Virgin brass vs. once fired.

[Marine sniper]

No one I shoot competitions with wet tumbles brass, it can create inconsistent neck tension / release issues.

 

[Rosebud]

No one I shoot competitions with wet tumbles brass, it can create inconsistent neck tension / release issues.

I use corn cob media, what is your method?

 

[Mark37082]

I'm a little different from others here! On ammo I'm only hunting with I do load development with whatever bullet I intend to use, using the Virgin brass. Then load up the remaining seventy five or eighty rounds and hunt with it for the next couple of years. When I'm down to about twenty or so then I neck shoulder bump, then reload knowing I'll have to drop the charge a touch and work up. Components are far to expensive to just shoot up hundreds of hammer bullets and primers to get second or third firings as some reccomend. When the Virgin brass will shoot great. I tell this the people I load for, when you have shot these up come back, we will work up another load for the once fired. Or maybe my pockets just aren't as deep as others. If it was PRC shooting I'd go a different route.

Sometimes I get a little carried away and buy more than I actually need. I've got 100 or so new Peterson 280AI brass left. I'm going to load it for hunting and a little bit of trueing the load for virgin brass. The virgin brass with HH143 is shooting very well.

 

[GLTaylor]

Does that mean that fire forming is only fire forming, or is there useful information to be gleaned from that process?
I have a couple of ladders put together with vigin ADG brass and Hammers. Should I pull the bullets and use Hornadys for the first firing?

You can sometimes get very accurate loads when you are fireforming new brass.
If you are fortunate enough to find a good load during workup, nothing wrong with loading the rest of your brass with that load and using it for hunting.
Just understand that once you've shot those up, you'll have to re-work your load for the once fired brass. Not usually hard. Just drop back about 1.5 grs and go up again till you get good velocity and grouping with the once fired.

 

[TXTrained]

Hello,

I worked up a load with virgin 280 AI Petersen brass. It shot great, roughly 1/2 MOA with an ES of 6fps.

I wet tumbled the bras, annealed it, Re-sized and the exactly copied the original load…sme lot of primers, powder, bullets etc. seating depth the same.

It e fed up shooting over MOA, the velocity was 30 fps faster and the ES was in the 20's.

Oh, I also used the same expander mandrel.

What gives?

I figured I messed up annealing it.

Conversely, I worked up a load with once fired 300 WSM brass…..all the same prep…..it shoots great. All touching.

I throw the same powder charge, primer, powder etc….and I ran it through a the same die to make sure the neck tension was the same as the once fired.

It shot terribly.

Anyone else have the same experience?

I can't speak for anyone but myself.
I have my GS cut two barrel/ chambers and one is just a donor barrel tge other is the shooter .Fire Forming Brass wears out the barrel/chamber and reduces barrel life.We can't afford to lose 400 shots fire forming.
Before I started using a dedicated fire forming barrel I just shot my bew brass as you have.It also shot well on beware brass.
Dealing with an Ackkey Improved chamber magnifies the problem you're experiencing. It did mine as well.
I had to increase my charge slightly..y seating depth changed also.
I started 1/2 grain below where I was with new brass and worked up in .02 until I found my best node and fine tuned from there.
On my last build I just veen shoiting tge new brass because I'm waiting on my Custom A.I. resuzing die .I was impatient and wanted to shooting this rifle
Good Luck

 

[Bud LaRoche]

No one I shoot competitions with wet tumbles brass, it can create inconsistent neck tension / release issues.

One can wet tumble directly after the range. Any of those possibilities of dings and or neck tension inconsistency mentioned would be removed during the reloading process

 

[AZ82New]

No one I shoot competitions with wet tumbles brass, it can create inconsistent neck tension / release issues.

I have done both. I started wet tumbling because it cleans the primer pockets.

Are you dry tumbling and taking the time to manually clean all the pockets?!?

 

[Pudgy]

I have done both. I started wet tumbling because it cleans the primer pockets.

Are you dry tumbling and taking the time to manually clean all the pockets?!?

I shoot F-class. getting sub 6 inch 20 shot groups at 1K , 3 shot sub .5 groups at 300. Never clean brass or primer pockets.

Used to clean brass, wasn't near as consistent as just leaving them alone, so o don't do it anymore

 

[DDB TX]

Newb quetion: So is everyone here just neck sizing their fire formed brass? Or full length sizing?

 

[Bud LaRoche]

I shoot F-class. getting sub 6 inch 20 shot groups at 1K , 3 shot sub .5 groups at 300. Never clean brass or primer pockets.

Used to clean brass, wasn't near as consistent as just leaving them alone, so o don't do it anymoreiv

I shoot F-class. getting sub 6 inch 20 shot groups at 1K , 3 shot sub .5 groups at 300. Never clean brass or primer pockets.

Used to clean brass, wasn't near as consistent as just leaving them alone, so o don't do it anymore

I had good experience with this as well. What case lube did you use ? Did you just wipe it off with a rag ?

 

[Bud LaRoche]

Newb quetion: So is everyone here just neck sizing their fire formed brass? Or full length sizing?

Both when using a FL neck bushing die. Then mandrel

 

[Rosebud]

Newb quetion: So is everyone here just neck sizing their fire formed brass? Or full length sizing?

I use a foster neck, shoulder bump bushing die.

 

[Tiny Tim]

I usually do seating depth test with my virgin brass. If building/buying a new rifle, I've found I can find an accurate load with virgin brass if I want to "fire form" a couple cases while hunting. Load will change with formed cases.

Otherwise I will develop a load with once fired brass. I haven't noticed a great deal of change in load after once fired. Then I will use a few of the virgin loads to foul the bore after a thorough cleaning. I have a factory Remington 700 SPS that takes about 10 shots to really stabilize the bore after cleaning to bare metal. You can always shoot a few during your range sessions and you will eventually fife form it all.

 

[Cruiser172]

Curious, who cleans and FLS virgin brass before loading?