SmallCaliberCentral

Hi guys, greetings from across the pond.

I bought 100 brand new cases of Nosler Custom brass recently (for $150!!) and have found that I am getting serious sooting along the length of the cases and some gas escape rearwards. I am using the same accuracy load I have been using for the last year in Winny and Hornady brass, a fairly stout 26.3 grn of RL 10X propelling a 32grn SBK lit by a CCI 450. I can't see the load being under-pressure as its over book max anyway. Equally there are no over-pressure signs.

I measured the brass and found that it is 10-20 thou below book trim length, could this be the cause do you think?? And has anyone else seen this with Nosler brass?

Cheers.

I've complained to them a couple of times in regard to over trimming brand new brass. As you note, .010" short, some more, but always shorter than book trim length.

I've also noted that the flash hole looks to have been deburred with a dull garden tool. As this Norma brass has the flash holes drilled vs. punched, I see no reason to dink about with the flash hole anyway. Nobody deburrs Lapua flash holes, right? No need to.

Can't comment in regard to the sooting, but it's most likely not related to the over short brass. But WHY is all their brass trimmed short?

Is this sooting on the first firing of your reload with the new brass ? Does it do it with a second reload on the same case ? Maybe the brass is sized down to much and not filling the chamber allowing the powder soot to flow back and down the sides. Just a thought. Bill K

Thank you for your replies, appreciate it.

To be honest, I haven't fired any of these a second time as I was concerned by the sooting and gas escape, i will however now load some of the once fired brass up and see what happens on second firing, i should really have done this already!

I had thought that if the brass was overly short i might not be getting a seal in the chamber neck resulting in rearwards flow of gas and soot.

Either way I am not sure I fancy essentially wasting 100 rounds of barrel life to fire form undersize cases! I've never had trouble with factory loads or any of my hand loads with other brass.

Thanks again guys.

As Rick mentioned, Nosler just seems to turn out short brass as SOP. Kind of a shame as it really is nice brass. Keep loading it, bet you will be happy on the second and subsequent firing(s).

southernfairy wrote:Either way I am not sure I fancy essentially wasting 100 rounds of barrel life to fire form undersize cases! I've never had trouble with factory loads or any of my hand loads with other brass.

Ah-ha! I learned long ago that the best way to fireform new brass is to shoot it up on live targets! In my case, that's ground squirrels. Just last week I fireformed 200 brand new Lapua 221FB cases on rats. Why waste bullets, powder and primers on paper? Might as well fireform and launch a rat at the same time.

On the sooting: My Cooper MTV 204 did the same thing with new brass. Once it was fireformed to the chamber, problem went away. I even sent it back to the factory, and they found nothing wrong with the rifle, even sent me a chamber cast to verify their findings. No sooting now with fired brass.

Rick in Oregon wrote:

southernfairy wrote:Either way I am not sure I fancy essentially wasting 100 rounds of barrel life to fire form undersize cases! I've never had trouble with factory loads or any of my hand loads with other brass.

Ah-ha! I learned long ago that the best way to fireform new brass is to shoot it up on live targets! In my case, that's ground squirrels. Just last week I fireformed 200 brand new Lapua 221FB cases on rats. Why waste bullets, powder and primers on paper? Might as well fireform and launch a rat at the same time.

On the sooting: My Cooper MTV 204 did the same thing with new brass. Once it was fireformed to the chamber, problem went away. I even sent it back to the factory, and they found nothing wrong with the rifle, even sent me a chamber cast to verify their findings. No sooting now with fired brass.

Thanks again, interesting to hear you had issues with a rifle as well.

Its more my eyes that I am worried about! Not sure i particularly fancy being behind the bolt with that amount of soot coming back at me! Alternatively i could just continue to wear glasses (as i do with all load development/new component testing).

I had exactly the same problem with Nosler brass in my 204 also using RL 10X but with 39 gr SBKs. Loads levels that worked fine for years with Win and Hornady brass resulted in sooty cases, blown out primers and deep ejector marks on the cases - all signs of excessive pressure. You can either
back down on your powder and try and get a load that the expensive but apparently delicate Nosler brass can handle, or do what I did, toss 'em in the trash and go back to cheaper and problem free Win brass.

Tokimini wrote:I had exactly the same problem with Nosler brass in my 204 also using RL 10X but with 39 gr SBKs. Loads levels that worked fine for years with Win and Hornady brass resulted in sooty cases, blown out primers and deep ejector marks on the cases - all signs of excessive pressure. You can either
back down on your powder and try and get a load that the expensive but apparently delicate Nosler brass can handle, or do what I did, toss 'em in the trash and go back to cheaper and problem free Win brass.

No need to throw away good brass. You do need to work your load back up after changing brass, or any other component, though.

Nosler brass is on sale 50 for 19$

Shootersproshop.com

Must have been a quick sale 'cause it's all gone. All I see is the $49.95 price and "out of stock."

surefire wrote:Must have been a quick sale 'cause it's all gone. All I see is the $49.95 price and "out of stock."

Its still there.
http://www.shootersproshop.com/loading- ... -blem.html

182 IN STOCK

I was up at Nosler yesterday and saw beaucoup boxes of 204R brass on the shelf in their retail shop.

I even scored one of the last boxes of 221FB brass while there, but I'm told they have more 'in the back', so not to worry about feeding your Fireball-based wildcats or your pet flavor of Fireball.

Seeing all this brass on the shelf is a very good sign.

Rick in Oregon wrote:Seeing all this brass on the shelf is a very good sign.

Seeing it back on mine is an even better sign.

SShooterZ wrote:

Rick in Oregon wrote:Seeing all this brass on the shelf is a very good sign.

Seeing it back on mine is an even better sign.

Priceless!