Chamfer or not.

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mrawesome22

New member
I've been considering the usefulness of chamfering my .22-250Rem and .243Win case. I only shoot BT bullets and the more I think about it, chamfering just seems like a waste of time. In fact, it seems to me that not chamfering would lead to more accurate shells because if all were trimmed to the same length, they would all have the same neck tension. Chamfered cases however can't have the exact same chamfer unless you were to rig up something that would make the chamfer identical on every case. So I'm thinking chamfering is going down the drain. What do you guys think?
 
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T. O'Heir

New member
Chamfering has nothing to do with accuracy or neck tension. It's only done to ease bullet seating. Your BT's don't need it, but you'll still have to deburr the inside and outside of the case mouth, after trimming.
 
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dgc940

New member
I chamfer all my cases but I also use the 30 degree in a Wilson lathe it puts them all exactly the same. have you never seated a bullet and felt it scrape copper on the way in? I started out like everyone with the cheep little hand tools and latter on found they are not for the person looking for extreme accuracy! I have switched die types three times now and now use competition bushing and seating dies by redding.
consistency consistency consistency! If you do anything to a case do them all identical!
 
M

mrawesome22

New member
That's what I mean dgc940. Unless I set the chamfer up in a drill press with a set stop, no chamfer will be exact to the last. So I'm thinking of not doing it. One less variable and with boat tails, I don't see the point of it anyway. And no I've never scraped copper off the bullet while seating. My dies have a sliding alignment sleeve which keeps the bullet very straight going into the case. Add to this the BT and chamfer and sheering is almost an impossibilty. But again, I'm starting to highly doubt the chamfers validity.
 
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dgc940

New member
MR22 I guess you could try not doing it and see what happens?
I dont really know what shooting your after but for me most mine is 100yd along with 200 and 300 meter. The two things that helped me shrink groups the most in the last couple
months was going to a flat based bullet for quicker stabilization the next was to drop using the Hornadys and noslers in ballistic tips. I have started using Berger's for all my paper and small varmint needs and sense then groups have made a big improvement.
And I guess the two most important things I do for improvement are trim all to exact length , debur flash hole on inside and weight sort brass. You know getting from 1 inch down to half is pretty easy but man getting from half down to the 3's and 4's is hard mind bending work! LOL
but about two months ago I was thinking the same thing you are about chamfering not being the same from case to case that's when I got the Wilson to remove chamfering from the equation!

By the way the benchmark didn't work out for me! I went back to 4064
 
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mrawesome22

New member
Thanks guys. And dgc940, I'm preping case just like you, except for the weight sorting part. I loaded some non-chamfered shells this morning and all went well so if it ever stops raining I'll take them to my range and report back. Sorry to here that Benchmark didn't work out for you. It's still working great for me. I did buy a can of H380 recently though and I'm going to see what it does. Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll produce that one tiny hole I'm after:)
 
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cheygriz

New member
I chamfer all of my rifle cases. But come to think of it, I'm not sure why.:confused:

Maybe it's just because the guy that taught me to reload 40+ years ago did it, and I always have ever since!:confused: :p :confused:
 
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CrustyFN

New member
I am only asking this because I am new to reloading rifle and I don't know myself. If you are afraid deburring the inside of the case will affect accuracy how much affect would different size burrs have. For example a case with a larger bur wouldn't release the bullet as easy as the one with almost no bur. It just seems to me that the bullet would release more consistent from the deburred case. Can somebody shed some light on this?
Rusty
 
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rwilson452

New member
Having a bur on the outside of the neck can effect chambering the cartridge. burs on the inside of the neck can affect bullet seating including not getting it concentric which will affect accuracy. the small amount you remove will not have a noticable effect on accuracy. If your rifle has a very tight neck it might but with a standard size chamber I doubt it very much. I have found that triming to maintain a square neck can have a small effect. but only if is really out of square. I have gone to the trouble of just barely doing a chamfer to remove burs and doing a real deep chamfer and didn't see a difference. this was done on a 22-250. The 22-250 is known for being a picky eater.
 
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mrawesome22

New member
Rusty, chamfering and removing burrs are two different things. A chamfer puts a bevel on the inside of the case. I deburr with a round file on the inside and flat file on the outside after trimming. It takes very little effort to knock 'em off.
 
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JohnKSa

Administrator
Why not take the "twofer"?

Surely even the imprecise hand chamfering is more precise than what's left after you remove the burrs freehand with a file.
 
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JohnKSa

Administrator
The files just knock the burrs off.
Click to expand...
Chamfering would do the same.
What's left is a trimmed, deburred, non-chamfered case.
Click to expand...
Why is that better than still doing only one step and ending up with a deburred AND chamfered case?

Now you're doing one step--deburring--and getting a deburred case that is NOT chamfered.

You could do one step--chamfering--and get a deburred case that IS chamfered.

I don't understand why you would pick the first option.
 
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JohnKSa

Administrator
Your original premises were that it was:
  • Useless
  • A waste of time
  • Hurt accuracy because of inconsistency.
I don't see how it's useless since it performs the deburring function.

I don't see how it's a waste of time because if you leave it off, you'll spend roughly the same amount of time deburring--a step you can skip if you chamfer.

I don't see how freehanding the case mouth with a file to remove the burrs will result in more consistent neck tension than chamfering.

What am I missing here?
 
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mrawesome22

New member
I never said it was useless. For flat based bullets it's a must isn't it? What I'm going for is more uniform cases. And I can't get consistent chamfers with the tools I have. Therefore the cases are not uniform. I have no idea if the non-chamfered will be anymore accurate or not. But I don't think they are going to be less accurate. Plus a lot of brass I have has never needed trimmed. But I chamfered it anyway thinking it was absolutely necessary. I have brass that I've reloaded 18 times and have never had to trim it. Did these cases really need chamfered?
 
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