I'm an accuracy "nut"... and new brass, resized or not, doesn't fit a rifle's chamber as good as it will after it is once fired.
With that in mind, I normally seat a primer, put a medium charge of powder in the case and add the bullet seated out to the standard maximum overall length and take it to the range along with the rifle in which I'm gonna use that brass and shoot it to "fire-form" the new case to my rifle's chamber.
THEN... I take the brass home and neck size it ONLY (for a bolt action or single shot rifle) and "accurize" the once-fired brass.
"Accurizing" (for me) consists of uniforming the primer pocket, getting rid of the "sprue" inside the case created when the factory "punched out" the flash-hole and trimming the neck of the case to "minimum case length". The last step is to chamfer the inside/outside of the mouth of the case... and then, the case is ready-to-load with a "serious" load... either an "accuracy" load or a "hunting" load, depending on what I need at the time.
If this is for a rifle for which I've already determined how deep to seat the bullet, my bullet seating die is already set for that over-all cartridge length. If this is a new rifle or if I haven't played around with the bullet seating depth, NOW is the time to do that!
I start the bullet seating routine by finding out what length the overall cartridge will be when the bullet "just touches" the lands & grroves. Once that is determined (for a new rifle), I load 10 rounds which will yield two 5-shot groups with the bullet seated .010" (10/1000ths of an inch) off the lands & grooves, 10 rounds with the bullet seated .015" off the lands & grooves, 10 rounds with the bullet seated .020" off the lands and grooves, 10 rounds with the bullets seated .025" off the lands & grooves, 10 rounds at .030" off, 10 rounds at .035" off and finally, 10 rounds at .040" off the lands and grooves.
Naturally, this assumes you have picked out a given amount of a given (proven?) powder as a "starting load" and worked up to the most accurate load you can get given the purpose of the load (hunting or shooting paper).
Very rarely will a rifle shoot its most accurate with a bullet seated any further than .040" (40/1000ths of an inch) off the lands and grooves, but with any individual rifle, anything is possible!
Remember... the purpose of doing this is to determine the ABSOLUTELY most accurate round with a given bullet depth. Due to the rifle's magazine (if it's a bolt-action), you may NOT be able to seat ALL the bullets for a particular rifle just .010" off the lands and grooves because the rounds may end up being too long and won't work through the rifle's magazine.
HOWEVER, you can insert the initial round in the rifle's chamber by hand... and this round will be the first round you'll fire at the game. Therefore, due to the rifle's preference for that seating depth, it will be your most accurate round and your first shot. Naturally, you'll need to keep that round separated from the other rounds since that round probably won't fit and work through your rifle's magazine.
All subsequent rounds will necessarily need to be at maximum overall cartridge length unless you've determined that a particular rifle "likes" its bullets seated deeper than the maximum over-all cartridge length, but this is rare.
If you're loading for a varmint rifle, you may be able to single-load every round, depending on what varmint you're hunting. Eastern varmint hunting is generally much, much less shooting than western prairie dog hunts... so load according to the kind of shooting you'll be doing... i.e., "rapid" or "slow" shooting.
Working up initial loads for a rifle is a slow process since you should allow the rifle's barrel to cool down between shots because most sporting-type rifles won't shoot to the same point of aim with both a hot or cold barrel. But taking your time and doing it "right" is part of the "right-of-passage" in load development... and once you've absolutely determined "THE" single best load for a given rifle, you'll never have to do it again unless you make changes in the barrel's and/or action's bedding... or you change one or more of the components in your reloads.
If you're one of those fellas who is always in a big hurry, shoot factory loads. They'll probably shoot as well as any "hurry-up" load you might otherwise develop. A half-century of reloading and bench-rest shooting has taught me that.
BTW, there's a good many more things you can do to the cartridge cases to make them somewhat more accurate, but I've found through experience that the basic items I mentioned do the MOST good. But weighing your bullets can make a difference in most cases. However, today's bullet manufacturers are doing a much better job than they did a few decades ago... and these new plastic-tipped bullets shoot as accurately as the older "match" bullets use to shoot.
Ain't "progress" wonderful? :grin:
Strength & Honor...
Ron T.
