New brass V Once Fired,

[Malxwal]

New, once fired, twice fired, regardless. The most important thing is that the brass is from one make, one lot and fired from the same rife an equal amount of times.

Consistency.

 

[bluesako]

I'll buy some PPU brass and give it a go, I'm sure it will suit me fine. I did buy two boxes of PPU 55grn SP from Spud Reloading when I was in there, hoping it would shoot okay through the gun, but it wasn't really good enough, so I gave it away to a lad who passes a few cases my way.

if it was 243 you was shooting i,d send you some once fired norma brass i hope you get sorted bs

 

[User00040]

Control headspace and your sorted.

 

[kenbro]

I bought some once-fired Federal and Hornady brass .223 and was given a few Hornady cases as well ( 53grn Superperformance ), every case needed the primer pocket worked on to seat a CCI primer because the old primers had some crimp applied. This was an oversized HSS drill kissed for a second or two, then cleaned up with a countersink.

I just wondered if buying once-fired cases is the norm, or is it a little bit of a false economy , I can see if you are getting them for nothing, or have saved your old factory ammo cases it eases the pain of prep like I just did, a couple of hundred cases and I was losing the will to live a little.

If you buy new, which cases give bang for bucks.... I'm not as far into the hole as annealing cases to get another couple of uses from them.

Thanks in advance for any replies. BD.

I think you’ll find that all Federal 223 ammo is staked, the stuff I bought last year was.
And from memory they were also plated.
Ken.

 

[wabbit warren]

I bought some once-fired Federal and Hornady brass .223 and was given a few Hornady cases as well ( 53grn Superperformance ), every case needed the primer pocket worked on to seat a CCI primer because the old primers had some crimp applied. This was an oversized HSS drill kissed for a second or two, then cleaned up with a countersink.

I just wondered if buying once-fired cases is the norm, or is it a little bit of a false economy , I can see if you are getting them for nothing, or have saved your old factory ammo cases it eases the pain of prep like I just did, a couple of hundred cases and I was losing the will to live a little.

If you buy new, which cases give bang for bucks.... I'm not as far into the hole as annealing cases to get another couple of uses from them.

Thanks in advance for any replies. BD.

for some unknown reason Hornady .223 53gn vmax are crimped in primer
the 50 or 55gn vmax or so I'm led to believe
i shoot 53gn vmax and started reloading from my superformance cases
yes i had problems with the primer seating bloody hard to press in, going in wonky or not going in at all
i looked and into it and it was the crimped lip stopping them
a debur tool a chamfer tool and a lot of time later i know what im doing now and every primer seats as it should

 

[cjs66]

Thanks for the link.

You don't need fancy tools to remove the crimp and you certainly don't need to drill them. Just give them a couple of twists of your neck deburring tool and they'll pop straight in. Don't go too hard on them either.

cjs

 

[enfieldspares]

I just wondered if buying once-fired cases is the norm, or is it a little bit of a false economy , I can see if you are getting them for nothing, or have saved your old factory ammo cases it eases the pain of prep like I just did, a couple of hundred cases and I was losing the will to live a little.

It represents, if they are truly once fired and have no issues such as military specification primer crimps good value. Look at the SD Classifieds. Once fired are usually half the price of the same new cases from retailers and without the neck dinks and dongs that some new factory Remington brand "RELCOM" bagged cases seem to have!

 

[cjs66]

It represents, if they are truly once fired and have no issues such as military specification primer crimps good value. Look at the SD Classifieds. Once fired are usually half the price of the same new cases from retailers and without the neck dinks and dongs that some new factory Remington brand "RELCOM" bagged cases seem to have!

Yep, especially Lapua. I got 100 once fired 308 Lapua, with the crimps in, for daft money. £35 to the door I think. FLS and run the deburring tool round the pocket and jobs a good’n.
Was a bit ago mind.

cjs

 

[Heym SR20]

Biggest challenge you have with “once” fired brass is provenance.

Is it really once fired or has it had multiple reloads already. Plenty of “once fired” is sourced from the bins at ranges.

By all means use once fired brass, but please make sure you know exactly where it is from.

Personally I will only use new brass, or new ammo and then save the brass.

In terms of brands, Lapua, Norma, RWS are all very good. Federal and Hornady are pretty good, but if you are on a budget PPU brass is a fraction of the price of the big brands, and won’t do as many reloads, but more than adequate for most hunting and shooting needs.

 

[enfieldspares]

Biggest challenge you have with “once” fired brass is provenance.

Is it really once fired or has it had multiple reloads already. Plenty of “once fired” is sourced from the bins at ranges.

This. One way to tell is look at the primers or to look at the "web" of the case...the area where the head thins and trasitions from case head to case wall. Fire and then sized cases usually will show a "tell tale" that you won't see on fired but not sized cases. And some factory commercial not just military ammunition has a colour around the primer annulus or on Norma the primers are or were stamped "NP".

 

[Heym SR20]

This. One way to tell is look at the primers or to look at the "web" of the case...the area where the head thins and trasitions from case head to case wall. Fire and then sized cases usually will show a "tell tale" that you won't see on fired but not sized cases. And some factory commercial not just military ammunition has a colour around the primer annulus or on Norma the primers are or were stamped "NP".

Agreed, but you need to be experienced to see this. I would always suggest to a newby is to buy new brass, or use the brass from ammo you have fired in your rifle.