Brass sizing.................

Reloader310

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Feb 8, 2012
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I always resize my brass when I reload. However. This past weekend, I had a conversation with a gunsmith. He told me that if the brass is always shot through the same gun that resizing is not necessary.

Anybody want to weigh in on this? Cause I'm skeptical!
 
Total BS!

Brass expands to hit the chamber wall and then springs back. It does this every time you fire it except the the brass work hardens and the springback is less and less each time. 3-5 loadings and you will get heavy bolt lift (normally felt and a click).

You will also get hard chambering which wipes the lube off the lugs and leads to galling and major repairs if you keep tryings that.

Get a good FL die and change out the decapper to get rid of the expander. Use an expanding mandrel when needed.

NS only leads to the same thing. You still have to size the body every 3-5 shots and the cases are varied in dimensions due to the springback variance. Most who urge NS only never use a good blade micrometer or they would see the variances.
 
I always size my brass. You mite get away with not sizing brass in a smaller caliber auto pistol even then Id be skeptical myself.
 
For my custom 257WBY after I shoot reloads after the first FULL SIZE I only need to neck size that brass and it fits well after doing so!!
 
I'm sure the gunsmith meant 'full length' sizing.

But;
If the cartridge is highly improved, the chamber is fully fitted, and load pressures are moderate, then it actually is possible to reload with only shoulder bumping.
If the shoulder angles are high enough(45-60deg),, occasional bumping.
Little of this is common though.
Also;
Springback only, does not work harden brass. It takes a bit of actual sizing both directions to do this. And work hardened brass does not spring back less.
Annealed brass springs back less.
Yielding brass springs back to different dimensions.
Hardened brass and/or thicker brass, springs back more.
With this, the only way to recover over annealed necks is to cycle size them until springback(your tension) returns.
 
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