I read all the time about people just loading up brand new brass without resizing much less tumbling and as of late with the brass Ive been loading I feel the need to make a PSA. This may be common knowledge for most but Ive been amazed at just how dirty new brass is. I always full length size new brass and tumble after sizing because Im lazy and don't want to take the case lube off individually with a towel.
Hornady brass has been pretty good and takes little effort to resize but I do get quite a bit of brass "dust" in the bottom of my bowl when I dump the brass and SS pins through the strainer. No big deal and I doubt it would really hurt anything should it get shot out of the barrel. Ive been very happy with the consistency of hornady brass, the necks are uniform and have taken some pretty hot loads and are still kickin.
Winchester brass on the other hand, I don't know if I got a bad lot or what but man that stuff is terrible. Just by the eye you can tell the necks are not uniform at all, even quite a few of them have imperfections in the neck
What really surprised me was how dirty the water was after tumbling it. It literally looked like what I see after cleaning fired brass along with a bunch of brown little seed looking things. When I was chamfering the case necks I could feel how inconsistent the necks were as the cutters of the awl spun in the neck. I doubt I will buy any more Winchester. This is for my 300WM which I have plenty of other brass for now but this was intended to get the barrel nice and ready for being stretched out. We will see if the neck problem shows up 100yds or not.
All of this is to say don't take for granted that because its new brass that its ready to go, even after sizing. Im not super anal about primer pocket uniforming or deburring flash holes but the junk in some of the new brass I find is pretty disturbing.
Hornady brass has been pretty good and takes little effort to resize but I do get quite a bit of brass "dust" in the bottom of my bowl when I dump the brass and SS pins through the strainer. No big deal and I doubt it would really hurt anything should it get shot out of the barrel. Ive been very happy with the consistency of hornady brass, the necks are uniform and have taken some pretty hot loads and are still kickin.
Winchester brass on the other hand, I don't know if I got a bad lot or what but man that stuff is terrible. Just by the eye you can tell the necks are not uniform at all, even quite a few of them have imperfections in the neck
What really surprised me was how dirty the water was after tumbling it. It literally looked like what I see after cleaning fired brass along with a bunch of brown little seed looking things. When I was chamfering the case necks I could feel how inconsistent the necks were as the cutters of the awl spun in the neck. I doubt I will buy any more Winchester. This is for my 300WM which I have plenty of other brass for now but this was intended to get the barrel nice and ready for being stretched out. We will see if the neck problem shows up 100yds or not.
All of this is to say don't take for granted that because its new brass that its ready to go, even after sizing. Im not super anal about primer pocket uniforming or deburring flash holes but the junk in some of the new brass I find is pretty disturbing.