I'll clarify what I do to eliminate confusion and issues with terminology.
Let's for the sake of argument call the cases once fired, and fired from someone else's gun.
This can be given to you, scrounged from the concrete or even the brass bucket.
10 pieces of brass (cases used interchangeably) or 5000, it doesn't matter.
And I'm gonna say these are all the same head stamp, cause I hate sorting brass, but I do it.
I toss them into a tumbler and clean them. They come out and get run through the squirrel cage to remove media. Then they go on a large towel and rolled back and forth to remove the dust.
I'll place them into a case block and give a cursory look to make sure they will go into the die.
I liberally spray them with Hornady One shot and let them sit while I get the dies screwed into the presses. (Yes, I use separate presses for sizing and seating)
Once the presses are set up, I begin full length sizing. After sizing is done I set them on a towel to be inspected and wipe off the lube.
Once that group is sized, I wipe each case and inspect it before placing it into a different loading block.
All cases done, I move to checking case length. I like to start with all cases trimmed to the same length and I will default to the book trim length.
I set up my Lyman Brass Smith electric trimmer and run each case into the cutter. At this point I can do all the other steps then start on another case, or I can trim them in a batch. The decision is based on how bad my hands feel that day.
Anyway, once trimmed to length, the case gets the inside and outside of neck deburred. Inside is usually done with a VLD cutter.
If it's brass for an AR, I'll stop right there.
Well,
If the primer pocket is crimped, I remove the crimp with the tool I showed in a previous post.
If it's for a bolt gun, I will continue by deburring the flash hole and uniforming the primer pocket depth. (That's where the pretty, uniform looking pocket comes from)
One thing I gave up completely on is actually cleaning the primer pockets.
I couldn't find any reason to do it. I tried it both clean and dirty and did not see any difference on paper, steel or the chronograph.
All of those cases are placed neck down in a loading block and they get another inspection before priming. If they pass, it's on to prime, powder and bullet.
That's it. I could do more, and I could do a lot less and they will still go bang every time.
The things I do have shown their positives, otherwise I wouldn't bother.
Not every rifle I own benefits from the extra work. But, none of them suffer from the extra steps.
Some of these S&B cases have had 7 firings on them.
None have needed trimming a second time and all of the primer pockets are still tight.
So far so good, but tomorrow I'll make the comparison between the S&B and these.
It's only an extra $100, what the hell...
