Coming home form Gatlinburg we made a stop at the Basspro and I found two bags of new Winchester 308 brass, question, what do you do to prep new brass? Everything I have read says to full length resize these and check the primer pockets.

IF it chambers in you gun why would you resize it? Firing it the first time = fire forms it to YOUR chamber. Now it may need to be chafered or mouths opened on the dented from shipping ones that wont take a bullet. Thats why I ONLY shoot Lapua when I have a choice! Just load them up and shoot them, then take the time to do it right the next time when you have them fire formed!

Shooters,

I normally full length resize all of my brass. I suppose I could try loading up a few dummy rounds to see how they chamber. Never having used new brass I was being cautious.

Thanks

Just depends not all brass is created equally.

You should be able to see if it will chamber without loading anything, and I agree if it will chamber load it and shoot it! Full length sizing new brass is probably costing you 1 firing in its lifetime, after the first fire buy you a neck sizer and save yourself alot of trouble.

Lapua brass is awesome, I've never found a dinged up neck in mine.

You really don't know how it was sized from the factory. Nosler advertises some of their brass as fully prepped. Good rule of thumb is to not assume anything was done to the brass.

There are a lot of ways to prep brass. Some you may/may not chose to do.

Typically with new brass I run them through a full length sizer die, ream/dechamfer the primer pockets, then check the length of the case and trim as needed. Once fired I will run an inside neck reamer through each before resizing. Some folks will go so far as to ream the outside neck wall and weigh their brass.

The average loader probably doesn't do anything beyond sizing and trimming, and maybe cleaning the primer pocket.

They say this because factory brass can have dents from packaging, handling, shipping etc.. You can remove those by just running your press up enough to catch the expander ball in either a full length or neck sizer die. Don't forget to lube the inside neck first.

As for full length resizing new brass I rarely do it. I also have Wilson guages for every cartridge I load so I check them there first. Saves a ton of time.

Thanks fellas