Reloading - Looking After The Brass Cartridge Case By Matthew Cameron

[RT2506]

If you want to find out how far it is to the lands with a particular bullet here is a cheap way to do it.

Take a unprimed case and full length size it and trim it to length. Now take a cutting tool like a hack saw or drimel and cut a line from the mouth of the case down to half way into the shoulder area. Before each use full length size or just squeeze the neck tighter with your fingers. Just start a bullet into the case with your fingers. Now slip it into the chamber and close the bolt. Open the bolt and ease the round out. The bullet should have been pushed back into the case when it hit the lands. This is the to the lands OAL. Measure the OAL and start seating the bullet however deeper, away from the lands you want to try. You can pull this bullet out of the case with your fingers when you get done and use it. You will need to do this with every bullt make and weight.

[Chuck Boyer]

I know that the life of a case depends on how hard you push the round pressure wise and how many times you trim the case. You did not mention annealing. If you can, please enlighten your readers of the pros and cons of this procedure as it would be related to this topic. Thanks Chuck

[davewilson]

you can forget the sorting of the cases by weight or volume. it makes absolutly no difference.

[bryan c]

I prefer using bushing dies for my resizing and like having total control over neck tension. However I dont have bushing dies in every caliber so one step I have added is to run the brass through the neck expander mandrel that you use to get the brass ready to turn the necks. I feel this lessens the amount of neck tension and makes it more uniform. I may be wrong but it seems to work well......great article

[kevin257]

I have a "friend" who reloads for me. I gave him a 100 rnds of once fired brass to reload for me which i had marked for id purposes. the reloads i got back was not my brass and was beat to hell and back. upon questioning he responded that my brass was old and brittle so he replaced it w/ newer brass. Is this a crock or what? I have 100s of rnds of once fired brass, some from 30 yrs ago, so is age an issue? The specific rnds in question that were reloaded were Wby 257 at most 5 yrs old. the older brass i have is 270 win. Thanks.

[RT2506]

You got ripped off. Real friends don't do this to one another. Those cases he ripped you off of run about $1.00 or so each now. I would confront him and ask him to prove that the cases were too brittle, which he will not be able to do because they were not too brittle if they were of the age you stated. I would ask to see those cases. I would be willing to bet that he will feed you a story about throwing them away or something like that. He most likely kept them for his own use or he sold them to someone else for the above mention $100.00 or so. With friends like that who needs enemies.

[bowhunthard]

Originally Posted by Capt. D

Very good read and a good place to start for folks like me that are just breaking into this game of long range precision shooting. Have narrowed my first build down to a 7 WSM or a 7 MM.

Understanding a little more about case prep which I understand, that was the crux of the article. However I read different things about run out, or being slightly off of, on, or slightly into the lands. The lands I assume in the start of the rifled portion of the barrel. How do you know that your bullet is touching the lands or not, where does this measurement come from and how is it obtained?

While this was an informative read to me, and I may be asking these questions in the wrong place, where might I find more information on precision reloading and that is hopefully simplified eough for a beginner to understand. I have a habit that when I decide that I am going to do something I tend to jump in head first. I recently received my NF glass for my build. Now all that I have to do is decide on a cal.

Buy a Hornady Lock-N-Load O.A.L. Gauge, you won't regret it. This is by far the most accurate way to measure how far your bullet is from the rifling. If you really want to get serious about consistent measurements, get the Hornady Bullet Comparator also. Good luck.

My 22-250 Savage 12LRPV likes a .0255" jump to the lands with 52gr Speer HPs, and my .308 700 VTR likes a 0.076" jump with 178gr A-MAXs. Haven't fiddled enough with my other guns yet, I just bought the O.A.L. Gauge about 2 months ago, along with the Comparator. Couldn't be more pleased.