I've never started loading from new brass before. I have some new Alpha 6mm Creedmoor brass I am going to load. I assume I won't be sizing the brass at first, or at least not bumping the shoulder. Should I run a mandrel through the neck and then neck size only (without touching the shoulder)? I am using a Redding Type S Bushing Full Length size die. Or do I just load the brass and shoot it? Clearly I don't know what I am doing here.
Loading new brass
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I've not bought alpha, but have seen pics, packaged real nice, I would chamfer and fire it if mine, if you feel inconsistencies in seating force, may revisit that, only you know the accuracy desired from it.
I’d say it depends on what you’re normal neck diameter/tension is as compared to the new brass. I run virgin brass over a mandrel always, as well as inside chamfer. No need to put it in a sizer. I have very good luck with virgin brass in general. Keep in mind the alpha may have less internal capacity that whatever you normally shoot. I’ve never shot it, but heard it’s pretty thick stuff.
Alpha is some thick brass but seems to be very well made. I know a guy that’s sort of an insider with the guys at alpha. He gets their brass early and tests it. I have no idea how he worked his way into that role but he loves the brass.
I would chamfer, de burr, and shoot it.
Thays is all I do with my new brass.
I would chamfer, de burr, and shoot it.
Thays is all I do with my new brass.
You can never duplicate the exact tension of new brass, no matter what you do, there is no impurities imparted in the necks of new compared to fired brass.
I think that’s true with any brass of different batches (number of firings, lot, etc.), but to what degree does it matter? Just the other day, based upon a post here, I took 10 randomly selected 1x lapua 6.5 CM cases, and 10 random virgin lapua cases. 1x cases were fl sized, virgin cases were run over a mandrel, and inside chamfered. I charged them at the same time with R16, and seated unsorted 147 eld’s. The velocity averages were 10 fps apart, with the virgin being slower (2667 vs 2677) for the initial chrono’d sample. The 1x edged the virgin in SD (3.2 vs 5.6). I consider the variation between the two to be a non issue. I shot these over two days in hot and cold temps, and they routinely shot to the exact same POI from 640 to 980 yards. I also had 6x fired loads with me, and they too were right in line with the virgin and 1x brass. Only thing new about any of this for me was the side by side shooting using a developed load, but this matches my previous experience till now. If anyone struggles with virgin brass, I believe the cause lies in not uniforming the necks for size and chamfer.
After my previous experiences, I wouldn't use fresh, unfired brass for load development (with "reading the pressure tea leaves" of brass/primers) but I think it's fine for firing so long as the necks aren't dinged in. Even my lapua brass had some dings in the neck/mouth due to their packaging and shipping. If they are dinged, I'd just run a neck sizer through it without touching the shoulder, no point in working the brass more.
I don't use neck mandrels so I deburr the flash holes (depends on the brand), lube it, size it (mostly to clean up the neck ID), tumble it to clean the lube, chamfer and deburr, load and shoot.
If your die is set to bump the shoulder back .001 - .002 you likely won't even touch the shoulder on a batch of fresh brass so don't worry about it.
If your die is set to bump the shoulder back .001 - .002 you likely won't even touch the shoulder on a batch of fresh brass so don't worry about it.
