Tales from the reloading Room - Reloading Methodology https://allgunstuff.co.za/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/ AllGunStuff Discussion Board en-US Sun, 10 May 2026 11:45:54 +0000 wpForo 60 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7109 Sun, 05 Oct 2025 08:01:43 +0000 This is the exact way cases grow. You didn't really think brass flows under a paltry 60kpsi pressure, did you?


I don't agree that brass flows on sizing. It flows on firing.

The proof is in rifles with a match chamber and custom neck that don't see a sizing die, the necks are just sized after each firing and reloaded. This brass will need trimming, and if it's never in a sizing die, it means it's flowing in the chamber.

There is not enough force in a handloading press to make brass flow. There is enough to resize a thin brass tube to smaller dimensions.

If you have ever tried to swage pure lead bullets in a handloading press, you'll know how much force is required, and brass can not be swaged.

The case walls expand against the chamber. The die brings the case walls closer together, pushing the mouth out, and the shoulder against the die. It's the same amount of material pressed into a narrower tube, so it comes out longer, but it's the firing in the chamber that stretches it.

We know that brass stretches in a chamber because we occasionally observe the result of repeated stretching as case head separation.

]]> Reloading Methodology 414gates https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7109 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7107 Sat, 04 Oct 2025 07:11:36 +0000 Reloading Methodology Treeman https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7107 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7103 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 09:09:11 +0000

.. but the second half gave a pretty good explanation why it is a bad idea to have an oily chamber or oiled cases.


The British .303 was proof tested using an oiled case. I read that somewhere.


There were experiments with oiled cases in machine guns to improve feeding. I do think that they would have beefed up the action to compensate for more bolt thrust.

See comment found in Reddit below :-

"As you may have surmised from the comments, modern machine guns (and modern guns in general) still require lubrication and it's an important enough component of their operation that many people have strong opinions on the subject.

That being said, a few of the weapons you mentioned (the Schwarzlose and the Type 92) require oil to lubricate their cartridges in addition to their internal components. This was done to aid cartridge extraction but at the cost of adding another thing to deal with and providing a convenient avenue for dirt to enter the gun, especially in dusty conditions. As such, it's kind of a clumsy solution to primary extraction issues and as people started to better understand the problem (and patents expired on better mechanisms) the cartridge oilers went away."]]> Reloading Methodology Tripodmvr https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7103 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7102 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 08:37:45 +0000

.. but the second half gave a pretty good explanation why it is a bad idea to have an oily chamber or oiled cases.


The British .303 was proof tested using an oiled case. I read that somewhere.


My recollection was that they specified that it must be scrupulously oil free or the test would be invalid. The standards changed over time but that (I think) sticks in my mind from the procedures I rabbit holed in royal ordnance specifications circa 1920-ish. The proof round spec was already well spicy on its own.]]> Reloading Methodology oafpatroll https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7102 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7101 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 08:00:38 +0000
.. but the second half gave a pretty good explanation why it is a bad idea to have an oily chamber or oiled cases.


The British .303 was proof tested using an oiled case. I read that somewhere.]]> Reloading Methodology 414gates https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7101 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7100 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 07:57:19 +0000
I was looking at the length of fired brass, and trimming before sizing. For the simple reason that fired brass fits over the trim mandrel. If I size first, I need to open the neck a bit to fit over the mandrel.

My first target rifle used 7mm brass necked up to .375, which come out a bit short of trim length. With that brass, after a few firings when the fired case length approached max, I would trim to the minimum length.

I need to measure the case length before and after sizing with that too.

I always measure the sized brass for length before adding powder, and it's not over, so it means that the case length is being pushed out somewhere between the minimum trim length and the maximum case length, maybe one or a few thou, not as much with the BMG brass.
]]> Reloading Methodology 414gates https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7100 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7099 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 07:06:26 +0000 Reloading Methodology janfred https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7099 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7098 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 04:04:13 +0000 Reloading Methodology Tripodmvr https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7098 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7097 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 02:59:45 +0000 ]]> Reloading Methodology Treeman https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7097 Re: Tales from the reloading Room https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7096 Thu, 02 Oct 2025 16:43:13 +0000
When your die squeezes the shoulder in towards the centre to reduce the diameter, before it bumps the shoulder, that brass has to go somewhere. It ends up lengthening the case, particularly the shoulder dimension, until the die does the final bump. The bump is what moves the extra brass into the neck.

This is the exact way cases grow. You didn't really think brass flows under a paltry 60kpsi pressure, did you?😀]]> Reloading Methodology janfred https://systemz.online/reloading-methodology/tales-from-the-reloading-room/#post-7096