Author Topic: Best Brass? (Read 1482 times)

masek77 · « **on:** October 29, 2006, 04:48:56 AM »

Someone in a previous post mentioned that some brands of brass can be loaded almost indefinitely (10 or more reloads) while others wont last more than 3 or 4 reloads. Which brand of brass have you had the most success reloading with? For that matter what about primers? What would you recomend?

Ahab · « **Reply #1 on:** October 29, 2006, 05:48:10 AM »

Norma brass for rifle. Starline for handgun. Primers are a crap-shoot, I've good results with Win. while my buddy curses them. Used CCI for many years, then after getting a chrony, found more consistency with Win. with the same load. Feds are good too, but I use mainly for spherical powders, probably because someone told me it was the thing to do.

jpsmith1 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 29, 2006, 05:51:20 AM »

Brass life is subject to many variables. Initial quality of the brass is one. As far as preferred brand, I like Federal Brass. I've got a lot or R&P brass as well and have loaded many 10 or more times (38spl loads).

If you resize the brass more than is necessary, that will work harden it and cause it to crack easier. A case in point is one of my earliest lots of brass for the .38 spl. I belled or flared the case mouths FAR more than was necessary because I didn't know any better. After about 2 loadings, I started to develop neck cracks. That was also the nickel plated brass, which I don't think is any good as I've had a similar experiences with it when worked properly. This can also happen if say the chamber of your rifle is large and the die a bit small. Neck-sizing and 'partial-sizing' can help here.

Strength of your loads can affect case life too. A heavy magnum loading canl cause primer pockets to loosen after a couple of loadings.

Some people will reccomend annealing or heating brass to restore it's softness after a few loadings, but this can be touchy as the temperature range is pretty tight and you can maybe do more harm than good if you get it wrong.

beemanbeme · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2006, 06:43:08 AM »

I use a lot of Remington for the very scientific reason of that is what the little gun shop carried when I started reloading. And it has done well for me over the years. I am sure there are folks that are just a faithful to Winchester and others.
It kinda depends on what you're using it for. I wouldn't spend $75 a hundred for Norma brass to use for plinking or hunting when I can get Rem/Win/Fed's for $20 a hundred.
Competitive shooting is another story but my single experience with Norma was not a good one. Lapua match is about as good as it gets however.

Don Fischer · « **Reply #4 on:** October 29, 2006, 01:04:57 PM »

I don't worry about the brand of cases to much either. Remington and Winchester are really easy to find so I use them. Not real sure how many loads I get with either as I don't worry about it to much. I recently bought some new Win 6.5x55 cases, about $20 a hundred. Thats about .o5 per case. Reload it four or five times and their damn near free! Most of my cases are scrounged from people that don't handload and old military stuff. Right now I have about 200 FA'49 30-06 cases and use them for my 30-06, 6.5x06 and my 25-06. Cases are really to cheap to worry about and if there is an accuracy advantage for hunting loads with cases, it's taken me about 40yrs and I haven't found it!

As for primers, I've still got about 10,000 Herter 120's and they work great. Also have another 20,000 or so of CCI and Win (WLR and 8 1/2's). Not enough difference for me to worry about. I think the cases and primer issue only comes important when your trying to extract another couple thousands of inch group's. A one inch rifle is not all that hard to create but a 1/4 minute rifle needs all the help it can get.

The Sodbuster · « **Reply #5 on:** October 29, 2006, 03:34:08 PM »

I use Remington & Winchester because they're available in most cartridges. Picked up some Lapua brass in .308 Win a while back. Can't say that it's more accurate but I was impressed with it's consistency in terms of length and weight compared to cheaper brass. I guess Nosler is probably the same, but I haven't bought any of it.

I recently got a catalog in the mail from Natchez Shooting supply. I didn't think Federal sold brass anymore, but they had primed, Federal brass. I bought 50 in .25-06. Wouldn't have bothered, but it was about 1/2 the cost of Remington & Winchester (It was only $10-11 for 50 cases). The savings weren't as great after Natchez added in their usurous shipping and handling charges (Cabela's tells you S&H up front in the catalog; Natchez & Midway don't). I'm anxious to try it as I haven't used Federal primers in .25-06. I normally size new brass before priming and loading; but, since this is already primed I presume it's good to go. I'll try to chamber some before loading. If it doesn't fit, guess I'll have to screw up my depriming pin. Wouldn't want to punch a live primer!

myarmor · « **Reply #6 on:** October 29, 2006, 05:27:55 PM »

From my limited experiance...and I admit I have a long way to go....

Remington -Hard, but works well for hot loads.

Winchester -Nice to work with. Mid/Soft and fireforms very well. I have had my best results with Winchester and Federal in all my rifles.....

Federal -I love Federals brass! Everything about it..it's clean, workable, and consistant

Prvi Partizan/Wolf brass -Very hard, like military brass. It works, but isn't as consistant as the better name brands above...and below.....it just wasn't as easy to work with as Federal and Winchester.

As for Nosler and Lapua... I can't say as I haven't used them yet. I will soon as my Benchrest shooting will take fullforce in the next several months.
All I can say as for them is I have heard nothing but excellent reports...and I mean excellent.

mg66 · « **Reply #7 on:** October 30, 2006, 01:02:06 AM »

I have great success with Starline brass ... not so good with Winchester, quite a few discards for being under trim length and primers being too loose. I reload 38spl, 357mag and 44mag.

Mikey · « **Reply #8 on:** October 30, 2006, 02:31:28 AM »

If you are shooting a military surplus rifle your brass may not last more than 3-4 reloads, but that is usually due more to the generous chambers or geneous headspace than the quality of the brass. I have recently found that some euro brass made to exacting metric specs will not work with American standard measure reloading equipment or take American made primers.

However, I have found that in a quality sporting rifle, not a mil-surp sporterization, Remington brass works the best for me and Winchester primers are the most consistent.

I always pick up brass from the range. Usually I can pick up an entire 20 round box of empty 06 commercially made brass but leave the mil-surp stuff for someone else. I think I am on my 5th or 6th loading of this one box of WW 06 brass I found and the same for a box of Remingtons. I think with a properly cut chamber your brass will last for quite a few reloads.

Hey - just forgot: my Remington 444 brass has about 15 reloads to it and it's still going strong. HTH. Mikey.

Tn Jim · « **Reply #9 on:** October 30, 2006, 04:39:59 AM »

Remington brass for rifles, Starline for handguns and 45-70. Winchester primers for rifle, Federal for handguns. No complaints about either and I've been using these set ups for years.

Don Fischer · « **Reply #10 on:** October 30, 2006, 05:34:05 AM »

I have been reloading for about 40yrs and would like to pass on some observations about cases:

The case amounts to not much more than a chamber liner that holds all the componet's together until fired.

The life of the case is not dictated so much by the construction of the case as it is by the care of the case and the pressures it's subjected to.

Consistent flash hole size only matters if you want another 1/10th inch accuracy. Most people measure group's with a 12" ruler, no 1/10th inch graduations there!

De-burring the inside of the flash hole might get you another 1/10th inch, you'll need a better ruler!

I have never swaged a primer pocket, the primers I use always seem to fit. Unless I pushed the velocity thing to far at which time they still fit but go in a lot easier! For
removing the crimp on military cases, a de-burring tool works fine, so does a pocket knife!

Once you learn to anneal a case, you'll be annealing cases with loose primer pockets.

When primer pockets get loose, most of us fire them one more time anyway; two if we can get away with it. Saves us .05 cents!

Cases that are to long raise pressure. Cases to short streach until they are to long, then raise pressure.

Cleaning primer pockets, which I do, is time comsuming. But it might get you a better group by 1/10th inch or less.

Military cases do exactly the same thing that non-military case do, but they are usually heavier cases reducing case capacity somewhat. Work up loads properly
and you'll never know the difference.

More case necks are split because of to much chamfering AFTER trimming than because of anything else.

No big game animal, small game animal or varmit ever gave a rats ass what brand of cases you used.

Few, if any, people pick up a fired case and look at the brand without first looking at the cartridge. Nobody really cares what brand your shooting. And that case was probally not thrown
there by a reloader. So we usually don't care the brand until after we see if it'll fit our chamber.

Some people that won't use military cases really mean, for good ammo. They use military stuff for plinking rounds.

The case seem's to me to be greatly over rated for the vast majority of uses and people would be much better served learning to , 1) shoot better and 2) learning to reload better than worring about the case their using. Much more important to understand about case trimming and seeing pressure signs than to selecting a case that will give you six loadings instead of five! Or in the case of handgun cases, especially with those like myself that shoot only cast bullets, letting everyone know how long those 38 spec cases with 2.5 grs bullseye last with a 148gr wadcutter last. It's important to know that those handgun cases necks don't split much unless you bell the mouth to much to help seat the bullet. I've never, NEVER, trimmed a handgun case, never shot hot loads in one either. The case life you have with rifles will reflect the care you take with them in so far as controlling pressures and short case life is more a product of feet per second and in turn copper units of pressure than of manufacture. In the end, the case really does not amount to much more than a liner for specific size chambers.

Bullseye · « **Reply #11 on:** October 30, 2006, 12:49:27 PM »

Only use Remington brass unless I am loading for my 375 Winchester. Remington has proved to have more consistent primer pockets (I can tell a difference when seating the primers) and does not need to be trimmed nearly as often.

Have used CCI primers for 18 years. Why? Beacuse when I started loading I only had a Speer book. I swithced to Winchester last year and had more misfires with those primers than I care to remember. Went back to CCI since they served me so well for so long.

Just my experience, yours may vary!

Don Fischer · « **Reply #12 on:** October 30, 2006, 03:55:22 PM »

Well hate to say this but, the only miss-fires I have ever had are ones that I'd tiuched with my fingers. I still have about 100 FA 49 primed cases left out of about 500. I don't trust the primers so I load them one at a time in my 30-06 and pop the primers, haven't had one miss-fire yet.

MnMike · « **Reply #13 on:** November 01, 2006, 04:13:53 PM »

I have a .223 Contender that I like to play with for accuracy. In this I shoot Norma brass. It seems to make an eigth inch difference. In my deer guns, I haven't found any reason to go to the high priced stuff.

mike

ihuntbucks · « **Reply #14 on:** November 01, 2006, 05:06:26 PM »

I use Remington and Winchester for rifle.Starline and Winchester for handgun.On primers;I use CCI for both rifle and handgun.Winchester for shotshells.Never had any problems with any of them,althought sometimes the Winchester brass is sometimes has the openings a little out-of-round......Rick

jd45 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 02, 2006, 01:23:22 AM »

I second Ahab's chioces for rifle/handgun brass. However, I also got some Lapua from Midway that is on a par with Norma quality-wise, while being a lot more "wallet-friendly". Just my 2 cents, JD45

vonfatman · « **Reply #16 on:** November 03, 2006, 08:24:12 AM »

Don Fischer,
Thank you. Your thoughts on brass are terrific.
I've copied and pasted them in my "reloading log"

I appreciate you taking time to reply.

Bob

Almtnman · « **Reply #17 on:** November 11, 2006, 04:09:11 AM »

Quote from: masek77 on October 29, 2006, 04:48:56 AM

Someone in a previous post mentioned that some brands of brass can be loaded almost indefinitely (10 or more reloads) while others wont last more than 3 or 4 reloads. Which brand of brass have you had the most success reloading with? For that matter what about primers? What would you recomend?

Norma is the best brass
Federal is the next best
the list goes down from there.

Getting more loads out of brass depends on how you load them. Loading low recoil loads will get you more use of the brass. Loading hotter loads and the brass will not last as long.

kyote · « **Reply #18 on:** November 12, 2006, 09:03:22 AM »

I have had most my problems reloading with WW brass and that only be with hand gun brass.for some reason case's spring back.and are to loose for the bullet to be held securly.I talked to a couple guys I know that are Lic'end with an 06 lic.and they confirmed that with me.which is a lot of winchester hand gun and rifle brass springs back..I have never had the problem with Fed are Rem brass,which is the bulk of my brass.I have a bunch of brass made in italy that is 9x21..the worst crap I have ever owned.ah the name comes to me tangfoleio brass (spellin)think it is the only hand gun brass I ever bought.
I have a lot of military match brass which I think is great...

the jigger · « **Reply #19 on:** November 14, 2006, 05:08:49 AM »

asking for best brass is like asking about chevy or ford; chocolate or vanilla!
Don Fischer is right-on.

gypsyman · « **Reply #20 on:** November 16, 2006, 03:44:36 AM »

A few years ago, Charles Petty, I believe, did an article on brass. He had a .45 barrel, set up in a special clamp, to eliminate any variable on a standard .45 auto. He mixed brass, but used the same bullet and powder combo. At 25 yds, there wasn't a hill of beans differance in group size.
Now I know there is a major differance if your shooting at longer distance's. As long as you segragate your brass, and use good reloading procedures, any brass should give you many,many reloads.
On my straight wall pistol, I use Lyman M die for belling,(I cast my own bullets, and these dies work great for that), and Redding Profile crimp dies for that. I had one lot of .357 brass,(Federal) that went thru 20 reloads, befors the case neck started to split. And a lot of .44mag., 13 loadings, before they went bad.
And just to throw this out at you guys, don't just throw away your old brass, or leave it on the ground at the range, just because it's dirty, and someone else shot it. Scrap price's are almost $3 a lb. here in Ohio. A 5 gallon bucket can bring you over $150 now. Check your local scrap yard, as some of them get touchy if they think there might be live ammo, or cases with live primers in them. But it's worth the effort to pick it up.-Gypsyman

gary0529 · « **Reply #21 on:** November 18, 2006, 11:12:00 PM »

Don Fischer,

You mirrored my thoughts exactly. My reloading "career" and yours started in the same era- mid 60's and I would guess we both started for the same reasons, we were yourg, broke and like to shoot.
Over the years I made more money, bought more reloading toys and yet, like you, never found the brass to be a significant variable.
Your eloquence on the subject said it all.
I just wanted to say "right on"