Once fired brass?????

[ulen mn]

I have a question about my one fired brass I have started to messure it and it has been comming out at 1.835 to 1.836 with a occasonal 1.840 to 1.842. All the brass is Hornady from my factory loads, is this going to be a problem since the trim to length is 1.840? I am using a Frankford Arsenal caliper not the most expensive out there ($24.00 at the sporting goods store) or should I be resizing the brass and then checking it for trim length?? Hand loading is all new to me and I want to do it right and safe. Besides the speer manual #13 that dont have any info about the .204 in it only other refferance I have at this time is everybody on here and the internet itself. I want to make loads that are as close to identical as possible that shoot tight patterns or as tight as I can shoot the patterns. Thanks to all that answer this question. Ulen MN

[Lee C.]

ulen, You should resize your brass befor you trim it as it will grow some what when you resize it. I keep all my brass at 1.842 for loading, any thing under that i use it to foul my barrel befor i try shooting any groups. They will grow the more there shoot. I think most the guys keep there brass at 1.840 for lenght. Keeping your brass all the same lenght is a good step for better accuracy.

[skipper]

Once you fireform the brass in your rifle it is custom fitted to that rifle. As long as you don't intend to fire it in another rifle, just neck size it. It does need to be trimmed, chamfered and deburred. Without measuring the length of your chamber to determine maximum case length, I would trim them all to the shortest length. If I only had a few that were 1.836 and the rest were 1.837 or longer I would just trim them to 1.837. The short ones might grow some more over the next few firings.

[Gmoney]

Skipper,

I did just what you said in your abvove post about neck sizing but I think the shoulder needs to be bumped down a bit as the bolt close is a little resistant. I'm going to run them through a FL sizer, neck size again and then check OAL...

[skipper]

Sorry, I've been out of town for the last couple of days. I answered before my meetings started and haven't had a chance to get back with you until now.

Fire forming brass to a particular rifle is one of the roads to accurate ammo. Once you have fire formed brass you shouldn't Full Length size it until it's absolutely necessary. Just neck size it with a bushing neck sizing die or raise your full length die so that it just sizes the neck. Sooner or later it will lose some of its elasticity and not spring back after firing. You'll know when this happens because the bolt will get hard to close or the brass might seem hard to extract. When that time comes it's time to bump the shoulders back a little. That is best accomplished by raising the FL die in the press so that it just contacts the case shoulder and them lower it in 1/8 turn increments until it compresses the shoulders enough to chamber easily. It's also probably time to anneal it to return some of the lost elasticity.

There are some important things to consider before you just neck size those fire formed cases. If you have more than one rifle you will have to keep the brass for each rifle separated since each chamber is different. The fire formed brass for one rifle might not chamber in another rifle. I keep the brass separated for both my .204s. If you are shooting a semi-automatic you will probably want to full length size every time just so that your ammo will feed and function properly. Full Length sizing after every firing work hardens the brass and will cause it to lose its elastic properties sooner. At the price of brass, that's a consideration.

[Rugerdogdog]

If you are shooting a semi-automatic you will probably want to full length size every time just so that your ammo will feed and function properly.

Skipper, you just answered one of those long wondered about questions for me!!!!!!!!! So next is, how many firings can you expect out of new Win., Remmy, Horny brass if you FL resize every time???

[skipper]

I wish I could answer that question, but I don't own a semi-auto .204. I'm sure someone will jump in and give you some idea of what you can expect. I would recommend that you learn how to check your brass for signs of case head separation. Annealing would be another valuable skill. It's really not that hard.

[Rugerdogdog]

Ya I do know the signs of head separation. I have found with the .270 that the primer pockets actually get loose around the 8th reloading before any sort of ring developes around the base though. I just bought so much 204 brass intially that I have one lot at 4 firings (it was especially accurate), the rest have not been fired twice. I was just wondering at what point folks were finding that FL sized brass was giving up the ghost.