Great video, but a small correction: you said the resizing die straightens the neck from the outside, whereas the expander mandrel die straightens it from the inside. If I'm not mistaken, they are actually both straightening it from the inside, but the resizing die is doing so with an expander ball instead of a mandrel. Since the brass is virgin and the neck has not expanded from firing, the sizing function of the die is imparting little to no force on the outside of the neck.
I use LE Wilson Expanding Mandrel Die for new brass and then use a neck sizing die. After my first firing, I use the same bushing in my full sizing die.
Excellent! Why not debur the primer flash hole inside each case for more consistent ignition? Uniform primer pockets for more consistent primer seating? Why not turn necks for more consistent case wall thickness?
I'm a wet tumbler - I've noticed new brass has really "sticky" necks causing really uneven seating pressure. So I take virgin brass and run it through the steel pins for an hour to smooth out all of the little imperfections. Very smooth bullet seating!
I had no idea it was a bad decision to make a drinking game out of him saying "virgin brass"... am I going to be sick tomorrow! Seriously though, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
That's exactly what im doing with new brass, great video. Question: I was a religious wet tumbler using stainless media... I liked how clean the brass was inside and out after tumbling but... I decided to load some fired brass that had zero tumbling, no cleaning what so ever after a match. After bumping the shoulder back .001-2 thousands on non SS tumbled brass I found that bullet seating was more consistent and im assuming that the left over carbon left inside the neck helped keep seating pressure more consistent. My theory is that left over neck carbon may possibly act like a graphite coating. 100 yard groups were great as well. So I think I will skip SS tumbling unless the brass becomes very muddy from a rainy day. What are your thoughts regarding this thought process? PS I do anneal
Do you inspect the flash holes and deburr if needed? Unless I am using Lapua or similar quality brass I inspect the flash holes and uniform the primer pockets when I process virgin brass.
I will always at least uniform the primer pockets with virgin brass. Then after fire forming, resizing, and case trimming, i'll set my flash hole deburring tool and get the flash holes cleaned up and uniform.
Clickable Outline: 1:17 What Is Virgin Brass? 1:58 Measuring Cases 3:15 Fire-formed Brass 3:30 No Need To Size Virgin Brass Shoulder/Body 3:55 Case Necks Out of Round 4:57 Uniform Neck With Sizing Die Expander Stem/Ball 5:52 Uniform Neck With Expanding Mandrel 6:26 Consistent Neck Diameter
I neck size, trim, chamfer, deburr, and then wet tumbler before the first loading, regardless of who made the brass. Even Alpha and Lapua vary a bit on OAL.
From across the pond and a noobie at reloading, do I need to lube the virgin brass before full length resizing? Many thanks for your time in posting this excellent video. Kind regards Clive from deepest Dorset.
