BC Sportsman
Member
New to reloading (but have done lots of loading using only new brass) so this is a real newbie question. I have 100 cases of once fired Gunwerks brass. Almost all were fired from my new rifle (300 Win Mag) but a few were fired from another rifle of the same caliber. Unfortunately, the cases are mixed together because I did not anticipate that I would be reloading the cases. I recently decided to "go green" and recycle and am regretting my lack of foresight.
How can I determine which case was fired in my older rifle so that I don't have to full length resize all of them? I'm thinking of measuring the headspace on each fired case as well as the case body diameter just in front of the belt and then separate them into the two groups by significant measurement differences. Will that work?
If I determine the max head space dimension for my new rifle using the "close the bolt on a new case with a partially seated fired primer" method and then set my sizing die to bump all my brass by 0.002" (after confirming that the bumped cases will chamber properly), then do I need to worry about whether the brass was once fired in another rifle? I just ordered a Forster Datum tool to do this measurement.
If my once fired brass in both by new and old rifles didn't expand enough to allow a 0.002" bump, then is it still safe to use them without bumping happening? I'm guessing I would effectively be neck sizing using the Redding Type S FL bushing die until I have had enough firings that have more fully fire formed the brass to the chamber so that I have enough expansion to enable a 0.002" bump sizing.
Appreciate any advice.
How can I determine which case was fired in my older rifle so that I don't have to full length resize all of them? I'm thinking of measuring the headspace on each fired case as well as the case body diameter just in front of the belt and then separate them into the two groups by significant measurement differences. Will that work?
If I determine the max head space dimension for my new rifle using the "close the bolt on a new case with a partially seated fired primer" method and then set my sizing die to bump all my brass by 0.002" (after confirming that the bumped cases will chamber properly), then do I need to worry about whether the brass was once fired in another rifle? I just ordered a Forster Datum tool to do this measurement.
If my once fired brass in both by new and old rifles didn't expand enough to allow a 0.002" bump, then is it still safe to use them without bumping happening? I'm guessing I would effectively be neck sizing using the Redding Type S FL bushing die until I have had enough firings that have more fully fire formed the brass to the chamber so that I have enough expansion to enable a 0.002" bump sizing.
Appreciate any advice.