hi,
what are your reloading routines for both new and used brass
cheers
sorted
Depends what its for.
F/TR, I only use new initially
FL resize (new for datum or every 5 firings or so)
Neck trim
Weight batch
Dont do flash holes on lapua palma
Uniform pockets after a few firings
Usually bump back and bush re size after each firing with U/S cleaning or every 5 they get a full size going over and a good polish with a touch of brasso.
Once fired/re-fired.
Usually de capped and bumped (My brass hardly moves in the Dolphin) with the bush out.
U/S cleaned
Necks polished with touch of brasso
pockets done if need be (flash holes done if once fired and purchased as such and not lapua)
Neck or full sized (depending if new to me or not/new to chamber or not).
Cleaned in brake cleaner to remove lubes/crap.
The shiny necks go through the dies beautifully.
Then go and trash all the work on the range
Jury is out re FL re-sizing pending some tests after Richness's comments, and those of Russel Simmonds recently.
Crap removal is relative, it depends what works. My feeling is that bling is nice, but not important, and sometimes can cause more aggro than good. But, buy hand polishing and inspecting the cases, you soon feel/find any nicks, dents or cracks.
Good job I only load 50 a time
I'm a maggot in another life you know
Is this an acceptable routine as only loaded 25 rounds of used ammo now!
Tumble,
Lube
Deprime and neck size
Wipe lube off with cloth
Prime
Put powder in
Load
And use.
If not what would you change, why and how.?
Where would trimming resizing and de blurring come into the equation ?
Cheers guys.
P.s I knocked up a load with the above routin and got about 20mm group at 100 yards with once fired brass as came with rifle when purchased.
sorted
Deburring is often necessary AFTER case-trimming. Many cartridges stretch on firing, and thereafter will not chamber in the same rifle or fireram. For that reason, these cartridges will need to be ful-length resized, my Swiss 7.5x55 cartridges is one such case. Many tight-chambered rifles will not take even the full-length resized cased, and therefore need to be trimmed to the correct length. This process, using an axial cutter that removed material from the neck in an even pattern, produces a ridge internally and externally that has to be removed using the suitable tool - called an inside and outside neck chamfering tool.
Remember, too, that when a case stretches, that stretch has to come from someplace, and that is the thicker material of the headstamp end of the case. Eventually, you will see a lighter-coloured ring develop there, indicative of an untoward amount of stretching having taken place - that case MUST be then be scrapped, as you are looking at incipient case head separation, something that you definitely would NOT like to experience under any circumstances.
Hope that helps.
tac
didn't think you needed to lube for just neck sizing?
And then an ice hockey game broke out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0woZ...layer_embedded
son got MOM in world championships: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCcYwNJxv4
Cheers, so you only chamber debur on new or trimmed brass?
What's the difference between case trimming and full length sizing?.
Thanks
sorted
I'll have a go at answering this one, please correct me if wrong or add what I've missed. Full length sizing bumps the entire case length back to original calibre diameter, it also bumps the shoulder back too. It does nothing to size the actual length of the case back to max case length for each given calibre, this is why you need to trim to correct size after either neck or FL sizing as the case "grows" when fired, then inside and outside neck chamfer.
Last edited by NigelG; 03-03-2013 at 06:35 PM.
And then an ice hockey game broke out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0woZ...layer_embedded
son got MOM in world championships: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCcYwNJxv4
Shot Cases - 357 and 44
1.Ultrasonic Clean for 15min
2.Tumble for 3 hours
3.Decap/Resize
4.Clean Primer Pocket
5.Expand Neck
6.Prime
7.Powder - measuring each individual charge and trickling to suit
8.Seat Head (crimp at same time in 44)
9.Crimp Die (for 357)
New Cases
1. Champfer and De-Burr neck.
Then stages 3-9 of shot cases.
Andy
Hi Theo
Brass is funny stuff mate. If someone heated you to ridiculous heats and bunged you in a pressure cooker, you would get a bit bent.
Cases are quite clever, being harder at the head end, and softer (due to annealing) at the neck end. The whole lot has to be capable of expanding slightly to seal gasses in the chamber, then return to the original dimensions (as near as dam it) so the case can be extracted.
This is handy, firstly as it keeps at that hot high pressure gas away from our mugs, and secondly....well, if you have ever seen the fulton commandos trying to remove a stuck case from your pride and joy it is something you will strive to avoid....aledgedly
Brass hardens with being worked and becomes stiffer and more brittle, so the upshot is that unless we can re anneal (and even when we can) cases change or wear out.
This shows with primer pockets expanding so they can no longer hold a primer in place or seal tha gasses in, as necks splitting, or as groups going west as the neck tensions all go to pot.
You may also get case head seperation, but this can also be down to how well your rifle is head spaced as well as continual firing.
As was pointed out, the brass quite literaly gets forced against the walls of the chamber, under great pressure and heat. It cannot go outwards or backwards, so the only place to go is to creep forward towards the throat of the bore.
The problem is that if you dont keep this within limits, on chambering, you might inadvertantly crimp the round into the case, or increase neck tension to a point where the peak pressures are too high......this can only happen for so long before something goes wrong.
So we keep the things trimmed (this was something I forgot to mention, I tend to trim all my .308 brass back to 2.002" when new, which means it takes real talent to crimp one during a season, and uniforms everything to start with, a top shot passed this on to me and it works...he really hates trimming).
There are 2 main consideration when re loading (being brief).
Safety
Avoiding situations like over pressure etc, things we all do like inspecting cases, load development by safe working up, etc
Accuracy
Things we need to do to give us the accuracy/precision we require.
The latter is where advice can be confusing. Many folks are loath to change what is a winning way, regardless of how logical a change may seem, so their way is the only way and god help anyone that disagrees
The point is that how you need to re-load depends on what accuracy you require, and what is required to get the best out of you rifle.
My brass dont move much on one rifle, so i dont need to work it much (and would strive to avoid that as best I can), but my other 2 are ostensively target or battle rifles, so I dont worry massively as long as they perform as they should.
Only time and some (safe) experimentation will tell you what works best...whatever you do keep a reloaders log and ideally keep test targets (or scans of them) so you can re-trace your steps later down the line.
You may miss a better mousetrap
The best way is to get amongst other folk who are reloading you chambering an dsee what they are doing, it could save you a few quid and a lot of frustration.
I'm a maggot in another life you know
hiya,
cheers for all the info!!!
i didnt realise/think about the neck bit becoming tight and crimping a round!
so i have got my trimmer (lee thing with a little metal rod) and knocked them all back some took a bit off and others didnt i have and chamfered and de bured these now.
so when you do a full length sizing all this does is neck size and knock the shoulders back?? becuase i thought the shoulders wouldnt beable to increase as stuck in chamber and no where to go kind of like fireforming
sorted
return case to original dimentions and remove primer (done with the same die)
flare case neck with a die to ease inserting new bullet
hope this helps
but I opt to do as little to the cases a possible with pistol calibers because its just not worth the effort
rifle stuff is different in my opinion if you need to know the basics read a book like the abc's of reloading
i see what you mean yes i thought the neck sizer expanded the hole and when i put a bullet in it seats to length and closes it kind of thing
this is what i managed today from a tikka t3 243 hunter with 75grain sierra hp using straight from thrower averaging 44.9-44.5 grains
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...psadcafc7e.jpg
the above gave a more accurate group than a set weight and that of a less weight so im pretty happy so far
sorted
ignore about expanding (flaring) the case neck, I believe this is only for pistol calibre ammo like as said .38 .357 and usually crimped when used in a tube fed rifle
in necked rifle ammo the neck a squeezed down in size to make a friction fit for the bullet, no need to crimp for a non-tube fed rifle
And then an ice hockey game broke out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0woZ...layer_embedded
son got MOM in world championships: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCcYwNJxv4