not sure if brass is sized

[captn-tin]

Picked up bout 1000 rnds 5.56 military brass that has been sized and decapped, although I'm not sure about the sizing. Just curious as to if it has been sized or just decapped. How to tell for sure? Will be processing thru a dillon 550b. Does the sizing die have to be in press for other functions (charging, seating, etc) to work correctly? If it is already sized no need to size again, right? Thanks for any help.

[highpower790]

Size the brass to ease your mind!Better to know, than not know how the brass is processed!

[Red9]

Case gauge?

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[baih777]

Size the brass.
Better to be safe.

[JackEllis]

I bought some .243 brass a while back that was supposed to be ready to load, only it wouldn't chamber in my rifle so I had to resize the lot. Not only do you want to full length size the brass, you should make sure you don't oversize your brass.

[waawaaweenie]

get a couple of loading books and read up on reloading. The Dillons are great for what you are doing but if that brass needs to be trimmed you will have to run it through once just to resize so you can trim and then run it again to complete the other steps along with getting the dies set up correctly.

[JagerDog]

Case gauge?

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Reasonable check.

Does a bullet press fit or slip fit would be a test as well.

[OpenSightsOnly]

Picked up bout 1000 rnds 5.56 military brass that has been sized and decapped, although I'm not sure about the sizing. Just curious as to if it has been sized or just decapped. How to tell for sure? Will be processing thru a dillon 550b. Does the sizing die have to be in press for other functions (charging, seating, etc) to work correctly? If it is already sized no need to size again, right? Thanks for any help.

Does the brass fit the chamber of your rifle with the bolt closed?

Y/N?

[smoothy8500]

Case gauge?

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Only if the case gauge is SAAMI minimum. A lot of gauges are the "Maximum" such as the LE Wilson, which only checks the shoulder and not the body.

Sheridan is a good case gauge for that purpose.

http://www.sheridanengineering.com/index-2.htm

Edit: Turns out LE Wilson is now producing SAAMI chamber spec gages:

https://lewilson.com/brass-min-dimension-gage/

[zouaveherb]

I would measure the case dimensions with either a caliper or a micrometer. Even if they were sized, they may not be sized for what you want to do with them. Firing neck-sized brass from a bolt gun in a semi-auto is asking for trouble.

[Whiterabbit]

Size for ease of mind. It takes 2 stuck live cases in an AR pattern rifle to just absolutely ruin your day.

[rsrocket1]

Best to test chamber each round or use a case gauge. A lot of brass, especially .308 and 5.56 has been shot out of machine guns and even though they have been "full length sized", the very end of the bases haven't been sized and they won't fit in the gun or worse, get jammed within the last 1/8" of the bolt closing. Not fun to try to get a loaded round out when the extractor tears out a piece of the base.

[fguffey]

Only if the case gauge is SAAMI minimum. A lot of gauges are the "Maximum" such as the LE Wilson, which only checks the shoulder and not the body.

Captn-Tin, The Wilson case gage is a datum based tool, for years reloaders used the Wilson case gage as a drop in gage and they referred to the Wilson case gage as a head space gage. No where can it be found where Wilson named their tool anything but a case gage. Until the Internet and Internet reloaders, it was about that time when reloaders started making this stuff up.

The case does not have head space, the chamber has head space. Back to the Wilson case gage and being a datum based tool. The datum in the Wilson case gage determines if the case has been sized. When a case is placed in the case gage the shoulder of the case sits on the datum. If the case head sits flush with the top of the case the case is said to be go-gage length, if the case head sits below the top of the gage at the bottom cut the case is said to be go-gage length.

70+ years ago L. E. Wilson included instructions for the Wilson case gage in the box with the gage. Wilson recommended the reloader use a straight edge; unfortunately that was a waste of time. At the time reloaders with shop skills carried a metal pocket rule, Wilson recommended the pocket rule be used as a straight edge, Today? We are hard pressed to find a reloader with shop skills.

I started with the Wilson case gage and 'the straight edge'; I added the feeler gage to measure from the feeler gage to the gap between the gage and feeler gage to get case head protrusion.

When measuring the gap between the case and feeler gage I got .005" gap between the case head and first step on the gage, I got .000" between the gage and case gage when measuring the gap on go-gage length case between the end of the case and feeler gage.

And then there are chambers that are longer than the go-gage length chamber. When measuring the length of the case from the datum to the case head protrusion I would add the gap thickness to the go-gage length (max) gage. Meaning if after firing there was a gap between the head of the case and top of the gage (and I was using a straight edge) I would add the thickness of the feeler gage the go-gage length Wilson case gage. Of the gap was .003" I would add .003" to the go gage length chamber to get the clearance.

Clearance?: that would be the difference in length between the length of the cha chamber from the datum to the bolt face and the length of the case from the shoulder datum to case head.

And then I made a tool that allowed me to zero the gage on top of the Wilson case gage when determining case head protrusion from the Wilson case gage.

And now Wilson makes a gage with an adapter for the dial indicator, not a problem but the reloader must purchases the gage and adapter with the dial indicator.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

Only if the case gauge is SAAMI minimum. A lot of gauges are the "Maximum" such as the LE Wilson, which only checks the shoulder and not the body.

The Wilson case gage is a gage that works with cases with short chambers, minimum length chambers, go-gage length chamber, field reject length chamber and everything beyond and between.

The 'DATUM' makes all of that possible, the datum in the Wilson case gage has a radius; I know no one on this forum or another forum understands what all of this means.

How do I know?

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

And there should be reloaders that know their way around the press. A reloader with a feeler gage should be able to determine if the press, die and shell holder sized the case when the handle was lowered and the shell holder contacted the bottom of the die.

If the shell holder contacted the bottom of the die the case is full length sized. If the shell holder does not contact the bottom to the die the case has not been sized. A reloader with shop skills should be able to measure the gap, the gap indicated the amount of case that did not get shoved into the die.

And there are other methods and or techniques. For the skilled reloader it is possible to remove the die from the press without removing the case. If there is a reloader than can remove the die without removing the case try to measure the case head protrusion from the die. The protrusion from the die for a sized case like the 30/06; the protrusion should be .125".

And then there are head space gages.

F> Guffey