prepping new brass
 

im going to sound like a raw rookie here, but i have never bought new unfired brass before. searching some other forums, the consensus is that for optimum accuracy its a good idea, but there are a few that refuse for a couple reasons. the arguments against are that most people dont shoot well enough to see the accuracy difference, and that every time through the stresses of the sizer is one less time that you will get a load through each piece.

i guess my simple question is, what should i be looking for in terms of safety? i was thinking id go ahead and load em up as i just want to wail a whack of lead just because its fun to blow up water ballons and cans. im not going to be anal about accuracy for round 1, i just want to shoot.....but safely. anything i need to watch for specifically?

Loose primer pockets or bad flash holes , cracked necks, basically anything that immediately strikes you as non - shootable brass.
You will be running them through your sizing die first, so the biggest thing to look for is bad case mouths, this is the main fault of factory brass.

Flash holes can also be burred so they should be cleaned up as well.
I don't trim until I have fired new brass


Cat

I run new brass through my neck bushing die, just to make sure the necks are nice and round. It may not help anything, but it certainly can't hurt anything either. I do slightly chamfer the necks inside and out of all brass, every time that I load them.

Don't know what you are reloading for...but I doub't that one more trip through your dies will work the brass enough for you to notice. Of course, new brass is safe to load "as is" ...it is however, a good idea to resize the necks as some may have small dings that will affect accuracy...but if you don't care about accuracy...just load and shoot.

I always resize new brass and inspect it for cracks and such. Other than cosmetic dings and dents, I've never had any real issues with new brass. I always check lenght and trim if required. Learnt that lesson the hard way when I got to saskatchewan with some loads that would not chamber...new brass that neede trimming.

new brass
 

First thing as stated hand check each brass case mouths for out of round.The tip of a loaded cartridge inserted and rotated by hand with fix the out of round ones enough to seat bullets.Second chamfer the inside + outside of the necks to prolong brass life and minimize stretching/wear.Some do ,I never have [exception may be auto-loaders] full length resize them.In a bolt this is not needed unless hunting something that may eat or kill you.More for peace of mind.When loaded feed them into the gun to make damned sure they cycle.I buy new brass when I run out of range brass or for obscure calibers.Should get about 10 reloads per case and trim as needed depending on caliber.....Harold

I always run 'em all over an expander mandrel (or neck size), then measure and trim them all to match the shortest one in the batch, and chamfer of course, all this time checking visually for flaws. Then deburr the flashole and should be good to go.
If its for a more precision application, then uniform the primer pockets and turn necks.

Finding deforemed or deffective necks in bulk brass like remington or Winchester is not unusual, so if one does show up , don't think about it too much, just scrap it and move one.
Using top quality brass like Lapua will eliminate stuff like weighing, sorting, flash hole uniformng, etc. and worth the money for some shooters, others prefer to use the cheaper brass for economy purposes.

Cat

brass prep
 

I always check length, but rarely have to trim. The biggest issue I have has is necks that are occasionally dinged and out of round, so i run the brass through the die to correct for it. I usually chamfer the necks as well.

Whenever I buy new brass I sort case heads down to .0001 so I can carefully watch for pressure.:)

Sorry to poach the thread, can somebody elaborate on the outside neck turning part.

The only trouble I ever had with the reloading I have done is damaged necks, but it was obvious. Had a few flashhole burrs in win brass, got a lyman deburing/uniforming tool (looks like a centre drill on a stick) I would have prefered some sort of reamer over the drill, as the drill tends to snag a bit. I throw away brass after 5 reloads, just because I dont have the skill or tooling to accuratly measure case head dia and so on. I also bumped my shoulders a bit because I was always loading hunting more than target loads.

Outside neck turning is general done to provide a uniform neck thickness,usually for applications such as target shooting where the absolute best accuracy is desired. As to how I decide that a case is past it's useful life, I use a case until either I see obvious damage to some cases in that batch, such as cracked necks, or until the primer pockets start to slacken off. Loose primer pockets are quite easily felt if you use a hand primer, so you don't really need any special tooling or special measuring skills to detect them.

Here is my preperation for virgin brass.

Bump the case into your sizing die,(usually no lube required) this is more so to true up the neck. Imperfections in the brass, and such will be sorted out on the first firing. To this your best accuracy is almost always from once fired brass.

Chamfer and deburr.
Flashole deburr. (Better brands not required)
Primer pocket uniform (Better brands not required)


Load em up!

I purchased a twenty dollar micrometer at Princess Auto and intend to sort my case heads like you do.

Question: Who many clicks on the micrometer do you use after contact is made with the brass.

It all comes down to experience graylynx you can actually feel that .0001. check crappy tire I think they have one for around $15 also keep the brass all the same temperature for expansion and contraction.

ok, form what i can gather, the new brass i just bought is the same stuff they use for factory loads. it is winchester brass for my 223. i am going to load em up and blast away. ill worry about getting serious on accuracy once i have a batch of fire formed cases. i was just unsure of whether or not they would NEED to be prepped like fired brass would, but apparently not. any with a bad mouth can be remedied easy enough. thanks for the input guys.