Need some advice

[Swift One]

Just recently bought a rem 700 SPS varmint in 204 Ruger.  I have been playing around with hornady and remington 32gr facory ammo.  More or less breaking in the barrel and keeping casings for reloding.  Now Im ready to start reloading.  I thought that I seperated the brass, wanting to keep just the rem stuff.  Deprimed and cleaned.  Started looking at the brass and realized that I have both hornady and rem.   Im usually a one brand brass type of a guy when it comes to reloading- dont like to mix the stuff up.   But I do have two diff types of brass now.  Can I expect different performance between the brands with the same load pushed through them? Do I need to stick to just one brand?  Im not looking for anything seriously long range here- 350yds max. 

[drdougrx]

I haven't seen any difference at all with mixed headstamps for hunting loads.  I'm not a bench rest shooter though. 

[jhalcott]

Well , a friend of mine and I both shoot the .204 in T/C carbines. He bought several hundred rounds of ammo from Able's ammo. Some was in Hornady brass ,some was Winchester brass. I found a weight difference in these 2 brands that required a tweaking of the powder charge to get equal velocities AND accuracy. Maybe not enough to MISS a ground hog at 100 yards,but a definite difference all the same. The difference COULD cause a miss at much longer range, but I separated the brass by make. Now I reload MY ammo in Hornady brass with the 40 grain bullet, he gets the 32 grain pills!

[SHOOTALL]

With my 25-06 I load 53 gr of powder into Rem 25-06 cases , same with Winchester 2506 cases , same with 30-06 cases necked down and 270 cases necked down. I use 100 gr BT's and CCI br primers . At 100 yards you can't tell the difference . All go into a clover leaf group. I have shot ground hogs at over 400 yards and never haved looked at the head stamp. Did I mention I also use lake city brass necked down ?
This has been a very accurate rifle so far , would all rifles do the same ? doubt it . Is this a good pratice ? if it works it works . My load is not max ( for those thinking less capacity with MB ). Is there a difference ? I would expect so . But then old brass vs new brass , weight of different brass and lots of other things effect accy also.
The easiest thing to do is load both and see what happens . I have some brass in same cal. that have large and small primer pockets. In most cases I load one weight/type bullet in one and another in the other Rem 6.8 spc is an example. 7BR was the same way with 2 primer pocket sizes and I never noticed a difference at 200 yards shooting both in the same string.
Consider a Ground hog is at least 12 inches tall and 4-5 inches across ( a consertive guess)If my hold is good how much could pratical hunting accy be affected at 2-300 yards when you start with a 1/2 inch group at 100 yards ? Bench rest shooters are looking for one hole not even a ragged hole !

[parkergunshop]

Mixing brass is ok for the most part with one exception.

Some brass is a lot heavier and thicker than other brands, if you work up a maximum load in one brand of brass,  and use that load in another brand with less case capacity you may get excessive pressures.   Some of us load over what the loading manual recommends until we see pressure signs and then back off a grain or so of powder.   Sometimes the best accuracy is with loads approacing maximum.

Norma brass is expensive, but it seems to last longer when reloading and it has more powder capacity than some of the other brands.

I also found Winchester brass to be better than Remington brass and to have more power capacity in the calibers I load.

And as an old benchrest shooter, they never mix brands of brass, always looking for another edge in the accuracy dept.   Mixing brass does cause velocity variations that might not impact a hunter, but could mean the difference in a winning group or losing group  for a competition shooter.

[huntswithdogs]

When I had my 25/06, brass didn't matter. Same with my 308 and 300WM. My 243 is a different little beast. Win and Rem brass will shoot the same load to different places on the target.

You'll have to find out for yourself by loading and test firing some.

Hope they all go in one hole for ya!

HWD

[Catfish]

What the Dog said, the only way to know is to try it.

[bigvarmnt]

I would separate the two. Weigh to get the closet few of each brand, trim prep all the same. Load some of each the same and compare groups. May not matter but it may, then you will know. 350yds is far enough that a little difference may matter. If one is better sell the others and buy some more of the good ones. I have been doing this with 3 different brands. OR just shoot them all and if they are good enough just go with it. Glad to be of help

Good Luck, Now you will have something to keep you busy

[Grumulkin]

In my experience, most of the time, different brass will make loads print in different places on paper and usually one brand of brass provides better accuracy than others.  Occasionally, two or three different brands of brass will give the same performance in a load.  The moral; for best accuracy, use the same brass brand that has been prepped the same way.

[Swift One]

Thanks for the replies fellas.  las nite I loaded up soem test rounds.  Gues I will see what happens...

[Swift One]

Well, went out shooting some loads yesterday and yes, the diff brass made diff POI.  However, I was still able to see some promise in one load.  I am going to try it again with all the smae brass and seewhat happens.

[shot1]

I have been hand loading for over 30 years and I can't recall one single time that different case brands would shoot to the same POI. They may shoot very accurately with the same load when you shoot the same brand cases for group but if you mix them up they don't shoot to the same POI.

[Swift One]

They may shoot very accurately with the same load when you shoot the same brand cases for group but if you mix them up they don't shoot to the same POI.

Thats is the exact conclusion that I came up with.  In the one load that was showing cluster groups, The rem brass would cluster in one group and the Hornady brass would cluster in another group.  Should have know better.  I Always try and use the same brass.  In my 7mm-08, I load it for long range.  If I mixed up brass, i would have a nightmare.....

[SHOOTALL]

I think POI can be a very small difference or a large one . In reality most brass it could be said had a different POI because we shoot groups with a spread not one hole the dia of the bullet.  If you find a 1-2 inch difference at 100 yards off a bench with your gun will it matter in hunting deer out to the same range ? At 400 yards on ground hogs yea its a problem. Its all in what you need