Dropping Off Fired Case with Smith?

[General RE LEE]

Question,

I have a bunch of 6.5 Creedmoor brass (Alpha, Lapua, Hornady) left over. I dropped off my Tikka for a rebarrel. Dumb question but can I give the smith a fired case so that I can chamber the used brass in the new chamber/barrel? I would prefer not to start all over.

 

[waspocrew]

I’m far from an expert, but unless it’s the same exact reamer, I don’t see how giving your smith a piece of fired brass would help.

I could be wrong though!

 

[HandgunHTR]

Yeah, dropping off the case itself doesn’t really do much other than give him a basic measurement to set your new barrel’s headspace. However each piece of different brass is going to have slightly different springback, so they all might not be the same.

That being said, giving them a dummy round with your chosen bullet seated to your chosen OAL is very helpful as it allows them to set the throat length to an exact specification.

Most people just go with standard specs and work up their loads from there.

 

[sndmn11]

Question,

I have a bunch of 6.5 Creedmoor brass (Alpha, Lapua, Hornady) left over. I dropped off my Tikka for a rebarrel. Dumb question but can I give the smith a fired case so that I can chamber the used brass in the new chamber/barrel? I would prefer not to start all over.

How are you sizing?

 

[General RE LEE]

How are you sizing?

FL with .002” shoulder bump

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

Question,

I have a bunch of 6.5 Creedmoor brass (Alpha, Lapua, Hornady) left over. I dropped off my Tikka for a rebarrel. Dumb question but can I give the smith a fired case so that I can chamber the used brass in the new chamber/barrel? I would prefer not to start all over.

I'm not an expert either, I however just did what you are asking about. Except I FL resized for setting headspace. It worked well and I didn't have to adjust dies and after FL resizing brass from the old chamber it worked in the new chamber. No pressure or oddball effects. Not sure if that helps.

This is a sample of one and a lot other people are more well versed on this subject then I. This was a 243 win SAAMI chamber 1-8tw.

 

[TaperPin]

Gunsmiths are interesting creatures that follow the same “least effort for acceptable results” philosophy of machinists, but have some unique ideas from time to time.

Some will simply say no, they headspace all their barrels to some tolerance above minimum and you get what you get. Some will say sure, and use a loosely goosey reamer that’s on the large side at no charge, but your brass will fit. Others will say sure and spend the extra time and charge the shop rate for whatever it takes - shop rate gets expensive if your existing chamber is fatter than his reamer and he has to source another reamer just to get it to chamber, let alone the time to headspace on the case.

Being the old curmudgeon that thinks in terms of what can go wrong, I’d worry the guy can’t get your case to fit in the new chamber and instead of tracking down another reamer that may or may not work, he just opens up the chamber with sandpaper on a stick, or takes a worn out reamer and grinds off the shoulder and neck so he can run it further making the body fatter, and leaving behind some weird ring or groove at the shoulder/body junction. Gunsmiths have done some real whoppers.

Odds are the guy has good judgement and it all works out fine, but anything out of the ordinary drives up the odds of unintended consequences.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Why not just take what you get, bump the shoulder back a little if necessary, and shoot on? Am I missing something here?

 

[rayporter]

get new brass --its worth it.

even if you use the same reamer that made the last chamber there can be differences in the fired brass that require slightly different sizing.