preping brass

[samson]

I have some questions regarding brass preparation. How oten do you guys clean primer pockets, and flash holes. Also, when trimming up brass, do you debur and chamfer before you resize or after? When neck sizing, do you need to lubricate the neck only or the whole case? Thanks for the help.

[Mysticplayer]

Primer pockets get cleaned after every firing. Don't bother with the flash hole after it has been deburred. Definitely deburr and chamfer the neck after trimming. You have to look at a shallower angle chamfering too if using VLD bullets. Normal chamfer angle may still cut the base of the bullet. I neck size with the Lee collet die and no lube is necessary. I clean the outsides of the neck before sizing. You only need to lube the insides of the necks if your die has an expander ball.

Jerry

[Brent]

I clean primer pockets every time.

Trimming is done every other time usually, keeping the cases shorter than the chambers OAL by .003" - .005" at minimum, the initial trimming is usually back by .007" - .008" though.

When I'm FL or NK sizing, I always trim "after" I size the cases, never before. The case will grow if you FL size them, then they aren't a consistant length anymore if you trimmed "first."

Flash holes get deburred initally and I never mess with them again...

I never have used lube with the Redding TNitride coated bushings, never have used any other though. I use a slight amount of lube on the neck with the other standard NK dies, even though I doubt it's needed.

If I have to use an expander ball, which I avoid, it's a carbide one of Reddings. Depending on how much it's opening the neck up, it may or may not get lubed too. Just ironing out dented necks on new cases or opening up a thou or two it works fine enough with no lube.

As soon as the necks start to get sooted up, or after 4-5 loadings, which ever comes first, they get annealed too.

[Nighthawk]

How often should you size the neck only versus the whole case?

[Mysticplayer]

I neck size until the case becomes stiff to chamber. Usually, the case is near the end of its lifespan anyways so I rarely FL size.

Some use the Redding body dies to bump the case so that chambering becomes easy again. In very tight BR type chambers, FL sizing is almost never done or necessary.

If your cases are getting tough to chamber after three or four firings, chances are you have the pressure throttle open a little bit too much, have too much headspace or a very generous production/SAAMI sized chamber. Most cartridges running near or slightly over max pressures will survive 6 to 10 neck sizings without any chambering problems.

Brass from cartridges like the 6BR and PPC in tight chambers will outlive the barrel.

Jerry

[ 07-11-2003: Message edited by: S1 ]

[Wheat]

S1, I noticed in your last post that you said FL resize every time you reload a case. I have a .308 that I have only been neck sizing for. Most of my cases have been loaded 3-4 times each and I was planning to use them at least a few more times without FL resizing. Is there any risk to this if the cases are not showing any signs of hardening or neck splitting? Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Wheat [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]