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Hi folks

I'm happy knowing what I need to do to prep once-fired brass both from the same rifle and ones that a friend donated. Just want to be certain on what I need to do with new brass. Do I need to run it through a resizing die or can I just slightly chamfer the neck and prime, charge and seat the bullet?

Many thanks

Donald

At the least you would need to neck size. First thing I would suggest you do is see if the 'new' brass chambers easily in your rifle, if it does prepare your brass as normal, if not you will need to full length size.

One of my 7,62x51's has a NATO chamber at the upper limit, I am yet to find once shot brass that does not chamber with ease.

Thanks Ovenpaa, will do as you suggest

Donald

Donald, what is the cartridge size and make of brass?

if its not been fired in your rifle full length size, trim to length, dish inside pocket, uniform primer pocket

greenshoots

ovenpaa wrote:Donald, what is the cartridge size and make of brass?

Its 303 and Norma brass. Chambered fine in my No1 and No4, so neck sized, chamfered, uniformed the primer pocket and it seemed to work OK. Dimensions of completed rounds all seem to match my factory PPU.

Will see how they go tomorrow at the range.

Donald

Urgh... .303 is the one round I reload but am never totally happy about, I do not get particularly good case life from my .303's

Urgh... .303 is the one round I reload but am never totally happy about, I do not get particularly good case life from my .303's

Strange I have re loaded more ammo for .303 than any other caliber and never had a problem with case life. It is a easy cartridge to load for. What components are you using.
What bullit powder combination etc.

I have to concur about the .303 being one of the easiest of calibres to load for.

Case life has never been an issues in any of my 303s, I assuming the headspace on your rifles are fine David?

Headspace is reasonable on both my .303's however I scrapped a fair amount of good brass with a rather tired SMLE in my early days and this has put me off loading for the .303. I reload for the 4(T) when needed but last time out I purchased 200 rounds of S&B as it was a good price with the plan to use the brass afterwards and I still have a couple of boxes of the stuff left to go.

I consider myself to be a reasonably competent reloader but I would happily spend a morning with an experienced .303 loader to see if I could learn any tips or areas in which I could modify my .303 reloading practice. Saying this strikes me as odd when considering what we do load in the house and the levels of accuracy we get.