Virgin brass

[Suicideprodigy]

I am currently doing as much research as possible while trying to get into reloading. I have a custom 300 win mag rifle coming in soon. And I'm trying to piece all my reloading stuff together through research.

My questions begin with brand new brass. Everything I see relates to fire formed brass. Do I actually need to use resized fire formed brass of the same manufacturer to find my lands measurement? I like Johnny's idea of taking a die grinder to a piece of brass and having the lands push it into the case. Should I just load some rounds to saami spec in order to get intial measurements?

Is it standard practice to seat bullets in the brass, measure, THEN order a bushing?

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

y questions begin with brand new brass. Everything I see relates to fire formed brass. Do I actually need to use resized fire formed brass of the same manufacturer to find my lands measurement? I like Johnny's idea of taking a die grinder to a piece of brass and having the lands push it into the case. Should I just load some rounds to saami spec in order to get intial measurements?

No, you don't need to use resized brass to find your touch/lands measurement. If using the hornady OAL tool, the cases they have will work just fine.
Yes, you can also cut slits in the brass, but I found it less consistent than the hornady tool.
If you'd like to do it without special tools, the wheeler method works well too,



You don't need to load them prior to getting a lands measurement. You will need to fire them and then measure to check your case growth and headspace measurement for later case resizing efforts.

 

[Suicideprodigy]

No, you don't need to use resized brass to find your touch/lands measurement. If using the hornady OAL tool, the cases they have will work just fine.
Yes, you can also cut slits in the brass, but I found it less consistent than the hornady tool.
If you'd like to do it without special tools, the wheeler method works well too,



You don't need to load them prior to getting a lands measurement. You will need to fire them and then measure to check your case growth and headspace measurement for later case resizing efforts.

Rex,
Appreciate the wealth of knowledge shared. That method of finding lands would be great, I'll try that.