Favorite Rifle Brass ?

[JD 500]

What is your favorite rifle brass ?

Lately I have been fairly unhappy with the brass I've been buying. I'm finding brass with splits / seams in new brass. I also just purchased a hand priming tool, which is supposed to be more sensitive and give more feel to how easy or difficult the primer seats, giving an indication to the size of the primer pocket. So I just finished priming 100 pcs of brand new brass , and probably 10 of the 100 were way too easy to seat. At least it explains why after cleaning and priming 100 pcs of once shot brass that all had the same charge of powder, some were too easy to prime.

Am I expecting too much from brand name new brass ?
Or is this how Lapua can charge $46.00 for the same qty brass you can get from others for $22.00 ?

The last time this happenned, I called the mfr. They asked if I had any idea how hard it would be to QC all those pieces of brass . I don't know the answer, but I sure haven't had issues with bad bullets or bad primers.

??

 

[shovelwrench]

I always buy once fired, usually a couple hundred with the same headstamp. Run em through the gun once, trim, neck size, reload. I have'nt seen a rifle yet that won't shoot 1"@100yds. Seems the more I reload em the better they get.

Never payed much attention to how hard they primed, or maybe I just did'nt find one loose enough to notice.

 

[Frank237]

No doubt about it NORMA and LAPUA brass is first rate. Federal Match brass in 06 and GI Match brass in .308 seems to be very consistent and durable as well.

I've also suffered through WW and RP standard brass; buying a bag of 100 and finding three or four that are garbage. I once sent FOURTEEN .22-250 cases back from the same 100 ct bag to Remington and they sent me a new bag of brass and a voucher for some ammo as well.

For pistol brass I'm very happy with STARLINE. High quality, seems to always be within spec and reasonably priced as well.

FN in MT

 

[Paul5388]

I have Norma brass that was bought in the 1960s in 7mm Mag and 6mm Rem, but I also have R-P brass for the same two guns that was bought around the same time.

Personally, I don't see where Norma is any better than R-P, even if it only costs $3.45/20.

BTW, the reason for the pictures was to compare polished brass with old unpolished brass.

 

[Ron H.]

Sir, FWIW, the vast majority of my rifle shooting is HP competition out to 600 yards, and I like USGI brass. I've mostly used Lake City, but also fair quantities of Twin Cities, St. Louis, and a few other odds and ends. I've used it in 5.56, 7.62, and .30 M2. It's very durable and capable of very good accuracy. Drawbacks are varying case weights, crimped-in primers, and occasional off-center flash holes in the Twin Cities stuff. I've also used a few hundred each of commercial Remington .30-'06 and Winchester .223 with no complaints.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[mrcooper]

Most brass is good, I have had a lot of problems with Federal, their primer pockets wont hold primers after the 2an or 3rd loadings, I do not buy it any more.

 

[n4zov]

Sir, FWIW, the vast majority of my rifle shooting is HP competition out to 600 yards, and I like USGI brass. I've mostly used Lake City, but also fair quantities of Twin Cities, St. Louis, and a few other odds and ends. Ron H.

+1 I've been using a ton of 7.62 and .30-06 G.I. match brass from the 60's and 70's for years and I haven't found anything better. It is very high quality and can be used to form other calibers - I use it for .338/06 and .25-06.

 

[josephthreedogs]

NORMA, if it's made in the calibre I need.

 

[RidgwayCO]

The only rifle brass I reload is .22 Hornet (Winchester), .223 Remington (Lapua), and .30-06 (Federal Match). It all works very well for me. The Lapua brass required almost no prep work and was very uniform. It was also the most expensive...

 

[JD 500]

The brass I've had issues with is Winchester.
I'm loading, in this instance, .223 rem for a varmit / long range AR.
I've had primer pockets SO loose after only one firing, that when I merely chamber a round, the primer came free, dropped into and of course jammed the action. I'm not loading over max. I do get slightly flattenned primers, but no crater around firing pin strike.

I have heard good things about lake city brass, but don't have a primer pocket reamer/swager to remove primer crimp.

I think I'm basically having the same issue mrcooper mentions, and can't believe win brass can't take more than a couple 1-3 loadings.

I may just try a 100 pc bag of Lapua. If I got twice the loadings as the win brass, it would cost the same.

I also noticed after experimenting by weight sorting my brass, a 5-6 full grain range in the weight of the Win brass. I think Nosler's brass is guaranteed to be no more than .5 grain difference.

 

[shovelwrench]

I've got a batch of 100 winchester that have seen AT LEAST 4 reloads in my 22-250. I'm runnin max loads @ over 4000fps. I've yet to see any signs of them giving up, they have'nt even grown at all.

I'm surprized you guys have problems with it.

 

[pownal55]

go with norma but expect to pay a buck a piece or more. for everyday use i like winchester.

 

[JD 500]

I've got a batch of 100 winchester that have seen AT LEAST 4 reloads in my 22-250. I'm runnin max loads @ over 4000fps. I've yet to see any signs of them giving up, they have'nt even grown at all.

I'm surprized you guys have problems with it.

I will say that I have other Win brass that have seen 3 or more loadings in .300 wm, and probably older .223 rem stuff that's had no issues. But right now I'm working through 500 pcs, and so far It's not been the quality one would expect.

I'll have to check into the norma brass too.

Thx

 

[canoe on the yukon]

In the heavy calibers such as 458 win mag and up,"A Square"is the very best that I know of.The quality control is excellent but it's not cheap.

Winchester is the one that I've had the most trouble with.One bag of 100 458 win mag cases had about 40 that had mouths mangled up.To be fair,the majority were fine after running through the expander die and then sizing,trimming and chamfering the mouths.Still,some were hopeless.Norma is usually quite a bit better.

Among the standard names,I've had good success with Remington.

 

[Paul5388]

W-W is good in handgun calibers, but I can't say the same for their rifle brass.

I haven't found Norma to be any better than R-P when it comes to case prep. The flash holes are about the same, which is not the case with Federal brass or even Lake City.

 

[Beaver]

I've been a junkyard dog over the years and have found good brass in many makes. The only problem I've ever had was ugly mixed 30-30 brass that probably was loaded by Moses. Norma is the best I've ever used, cuts like butter when camforing, deburring, trimming. I've had good luck with RP and WW. Federal is wonderful. You can tell the difference when cutting the brass. Lately, I think the "best brass in the world", is a bag of WW 270's I found at the local Bi-Mart. I think it's all good, each brand just a little different. Beaver.

 

[JD 500]

Wow.
Just looked up some Norma 223. They'd have to be able to take a lot of loadings for me to try. Found some Lapua at Powder Valley, ordered the smallest box. See what those are like. Anyone try the Hornady match .223 rem brass ? Looks to be about the same price as the Lapua.

I do pick up range brass when I find it, and friends brass who don't reload.
I suppose at some point it will be worth it for me to get a primer crimp remover, and sort all those dirty cases. I know theres some lake city stuff in there.

For handgun, I couldn't be happier with starline.

 

[gregintenn]

I've had little problem with any make of brass.