Brass quality: Performance and Expectations

[therifleman556]

I searched through a couple threads looking for what to expect with respective brands of brass. Aside from Lapua being the best and Hornady or Federal being so so, what can someone reasonably expect from the brass available today.

Without devolving into "x brand plain sucks" I'd like to know what the community thinks of the brass they've tried. Preferably with specifics such as "x brand is very consistent, but only lasts x times with hot loads".

I guess what I'm looking for is an objective comparison of brass brands and what to expect out of them so others who are looking can decide for themselves what will work for their application.

Brands to consider:
Lapua
Norma
Petersen
Quality
Bertram
Federal
Remington
Winchester
Hornady
PPU/Prvi
Others???

 

[wildcat455]

Brass I've tried and my personal findings:

--------300 Win Mag------

Federal
Bought as loaded rounds, then used to reload.
Dimensionally consistent.
Ok if not loaded too hot.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket.
4-6 reloads

Remington
Bought as loaded rounds, then used to reload.
Dimensionally consistent.
Used them for a few hunting loads.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket.
7-8 reloads

Winchester
Bought them as loaded rounds and in bags of cases.
In loaded rounds, did not like reloading them due to heavy factory crimp on neck. In bags and for the 300 win mag caliber only, they were inconsistent dimensionally, and had allot of flaws in neck and shoulder area. The ones that cleaned up ended up shooting ok.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket.
7-8 reloads

Hornady
Bought as loaded rounds
Short necks, like .005"-.010" below minimum for cartridge. Tried reloading some, but felt my time, effort and money best spent elsewhere.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket.
4-6 reloads

Privi Partisan
Bought as loaded rounds, then used to reload.
Capacity, weight and dimensions similar to Winchester. Case weights all over the place.
Tried reloading some, but felt my time, effort and money best spent elsewhere.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket.
7-8 reloads

ADG (Atlas Development Group)
Current first choice for 300 Win Mag
Dimensionally consistent, quality brass.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket.
8-10 reloads on first batch I bought.

------------264 Win Mag----------

Remington
Bought as loaded rounds then used to reload.
Pretty decent brass for hunting and target shooting.
Cases usually fail with loose primer pocket. Some with neck splits.
6-8 reloads

Winchester
Bought in bags of cases.
Dimensionally consistent, and decent quality.
Current first choice for reloading in this caliber.
Cases usually fail with a neck split.
6-8 reloads

-------338 Lapua Magnum--------

Hornady
Bought as boxes of 20 cases same lot.
Sorted to 1 grain case weight per box.
Seem to be working ok for me.
Probably still going to switch to ADG

PPU
Bought as loaded rounds
OK for loading 250 gr bullets
Not weight consistent.
Lacks case capacity for my 300 gr load

------220 Swift--------

Hornady
Bought as loaded rounds
Seems ok so far.

Remington
Bought as loaded rounds
Seems ok so far.

Winchester
Bought as bags of cases
Decent brass, and for my use, will probably stick with it for reloading this caliber.

 

[therifleman556]

Perfect, great post! That's exactly the kind of perspective I was looking for. Did you anneal the brass that was splitting necks or was that with minimal maintenance?

 

[wildcat455]

No, no annealing on any of it.

Probably be buying an annealing machine in 2019.

Not really to stretch out the life expectancy of the brass, but more for consistency. Although I will say it'll be nice on the 264 if it stops the splits and extends the life.

 

[ramrod79]

I've been a fan of Norma brass I used in my 6.5 Sherman and with all the fire forming and load development I was able to get 6-7 reloads off it. It always seemed to be very consistant brass never needed to weed out any bad light or heavy cases to this date.
Rich Sherman has been using ADG brass in his new SS and SST designs and he says it's been the best so far as far as quality and performance seems to stand up very well. Maybe he will chime in on this give you a better rundown. I'm going to be using in my new 338 SS.

 

[bob4]

Norma seems to be holding well for me. Many loads(10 or more) out of a hotter load in 270. The 300 WM seems to loosen primer pockets after a reasonable amount of loads. I'm sure that's expected. ( Norma brass)

 

[MagnumManiac]

I will NEVER use Federal brass again. Was given a few hundred once fired FC-10 300WM cases, nearly every piece had loose primer pockets and what didn't sure did after firing STARTING loads in them.......JUNK!

Now, all other brands have had excellent batches, like my 30yr old batch of ww-super Winchester brass, on it's 15th cycle of 100 pieces I use in F-Class. The Norma I bought are soft in comparison. I use the Norma for hunting.
I have to say I have had bad batches in every brand I have tried, though all of my 80's/90's Winchester brass has been very very good.
I have had 6.5x47 Lapua brass that was wrinkled on the shoulders, this is bad QC I feel.

I have some 300WM Frontier brass that takes some serious abuse and hasn't split a neck or opened primer pockets, yet my Hornady 458 Lott brass would open primer pockets about 2gr below max pressure.
I have spoken with the techs at Norma about my 338-416 Rigby Improved cases, they assured me that those and the 338 Lapua cases are made with the same head/web thickness and even sent me pics of the 2 sectioned to prove it. All the 416 based cases, the 2 300/338 Norma Magnums use the same cups as the other 2.
My 338-416 holds up to max pressure with no drama, however, 1 batch of 25-06 appears very soft and had ejector marks a grain up from a start load, so it can happen with ANY brand.

Cheers.

 

[Sevy]

I have used nosler custom, Winchester, and adg for my 300 win mag. Got 4 loads out of nosler before I started losing primer pockets. Not all but some. The 5th firing I lost a bunch. 76 gr of h1000 behind a 212 eldx. Not a hot load in my rifle.
The Winchester I got 1 firing before I lost primer pockets on most of them. 75.5 gr rl 26 behind a 225 eldm. Kinda hot but that was backed off with no pressure signs. Had several slit necks, and way to short of necks out of the bag.
Currently using adg and was impressed when I opened the box. The packing showed me that they care about the condition of the brass when it is received. All seemed to weigh fairly consistent when new. Have 3 firings on them and they seem to be holding up well. 73.5 gr of rl 26 behind 225 eldm. Ran some up to pressure while doing load development and they held up good also. Still shooting those brass and can seat a primer without it falling out. Best buy the money in my opinion.

 

[Dosh]

556, I've loaded Federal in two calibers losing primer pockets after one to two firings. Hornady wasn't far behind. Winchester brass was the worst, so inconsistent and usually scraped >10% of a new bag. Remington isn't bad, but a lot of work prepping for loading. Nosler and Norma are great in all respect, but a bit soft. I would like to see Lapua make brass in more calibers, it is good stuff. Haven't used any of the newer brands due to limited caliber selection. Good luck

 

[stx]

Tagging in

 

[therifleman556]

I got about a hundered Hornady cases for 25-06 in a package deal that was loaded with a mild charge of 4350 under some 120 Speers. I used about 25 of them for break-in and I'll likely pull a bunch to start loading what I want to use.

What I might do is start with 10 or 20 and use them exclusively until they start failing & report what I come up with.

I was feeling out the crowd to see what I should buy if I decide to aquire more.

 

[MagnumManiac]

556, in the 25-06's I have, Remington brass lasts very well, as does Winchester.
The Norma brass I have was a surprise that it got ejector marks well below max loads.

Cheers.

 

[therifleman556]

I was surprised to see the wide range of opinions on PPU brass from this site to others. The 303 stuff I tried was quite good, but I don't weight sort and all that fun stuff. Seems the only easy to get stuff for the 25-06 is Hornady, Winchester, or Norma. I don't know if I'm ready to pay Norma price for what I do (varmint, deer, & informal steel to 500).

 

[stx]

I was surprised to see the wide range of opinions on PPU brass from this site to others. The 303 stuff I tried was quite good, but I don't weight sort and all that fun stuff. Seems the only easy to get stuff for the 25-06 is Hornady, Winchester, or Norma. I don't know if I'm ready to pay Norma price for what I do (varmint, deer, & informal steel to 500).

Midway also has Nosler brass for 25-06...... just bought 100

I use mostly Nosler brass but do have quite a bit of Hornady that came from factory ammo in 6.5CM and 222 Rem. I've had no problems so far with any of the Hornady but only up to 4-5 loads at most.