size new straight wall brass?

Do you size new SW brass or just bell the mouth & load?

It gets sized. As long as I have to run it through the primer station, I might as well size it on the same stroke. Also sizing helps to iron out any dings, dents and oval case mouths, then on to the charging/expanding station, etc.

Well since new brass doesn't need de-primed I skip the first station and go right to the priming/belling station with new brass on my Dillion SD.

I run it through the sizing die. I have seen a few out of round cases and it doesn't hurt doing it. I am working on a progressive press so it doesn't bother me to size it because the upstroke primes the case. I can see if you are using a single stage press you may want to skip sizing the case but I like to size my rifle brass when new on my single stage. I wouldn't worry about pistol brass I guess but like I said, I size because of the progressive.

It needs to go through the sizing die. There's no guarantee that it's round when you get it.

yes it needs to be sized i have loaded it out of the bag but its not a good idea

With new brass , I always size , trim to .005 under nominal length , chamfer and then flare & load. Fresh virgin brass is close , but never perfect.

I size my new brass before loading it the first time, because I'm going to be using that same resizing die on that same piece of brass for its second loading, its third loading, etc. Uniformity in reloading is never a bad idea.

My dad tried to load new Winchester 44 mag brass and the bullets fell into the cases. I had to size them all for him.

Good advice from all. If you look carefully at the case mouth you will probably notice that it is out of round. I full length size straight wall cases and neck size rifle cases since they often suffer from being out of round too.

I have never sized new straight wall brass, and never had a problem. The belling operation makes it round. I have a single stage press.

And that's tens of thousands of rounds. I do trim it. As for Joni's problem I just tried it with FIRED brass in 10mm and .44 mag and I had to push the bullet to get it to go in. Both cases were Starline.

mkk41 said:

With new brass , I always size , trim to .005 under nominal length , chamfer and then flare & load. Fresh virgin brass is close , but never perfect.

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I do exactly the same thing.

All my new brass gets sized, and trimmed to uniform length, deburred, chamfered (excepting auto cases) and flared before loading.

I've run Dillon 550 then 650 presses the past nearly 30 years.

Never had need with doing 'trim' on pistol calibers of any sort. Given the choice on 550 press of insert into station 1 process or not, or the 650 station 1 automatically positions to size case, there is no easy alternative. And belling is normal part of station 2, done on the upstroke after primer set, intimately accomplished as the powder drops through the belling/powder drop die.

Never had the single stage set up. Yes I size the new brass of any kind.

What is this "new" brass you speak of??

Because EVERYTHING made by man has tolerances, new brass HAS GOT TO BE run through the sizing die to make sure the proper bullet pull is achieved, period.

I know that not everyone does it and they don't have problems. Using that analogy try this: Not everyone that handles a rattlesnake gets bit the first time either.

No, brass is run in lots. One may be on the top of the tolerance and act like Joni (and I) has experienced. Some may get by this time and next too. Let me give you this guarantee, buy new brass every time you load and you WILL run into the problem at some point.

Safe and not sorry, size it.

Nobody mentions headspace, auto loader brass may need to be trimmed to length, but not much reason to trim revolver cases. Special length brass will work in magnums and its .125 out. As far as case sizing I never do, the belling and crimp process will take care of any out of round in the area of the opening and the lee factory crimp die, if you use one, also does post sizing. But if you want to resize it's your time. The equipment used to produce the brass is much better quality than that $1200 machine you are resizing with.

I trim my cases so that they all crimp the same.

Smith Crazy, I guess you size your bullets too. (Why are they any different than the case?) And check those cases for wall thickness?

I've been doing this for over forty years and still waiting for the first problem. Not that it's the right way or anything, but it has worked for me so far.

SWID said:

I trim my cases so that they all crimp the same.

Smith Crazy, I guess you size your bullets too. (Why are they any different than the case?) And check those cases for wall thickness?

I've been doing this for over forty years and still waiting for the first problem. Not that it's the right way or anything, but it has worked for me so far.

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As a matter of fact I do, but then again, I cast all of mine!

I find it hard to believe that you have run 10,000's of new brass even over 40 years, but hey, whatever.

I'm not going to argue, do what you want. I have yet to trim one straight walled pistol case. They just don't make them too long. It's called economics. I have had bullets fall right into a case as Joni stated though. Starline too.

Do what you want, be happy. It just doesn't work that way for everyone. What I and others suggest will, period.

smith crazy said:

As a matter of fact I do, but then again, I cast all of mine!

I find it hard to believe that you have run 10,000's of new brass even over 40 years, but hey, whatever.

I'm not going to argue, do what you want. I have yet to trim one straight walled pistol case. They just don't make them too long. It's called economics. I have had bullets fall right into a case as Joni stated though. Starline too.

Do what you want, be happy. It just doesn't work that way for everyone. What I and others suggest will, period.

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OK, now my veracity is being questioned. Well I haven't actually counted them, but about two years ago I got into a 10mm faze, and I have three thousand cases for it. (1000 Starline, 2000 Top Brass) About 2 grand of them have been loaded. I have 1000 .45 Colt cases, I have no idea how many .44, .41. 357 mag stuff I have. Then there's .45 ACP, but a lot of that was surplus govt. stuff, but a lot of it I bought. Same for .38 spl. I have a couple thousand I bought but most was donated (once fired) by the USAF. I only have 80 .444 Marlin cases.

I have used Rem, Winchester, Norma, Speer, S&W(which I doubt is S&W, like Nosler is not Nosler) a ton of Starline and Top Brass and some others I don't remember. Maybe I don't have over twenty thousand and one (which would be over "tens of thousands") but if I emptied out all these cardbord boxes I bet I would. Let's say I only have ten thousand cases, that would have been ten thousand wasted cycles on the press.

(S&W was once fired when I got it, so it doesn't count, I only have 200 any way.)

I am happy thank you, and I'm glad I did not waste man-years sizing all that stuff and then cleaning the lube off. (I lube my cases that I size in carbide dies. I also clean the primer pockets, which I understand you Dillion guys don't. Wanna see the crud I get out of them?) I have to admit that I have been known to buy new brass rather than redo the used stuff. Not at today's prices, but it is a lot easier when you want to shoot.

The next time you get a case that a bullet falls into please send it to me, I would like to see it. I will refund your postage and send you a good case in return.

And if a bullet did fall in a case it would be noticed and selected out long before it got put in a gun (which I doubt it would fit,) so what's the problem? And in case you don't know it, sizing brass is not good for it, but hey, whatever. Some bullets seat easier than others but how does one know that it's not due to undersize, or case wall thickness?

I do not trim semi-auto cases (that headspace on the case mouth) but the next time you load up a bunch of new revolver cases look at them in the loading block and you will notice all the different lenghts and therefor different crimp levels. And you are the one concerned with bullet pull. I'm not worried that any of them are too long, I just like uniform roll crimp levels.

I neck size my bottle neck cases. (When they are new.)