Brass or loaded ammo

[bigbulls]

With some brass so hard to get does anybody buy loaded rounds and take them apart for the brass. The cost of brass is the same cost as some loaded rounds if you could find them. Are there any cons to using this brass as it would be new?

 

[FearNoWind]

If I buy factory ammo I usually use it for "trigger time" at the range (never can get too much practice) before reloading the brass.

 

[North Idaho Hunter]

Its pretty sad that its come to that-unfortunately.

I just did this with 7 Rem Mag.

$63 for 50 pieces of brass. I bought winchester loaded ammo for the same price.

Good way to get some trigger time i guess!gun)

 

[Rick Richard]

Nothing wrong in this approach if brass is unobtainable. I prefer stripping it down to the bare brass and begin as if the brass were new.

 

[gohring3006]

I used to strip it down and use it as new, but i now just shoot it for scope zeroing and fowling shots so its fireformed to my chamber.

 

[Corey Schwanz]

Haven't done it much, but I'd shoot them instead of pulling them apart. If you take them down to "new" you are then going to load and fire form them anyway. Why not do that with the loaded round then you have once fired brass to your chamber. Wouldn't use it for matches or anything but scope zeros, etc.

 

[Dosh]

Big, I shoot several Weatherby calibers and the bare brass cost is staggering. 30/378 Wby brass is $70-80 for 20. I have found Wby factory loaded ammo for less than half bare brass price at out of the way gun shops and a shop that specializes in purchasing stock from failed shops. Even found factory .257 Wby ammo at Cabelas for $10 less than brass cost. I always shoot them and then reload.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

Yes. I buy loaded rounds for brass but the last batch if Remington 300 RUM, copper shoots so well in my rifle I reserved it for hunting.

If the economics works, do it but shoot the loaded rounds as you would any testing. They may work so well you might wind up using it seriously or duplicating the load.

 

[g0rd0]

that is how I get my brass.
Fire form factory ammo then start reloading it

 

[Deleted member 46119]

I forgot something. Results from different manufacturers fired factory.

I lightly neck turn all my brass. New or fire formed factory. New I use an oversize ball or mandrel. Fire formed, after firing and cleaning, I run just the oversize ball or mandrel in to make sure it's straight. Then turn.

Hornady 223: Good brass. A little short when you check the length.
Federal 308: Good brass. Not quite the same as LC but it is what I use in my "High Power" rifle.
Hornady 308: Good brass. It's what I use in my Mark V SVM.
Remington 300WSM: good to very good brass.
Winchester 300WSM: Solid brass. I went 18 firings before the primer pockets gave up for Fed GMM primers. If I had switched to CCI probably still going.
Federal 300WSM: Good brass, softer than Winchester
Federal 243: Good brass, trim off the crimp.
Remington 300RUM: Box standard Rem brass. It will be long from the crimp.

I can go on and on. Basically I seem to get pretty good results from the fired brass. I have had a few that blew out enough on the factory loads that I would not reused them. In general Hornady is "short" being minimum length after firing. Brass from the boxes marked "premium" is usally really good. I don't know if they cherry pick brass for the premium factory loadings but it works for me.

I would not bother with PMC if you can get Rem, Fed or Win. PMC is "ok" just kinda my last choice.

 

[Papershredder]

I've been buying Nosler Custom Trophy Grade Ammo for my .300 RUM instead of buying just brass. For Nosler brass anywhere you could find some in Alberta they wanted $120/box of 25 brass. I am buying the Ammo for $80 and end up with 20 brass........hmmmmmm.