SD and ES due to brass shavings

[b2lee]

I had some issues with one lot of 308 that I reloaded a while back. It was the same exact process I always do. While the brass itself is mixed head stamps, I've always been able to keep ES and SD reasonable as long as prep work is exactly the same and my bullet/powder/primer combo is the same. This one lot was throwing fliers and speeds were all over the place.

So..I decided to pull some bullets and see what was up. Same bullet as always...check....annealed...check...trim length...check....powder?....wait...what is all that gold flake? Geez e pete. On this lot of brass I had forgotten to turn the brass upside down after trimming to remove the brass dust/shavings/flour out of the cases. A few of the cases were most likely some range pickup that was excessively long and required quite a bit of trimming....thus leaving a lot of brass flour in the bottom.

I have a checklist to keep me from doing stupid stuff...I'll add another entry to make sure I turn the brass upside down after trimming and tap out any shavings. I guess that one time I got in a slight hurry....and that is where the fliers from that one lot of reloads is coming from. Live and learn. I hope this helps someone else that can't figure out a random flier.

 

[Dthomas3523]

I would repeat the process with and without brass shavings in there before I decided this was the reason.

Or don’t test it. But I definitely wouldn’t assign a meaning to anything based on this.