Reloading with New Brass Versus Old brass

The big brown truck, which brings packages of joy to my house, stopped in front of it. The dogs warned me that danger was near – they bark at anything – and I went out to greet the friendly driver. “Something jingly is in this one.” Something jingly indeed. Today would be a great day. Today was new-brass day. Massaro Ballistic Laboratories celebrates new brass day every year. Massaro Media Group. Using new brass may seem counterintuitive for a reloader as the name of the process implies that the ammo was fired previously. I prefer the term “handloading” as it implies that the case, powder and bullet are all hand-tuned. It is not necessary to use new brass every time. I still rework my fired cases. I prefer to use cases that have been fired from factory ammo. In a reloading guide, you will see the SAAMI specifications for case lengths for each cartridge. You will also see a “trim-to” length which is a little shorter than the SAAMI dimensions to allow for brass cases to stretch. Most of the time, I trim my spent brass to the SAAMI specification, rather than the SAAMI dimension. This way, if I use brand new brass, I won’t need to trim it excessively. I’ve seen new brass with burred-up holes, dented case mouths and other issues. I’ve learned to treat all of it as if it had been fired. The exceptions to this rule are brass from Nosler and Norma. It doesn’t mean the Federal, Hornady or Winchester brass is inferior, just that shipping methods can sometimes cause some damage. New Norma Brass was a great choice for the.223 Remington match bullets and 68-grain Hornady Match Bullets. Massaro Media Group. It’s not something that a run through the resizing tool couldn’t fix, but it is nice to unbox some Nosler Premium Brass from stem-to-stern and find no flaws. I could go straight from the box to the press to the rifle chamber without any worries. At worst, I would want to add a VLD on my case mouth if precision is a priority. I’ve been using Nosler and Norma Brass for my dangerous-game handloads for a long time and have never had any problems. Does the new, premium brass really make a difference to handgun cartridges? Handgun cartridges are known for their simplicity. The vast majority of cases can be reused multiple times. For my everyday carry ammo or hunting ammunition, I prefer new brass. For the majority of handguns, especially for those who shoot a lot, the crimp may not be as good as it would be with a rifle. Mag. Mag. My tried-and-true load was no better than factory stuff. I decided to look closer at his fired brass. We used a Redding Instant Comparer to find that the brass had stretched nearly 0.010 inches after firing. We then grabbed a Redding Competition Shellholder set and used the one with corresponding depth to keep shoulder as close as possible to chamber dimensions. This brought the group size to just over half-MOA. In this case, used brass was better than any new brass. This is a common problem with belted cases that have a steep shoulder. The author’s Winchester Model 70.300 H&H magnum likes to use brand-new Nosler Brass and a 200 grain AccuBond. Photo: Massaro Media Group. My.300 H&H Magnum, with its 8 1/2-degree shoulder doesn’t care about headspacing, but it prefers longer bullets. Loading 200-grain Federal Terminal Ascent bullets or Nosler AccuBond in virgin Nosler brass gives 3/4-MOA every time. The gun prefers bullets with a lot of bearing surface. 180-grain copper is a good choice. It does prefer bullets between 195 and 200 grains, but I didn’t notice much difference in performance between new brass, fired brass, and resized or resized brass. Many dangerous game hunters will not even consider handloaded ammunition. According to the theory I’ve heard, hunters don’t want to risk a failure to fire because the brass was not resized correctly and are willing to sacrifice accuracy to hear a bang when they charge. A 2-MOA gun is plenty accurate, given the size of the target and the distance they are shot at. I’m talking about brown bears, lions, Cape buffalos, elephants, and hippos. Brand-new Hornady Brass in.450-405 3-inch Nitro Express is destined for a Cape Buffalo hunt. Photo: Massaro Media Group. While I still hoard spent Brass–I will pick up any type of brass and sort it later–I love new brass day, particularly for my favorite old guns, like my Heym Express.404 Jeffery or Winchester 70.300 H&H Magnum. I’m also glad that component brass is beginning to appear again, bringing smiles to reloaders. Editor’s Note: this article originally appeared in the Gun Digest the Magazine May 2023 issue.More on Reloading:NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Storm Tactical printable target pack62 Printable MOA targets with DOT drills – Rifle range in YARDSThis impressive Target Pack from our friends at Storm Tactical includes62 printable targets for rifle and handgun range The target grids and bullseyes are in MOA. Subscribe to the Gun Digest newsletter and we will send you your print-at home target pack immediately. Enter your email below.