true up slightly out of round case mouths and it works very well for this purpose.

I'll check them out and make sure they chamber OK and verify the neck has adequate tension to hold the bullets which they pretty much always do and if so I don't size new bottle neck cases until after I fire them once.

[SlimPigguns]

Thanks for the replies. I can see that more preparation would ensure greater precision. For my shooting, the visual inspection during deburring is probably enough to weed out any dogs. - Pete

[Tom W.]

I was bored once and trimmed 50 cases for my .44 Mag....... once....

Won't bother with that trick again.

[stimpylu32]

I was bored once and trimmed 50 cases for my .44 Mag....... once....

Won't bother with that trick again.

Tom

Thats not bored , BORED is when you cut down .223 brass to 1.600 and then Annell them & neck them down to .257 just to see what 50 rounds would look like .

Who in their right mind would need a Rimmless 256 Win ? 

stimpy