# New Brass Case Prep



## Surculus Solitudo (Aug 18, 2009)

Again, I know this is basically a handgun forum, but handloaders ofter load both handgun and rifle cartridges. Here's my question:

I will be using some new Winchester .243 brass to reload with. The Lyman manual says I do not need to size new factory brass. When I was inspecting the brass, I noticed some of the necks were not completely round so I am wondering how good the quality control is on the rest of casing. I am thinking of running the brass through the sizing process even though they are new. 

What do you think is proper case prep for new brass whether rifle or handgun? Thanks!


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## ROBINPA (Sep 11, 2009)

After a visual inspection and finding some discrepancies i would just run them thru the resizing die , it really wont add that much time to the loading process , better safe than sorry.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

The only new brass I have purchased and loaded was Winchester .357.
On initial inspection I found that the mouth was cut on an angle with one side .010 longer than the other. I trimmed it, resized it and loaded up. They had to be trimmed shorter than spec in order to square them up.

My results were terrible. Approximately 10% of the rounds failed to go bang. To make a very long story short, I finaly determined the Primer Pockets were not punched properly. It was necessary to cut the bottom of the primer pockets with a uniforming tool. After doing so I have had zero failures to go boom. The same batches of primer and powder were used before and after in the same loading setup.

I will not purchase another Winchester brand case. I will not purchase new cases for a pistol unless I absolutely have to. Once fired cases are much more uniform than raw new stock and their color says if they went bang or not.

Check every aspect of your new Winchester brass that you can.

I think they are having it made in china with worn out tooling. There is no excuse for what I found in this century.

tumbleweed


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## ROBINPA (Sep 11, 2009)

Have to agree on the quality of some of the new brass "it stinks" i am fortunate to have plenty of 38/357 and 44 mag brass . After shopping around i found i can buy Federal 40s&w loaded ammo about $2.00 more a hundred than what i would have to pay for new empty brass.


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