Virgin Brass Prep

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Jan 26, 2016
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I’ve got 200 PCs of SRP 6.5 creed Lapua bass on the way. Until now I’ve only been loading fired brass from factory Hornady ammo.

How do you prep virgin brass so it’s ready to go? Is the 1st firing more or less burning components so you can get to real load development?

Equipment I have:

Redding Type s FL die with .289 bushing
Sinclair expander die with 6.5 bushing
Forster ultra micrometer seating die
Forester trimmer

I’m assuming I need to measure a loaded round with the lapua bras and buy the appropriate neck bushing.

Thanks in advance for the tips, tricks and advice.

Edit to add this is Lapua brass



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Rob5589

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Depends on the brass quality. I'm using Norma currently and all I did was measure for length, check neck sizing, then loaded them. If I use something like Remington brass, I size, trim to spec, uniform primer pockets and flash holes, then load.
 

Rich M

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I treat em just like once or more fired brass.

size, trim, etc. shoot, repeat.

I will load up a batch of never fired brass as my hunting loads. No issues doing that.
 

Trippy

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You can get close on bushing size by measuring the wall thickness of the case neck. Although not a perfect tool, a dial caliper will get the job done. My Lapua 308 win brass is .014-.015 thick. Could also borrow a SAAMI FL size die to load a dummy round for measuring.
 
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T28w

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You can get close on bushing size by measuring the wall thickness of the case neck. Although not a perfect tool but a dial caliper when get the job done. My Lapua 308 win brass is .014-.015 thick, if they were 6.5 CM that .289 bushing wouldn't provide any neck tension. Would need something in the .282-.284 neighborhood. Could also borrow a SAAMI FL size die to load a dummy round for measuring.
If u are suggesting he is going to need .282-84 for 6.5 creed and lapua brass, I’ve never seen someone using those size bushings. Everywhere I looked .289,.290,.291 were recommended. .290 is what I ended up using initially.
 

T28w

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Also I had read some people having issues with virgin brass and damaging bullets during seating due to too much neck tension and rec using an expander. I went with the K&m expander but ended up having to to little neck tension after the expander was used. I would seat a bullet and never feel any pressure/resistance as bullet was seated. Confirmed it was the correct cbto and then put mod light pressure on the tip of bullet and it would seat about .030 more. Confirmed this on three shells and then just ran the shells thru the die to resize the neck and had no issues. I took the expander ball out for this.

What I would if I was u is find out what u want ur cbto to be. Take a virgin piece of brass and make sure case mouth is not dented, and start dialing in the seating depth on ur seating die. U should be able to feel the bullet seat at the top of the stroke but will be light. Not “force” just feel the bullet seating. If you are having to force the bullet, then consider using an expander and retry.

Get this dialed in prior to seating bullets in cases with primer/powder.
 

Trippy

Lil-Rokslider
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If u are suggesting he is going to need .282-84 for 6.5 creed and lapua brass, I’ve never seen someone using those size bushings. Everywhere I looked .289,.290,.291 were recommended. .290 is what I ended up using initially.
Bad assumption on my end that 6.5 CM measured 6.5 mm instead of .264
 

T28w

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Bad assumption on my end that 6.5 CM measured 6.5 mm instead of .264
Lol. Ur weren’t wrong just not exactly right.
U said .014-.015 neck thickness, well both sides of the neck plus a .264 bullet is .292-.294. Thus why the .289-.291 bushing are what most end up needing.

U lost me on the 6.5mm and .264 unless it was subtle sarcasm. 😂
 

Trippy

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Lol. Ur weren’t wrong just not exactly right.
U said .014-.015 neck thickness, well both sides of the neck plus a .264 bullet is .292-.294. Thus why the .289-.291 bushing are what most end up needing.

U lost me on the 6.5mm and .264 unless it was subtle sarcasm. 😂
6.5 mm is .256 inches in the real world 😉
 

Harvey_NW

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Chamfer the case mouth, run em over the expander ball to get any dings out, load em up.
 
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