Fire-formed Brass

[CaptnJack]

So far I ran about 100 rounds through my 45-70 total while also using new brass that has not been fire formed. Right now my load is 75 gr of 1.5 Old Ensford powder a.30 veggie wad and a PP 540 gr. .443 money bullet wrapped in #9 onion paper. The brass has been annealed and the case was sent through my resizing die. Mainly I'm just shooting to break in the rifle and get the feel of it. At 100 yards it shoots an 8in circle gong fairly well with a flyer every once in a while. I swab the barrel with a pig and clean, dry patch after every shot. I still have around 125 rounds to shoot so I have some fire formed brass so I can get down to some precision reloading with a two diameter bullet mold that's will be custom made for my rifle. (still scrounging around for the money to get the mold made). Just wondering, does fire-form brass make that much of a difference in accuracy

[clearcrickshooter]

Fireforming takes one equation out of the process. No need for neck tension. The best tension is NO neck tension. Some may argue that their rifles need a little and thats fine. But for a lot of shooters,just clean,anneal, maybe a touch from your expander and a light VLD neck chamfering,possibly not, ,depending on the size of your chamber. Once fireformed you probably will find the brass somewhat shorter. No real worry unless it is drastically short for grease groove bullets. If it bothers you,get a case stretcher. I did,but still am not sure if it is completely necessary.YMMV.

[clearcrickshooter]

I might add ,most paper patch shooters want their brass at,or very near,chamber length. Some get paper rings in the gap from the end of chamber to where the rifling starts. Some people,full length size their brass,then expand up to fit the wrapped bullet a little tighter,but not too tight.

[clearcrickshooter]

I might add ,most paper patch shooters want their brass at,or very near,chamber length. Some get paper rings in the gap from the end of chamber to where the rifling starts. Some people,full length size their brass,then expand up to fit the wrapped bullet a little tighter,but not too tight.

[Don McDowell]

You'll likely eliminate that occasional flier by either adding a thin felt wad, or going with a thicker fiber or poly wad.
I like enough neck tension on the bullet it is a tight enough fit that you have to give it a pretty good shake with the case upside down to get the bullet to fall out.

[Coltsmoke]

Why would you order another mold at this time, the mold you have might put 10 rounds in one hole, you don't know what it will do yet. Get the brass fireformed and then work on a load with what you have, you might not need another mold.

[CaptnJack]

Why would you order another mold at this time, the mold you have might put 10 rounds in one hole, you don't know what it will do yet. Get the brass fireformed and then work on a load with what you have, you might not need another mold.

I am going to load up 20 rounds in the non-fireformed brass the way I would a match cartridge just to see the difference in fireformed and non fireformed performance. Then load up 20 of the fireformed and see how it goes.

[Coltsmoke]

The same powder charge in fireformed and non fireformed brass will probably not shoot the same. The compression on the powder will be more in the non fireformed brass and less in the fireformed brass causing a difference in the load. That has been my experience. One of the best loads I've ever had was in new brass, once I had it all fireformed that load was over.