Case preparation Sequence

[durango]

What kind of sequence of case preparation do you use when you acquire a bunch of brass? Let's assume that you will do about everything you can to improve your accuracy. I know some will say to buy premium brass and load it, but I like to DIY. Here's what we're doing: cleaning, sizing ,flash hole uniform, primer pocket uniforming, weighing, trim to length, fire-forming (if needed), chamfer and neck turning. I guess the weighing kind of has me perplexed as to when to do it--before or after you remove excess brass?? Thanks, Steve

[benfranklin]

Depends on what type of accuracy your after..
Bench rest shooting is far more than varmint
hunting..In all my years of target shooting I
have never weighed the brass.I know some
that go as far as weighing the primers..You can
but the best brass available and if your rifle
isn't up to it,you wasted your money..
I still weight all the powder charges though..
I don't even keep the brass segrated any more..

I shoot them until they split or what ever..Good luck

[gotcha]

If you're going to the extent of weight sorting, do it after you fire form, size & trim. Some cases stretch more than others in the same lot#. If it makes you feel better, do it :D But don't expect to see any quantifiable improvement in accuracy. Todays brass is more consistent than it's ever been in the past. There are exceptions & sometimes really crappy brass gets out of the factories. Normally the bad brass will exhibit other traits like primer pockets that are loose or loosen on firing safe loads. Inconsistent annealing color. Partially veiled flash holes etc. All the case prep in the world won't make a poor bbl. shoot better, but precise load developement can get it to shoot the best it possibly can. Anyway, thats the way I see it.

[cgeorgemo]

When I get a new batch of brass I full length size, install some primers, measure some powder and load em up.
The subsequent loads of that brass are going to be loaded with a neck sizing die so they are specific to my rifles chamber after the first load.

Honestly I think a lot of the steps people take are for mental welfare more than they are practical or useful.
They've obsessed over things like uniform flash holes and weight of each brass interior case capacity, neck run out blah, blah, blah....
Some people need to check every little box they can, then they have one less thing to think about when setting up a sight picture and getting ready to squeeze a shot off.

What I care about is does the decapping pin fit through the flash hole, or is it plugged with cleaning media?
Do I have a consistent measure of powder from one round to the next?

In my experience the absolute best thing I ever did to improve accuracy with my reloads was buy a digital powder dispenser/scale to be sure the powder was exactly the weight I wanted each and every time without taking too long.

Now having gone on my little "rant" I will confess that it bothers the crap out of me if my reloads are nice and shiny before I go shoot em.
I'm pretty sure that dull brass shoots as well as shiny but it makes me feel better for when I'm setting up the sight picture....

[jhelmuth]

I'm pretty sure I have less experience than most here (so take that into account), but here is what I have learned...

> Consistency pays off the most. You can slice this anyway you want, but I've measured this using my chrono and against practice targets. It's like a slap-in-the-face... you can clearly see that consistency results in tigher groups, and that is relative to better scores (if not just a greater degree of satisfaction).

> There are 2 areas I get concerned about when handlaoding: [1] Neck tension & [2] Powder charges. I try to pay attention to these as much as I possibly can in an attempt to be as consistent as possible. Regarding neck tension, I try to make sure that necks are consistently trimmed and that they are annealed every 3 firings. I use 2 digital scales to weigh the charges. 1 is the RCBS 1500 as a part of the Charge Master setup, the other is a Jewelers scale which is accurate to 0.02 grains. I verify every charge with the jewelers scale and adjust as needed. I find that my .308 handloads are not as critical as say my .223 or 6.5x47 loads are. My hypothesis is that the closer you are to filling the case and the smaller the volume of the case, the more accuracy is the critical factor to consistency (IE - the less forgiving it is).

> I make darn sure my brass is throughly clean.

> I do not obsess about components beyond initially creating lots of brass (in 50-100 size lots). So I do "weigh" the brass and then once I have a group of them, they stay together untill I discard them. When seperatring the brass by weight, I try to keep the brass within 0.1 to 0.3 grains of each other, and weights are always taken after fully triming them (usually when they are new). I always use the same primers.

[nsaqam]

WOW.....Just wow!

Funny how nearly all the benchrest shooters I see just dump directly from their measure (usually a Harrel's) to their cases.

[jhelmuth]

Harrels is a great.. no - THE BEST - powder "measure" (drop) there is (or at least that I know of). As long as you're good with that and your powder is consistent for that method, I certainly have no issue with it (or anyones methods for that matter). To each their own. Consistency is the key and if you are going to use a powder drop, there would be none better than a Harrels precision BR powder drop for the task.

Just out of curiosity, is it better than say those of us who choose digital scales? Do you know if ALL professional BR shooters use the Harrels? Do you know how many do? I'd certainly be willing to change if I felt there were a clear conclusion that there is a better eto than I'm using now. Considering the cost of the Harrels, I do not want to go down that road unless it is better.

[Grit #1]

Here is the deal, I use powder measures exclusively for ball powder and fine grain extruded powders. The key to powder measure performance is doing every thing, the same way, with the same pressures, each time, (I have a culver, redding, hornaday, and dillions).
For example, when I raise the handle I always up bump the measure(tap) twice, and on the down stroke to dump the powder I bump the measure twice. I have developed this routine after years of throwing powder charges and checking them on a balance. If you bump, tap, or knock the measure with a greater or lesses degree of force you can change the powder trow by up to 1.5 to 2 grains either direction. Extruded powder is much more sensitive than ball powders. The electronic powder measures are great for extruded powders in large cases. Ball powders are a pain in the butt it get out of them, RCBS is what I have. The +/- 1/10 grain accuracy becomes a problem with small cases. With the .223 I found myself weighing and trickling alot of loads. And throwing the over thrown loads back. I am faster and more accurate with the culver for the .223, +/- 1/10 grain in this case = 90fps. Way to much. Same thing for 308 size cases. In 3006 size cases and the belted magnums +/- 1/10 is not noticable on the chrono; and the 1500 shines in these cases.
Best regards,
Grit

[lal357]

everyone will have thier own method for me if its new brass i fl size, prime,i use a electronic measureer and scale and rezero every 10 drops i also sort bullets heads by ogive load and shoot .after that i get more strick .after shooting i tumble,deprime/resize using a bushing neck sizing die, clean primer pockets measure case length and trim as needed.after 3 firing i anneal the cases i also use a micrometer seating die and measure oal by ogive powder is +/- .1 grain and all raound are checked for run out using a hornday loc-load concentricty guage (still not sure if i like it yet might change in the future.