SmallCaliberCentral

Hey anybody out there weigh there brass?
I use hornady once fired factory brass in my reloads what is the max variation in case weight I should allow

Welcome sodwyer.................I'll put in my .02 When I scale empy un-primed brass I use 1/2 grain per 10 pieces.............if I fine a lot are close in weight I might use 3/10th of a grain. Don't get to crazy with the primer pockets on Hornady brass, they are known to tight.
Hope this helps a little and enjoy the 204 Ruger it is a fun cartridge!
Later
Ray P

I weigh brass when I'm doing load development just to limit the number of variables. For production hunting loads, I try too keep batches together (by box or by lot) but don't weigh.

Tip if you weigh brass: Don't weigh it until you've trimmed, chamfered, beveled, uniformed the primer pocket and deburred the flash hole. The amount of brass removed by these operations WILL affect your overall weight bell-curve. If you want accurate weight measurements of your lot of brass, prep first, then weigh it.

Thanks for the tips guys always looking for evey angle when fine tuneing a load.I Have not yet found a flash hole debur tool yet. Are they worth the purchace ?

I just did the process described by RIO on 100 pieces of Win brass. It didn't take all that long and it gave me that extra bit of confidence by eliminating more variables. I'm still pretty "green" in regards to precision reloading, but I would say its worth it.

sodwyer wrote:Are they worth the purchace ?

I'd give that a big "YES" if you want another small but important accuracy advantage with your handloads.....every little bit helps in the big picture.

Look at the units that register off the bottom of the inside of the case, and NOT off the case mouth, as then the consistency/uniformity of the bevel of the flash hole will vary in depth, thereby changing the weight of each case randomly if the cases are not all trimmed to the exact same length.

Both Sinclair and K&M offer flash hole deburring tools that register this way, and not on the case mouth. Both tools can be used manually or with a power screwdriver.

I posted this else where also..

I weighed my Hornady and Nosler brass, here's the result:

25 pcs of the Hornady ranged over 8 grains, possibly more, I got that sick feeling once I hit the 20 pcs mark.

50 pcs of Nosler ranged 0.6 grains.

The Hornady was from their ammo that I bought, and the Nosler was their boxed brass. Maybe Hornady's boxed brass is fine? Dunno.

The only way to tell is load both brands the same and see if your gun dislikes the large variation of the Hornady, but most will say the Hornady is crap, from what I have read and it seems you verified.

There is a reason the Nosler brass is expensive, and you seem to verify the notion their brass is well sorted.


Good luck

Allen