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New brass prep

Matt_3479

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 12, 2009
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New rifle is in the works and should hopefully be done end of the month or early February. I have new 6mm creedmoor alpha brass and Redding type s bushing fl die set and titanium bushings. I’m wondering what you guys do for new brass prep. Would love to have everything ready for when rifle arrives?
 
I resize all new brass. Most likely the die will not touch the shoulder but it uniforms the case necks and rounds out any dents. Then I'll trim them, uniform the primer pocket and debur the flash hole. I do this even on Lapua or Norma.
 
918v , what is your source for the powdered graphite ?
Thanks !
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spife7980 , Thank You !
Yep, its easy.

For sizing:
If you use imperial wax on the bodies then its no problem with a quick dunk.
If you use a spray lube that also indiscriminately gets on/in the neck or shoulders then the little ceramic balls can stick to the neck after a dip, just a short tap should knock them off. I kept a little bowl or butter dish or something there to knock the case against so the balls dont go everywhere when they unstick. The little tin isnt quite hefty enough to tap against without me fearing Ill tip it over.

For seating:
If you cleaned the cases after sizing then they should dip with no sticking. While dipping just the bullet may not work as well as the case, I did notice a marked improvement over undipped when I was having heavy seating pressure issues. and then I didnt have graphite all over the outside of the necks after.
 
My tip with that application media is to dump out one third and shake the shit out of it

What is your favorite graphite powder? Is it the Redding as well? Just dip the case before seating, then after seating wipe neck for any left over residue?
 
I talk like I know what I am talking about, but I have yet to seat a bullet. :) Been reading like crazy and accumulating tools and materials for weeks now. I am very close to getting going. Awaiting my A&D scale to show up and a few other odds and ends. But I have been following this topic closely (here and in other threads).

My planned workflow is going to include wet tumbling, annealing, full length resizing (via Redding bushing) and neck expansion (Sinclair mandrel). With all of this done after each firing. Especially given the cleaning and annealing steps, I read of this being a potential driver for higher pressure required for bullet seating plus hints of an increasing bond (molecular? electrochemical such as galvanic corrosion?) between bullet and neck wall over time. Which to me means that while care is given to set neck tension, factors beyond pure tension can impact the grip/adhesion level between the bullet and the neck interior. With some advocates not wanting to clean or anneal so that the inside of the neck maintains some level of material (carbon?) left over from prior firings to act as both a lubricant and barrier to prevent bullet to neck bonding.

So at this moment if someone (like me) plans to extensively clean the brass as well as anneal, that some type of lubricant (such as a dry lubricant) inside the neck is a good thing. I see people can measure seating force via what I assume is something like a load cell and arbor press. Has anyone done something like a study of the force to remove a bullet from a case once seated? With time (days, weeks, months) as the variable? if there was a correlation then I can see that velocity may vary depending upon how long the ammo has sat after being loaded? And to go along with this potential, that the use of something like a dry lubricant can maybe help both bullet seating as well as prevent unintended bullet to neck wall bonds from developing?

Thoughts? This may very well be ground previously covered and I am just catching up.
 
I talk like I know what I am talking about, but I have yet to seat a bullet. :) Been reading like crazy and accumulating tools and materials for weeks now. I am very close to getting going. Awaiting my A&D scale to show up and a few other odds and ends. But I have been following this topic closely (here and in other threads).

My planned workflow is going to include wet tumbling, annealing, full length resizing (via Redding bushing) and neck expansion (Sinclair mandrel). With all of this done after each firing. Especially given the cleaning and annealing steps, I read of this being a potential driver for higher pressure required for bullet seating plus hints of an increasing bond (molecular? electrochemical such as galvanic corrosion?) between bullet and neck wall over time. Which to me means that while care is given to set neck tension, factors beyond pure tension can impact the grip/adhesion level between the bullet and the neck interior. With some advocates not wanting to clean or anneal so that the inside of the neck maintains some level of material (carbon?) left over from prior firings to act as both a lubricant and barrier to prevent bullet to neck bonding.

So at this moment if someone (like me) plans to extensively clean the brass as well as anneal, that some type of lubricant (such as a dry lubricant) inside the neck is a good thing. I see people can measure seating force via what I assume is something like a load cell and arbor press. Has anyone done something like a study of the force to remove a bullet from a case once seated? With time (days, weeks, months) as the variable? if there was a correlation then I can see that velocity may vary depending upon how long the ammo has sat after being loaded? And to go along with this potential, that the use of something like a dry lubricant can maybe help both bullet seating as well as prevent unintended bullet to neck wall bonds from developing?

Thoughts? This may very well be ground previously covered and I am just catching up.

Youre right, they use a hydro arbor press such as the 21st century or k&m, usuaes special seating dies, not those that screw into your normal press.
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There have been some studies but none that I have bookmarked, usually its just been a few posts in threads etc, nothing super organized. More observations than anything but enough observations make a data pool large enough to tell that something is occurring.

What some people do is to seat them long and then before firing they will seat the deeper to the final location. Those people note that it takes a significant amount of force to get the bullet to move, presumably due to the galvanic corrosion or whatever its called thats occurring between the dissimilar metals. And yes, some people use a graphite or some sort of mica lube in the necks to create a barrier between the case and bullet and inhibit the corrosion.
 
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I dip the case neck, tap it on cap to remove exces.
Then use wax on the body to size, no more chatter on expander.

I process new brass same as used to be consistant, just skip the first tumble.
Trimming has not been necessary and some has flash hole deburred some not.

The polish on the case helps keep it cleaner inside and out.
 
I have not seen it mentioned yet so I'll do so , has anyone used HBN to coat/lube? the bullets in conjunction with neck lube ?
I've been using HBN coated bullets with no neck lube , only vibratory cleaning with rice and it works for me so far . Would you think the graphite and HBN would work together ? . I started using HBN to prevent the bonding between brass& bullet and it works for me . I can't see any difference between fresh loads and six month old rounds .
Thanks !
 
Was doing the qtip thing but it is slower than dunk and tap.
Cannot say which is best but excess dry lube is dry not wet incase of a mistake?

I dont know of a way to test that, it is faster.
 
Some #2 or 4 shot pellets in the graphite neck lube container works well for dunking the necks and preventing a clump in there. I then wipe the outside of the necks and load. Alternatively, you can load the rounds a tad long and final seat them a day or two before you shoot for score. But, in fact, I only do the aforementioned when I think the rounds might not be fired for a few weeks. On rounds to be fired within a few days; I don't find either necessary. All of these techniques will produce single to low double digit ES's if your other variables are under control.
 
This topic has interested me for a while since I exclusively us clean in a lab grade cleaner and very often have rounds loaded for maybe a year before fired occasionally. I’d like to do a test with and without dry neck lube all loaded the same day and then shot and chronoed the same day 3 or four months later. Is this worth messing with? Or has this been done. I’m thinking about 10-15 rounds of each. Opinions?
 
This topic has interested me for a while since I exclusively us clean in a lab grade cleaner and very often have rounds loaded for maybe a year before fired occasionally. I’d like to do a test with and without dry neck lube all loaded the same day and then shot and chronoed the same day 3 or four months later. Is this worth messing with? Or has this been done. I’m thinking about 10-15 rounds of each. Opinions?

I can say I've pulled bullets with a collet style bullet puller the same day as loading and a two years later. The rounds loaded 2 years earlier were VERY difficult to pull without annihilating the bullet. Neither were loaded with dry neck lube.

After this, I am a firm believer in dry neck lube when bullet seating.
 
Question about the cold welding efects.
Does crimping negate affects of the cold welding?
Or does the cold welding still show up in groups?