Brass Question ?

[ol mike]

If you are deciding on which cartridge for a project or rebarrel,how much emphasis do you guys put on brass?

Say you looked at some ballistics and liked what you saw,but could only get remington or winchester brass would that affect your decision?
And i'm thinking along the lines of a longrange field/hunting rifle not benchrest.Thanks Mike

 

[4ked Horn]

A lot of the shooters here who might build a custom gun or have a fancy BBL put on a gun will often form their own brass by fire forming or through a series of sizing steps so the problem you pose is not usually a big problem.

What do you have in mind? The guys here are a great source for hard to find items or solutions that may be easy to achieve.

 

[Fiftydriver]

It is no problem to get match grade brass from Rem and Win cases. May just involve a bit more time weighing, sorting and prepping the cases but it is simple to get fine quality lots of brass from these two makers, just takes more time but for many that is the enjoyable part of loading long range ammo.

One personal example is my 6-284 LR rifle. Will shoot 1/5 moa at 500 yards and 1/2 moa at 1000 yards in good conditions if I am up to it. Rifle has never used any brass but Win 284 parent cases, ever!! It can be done for sure.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[BountyHunter]

Quality Brass is one of the top three criterea for extreme accuracy. The is barrels and bullets.

ALWAYS buy the best brass. RWS is tops, then Lapua, Norma, Weatherby and then Win, Federal and finally Rem IMO. No one sets out to build a top BR gun on Rem brass.

RWS can do 30+ stiff reloadings. Super strong primer pockets. Rem brass and primer pockets are the worst and might last 3-4x only. You can prep it to get there, but is it worth it?

My time is too valuable to sort 500 pieces of Rem to get 100-300 pieces that only lasts 3-4x. Got to weigh every piece, necks, walls, flash holes etc. Lapua is drilled, so no issues.

Best brass around only costs $1 per. If you build a custom $2000-3000 gun, a $100 for brass is dirt cheap especially if it lasts that much longer and is more uniform to begin with.

A good LR smith knows what will work, has the reamers and brass and normally most will take simple fireforming to some type of "improved" design if it is not stock.

buy the best bullets, brass and barrels, you will not be sorry.

BH

 

[ol mike]

4ked horn,

There actually was a couple of things i had in mind.
I have a 221 fireball and only Rem. makes brass for it,some primers are loose some are tight just very inconsistant.
I have an old 25-06 bdl that i have a HS Precision stock due any day.If i can't get it to shoot better than the .9" average i'm going to have it rebarreled.
So i'm kind of batting around some ideas and everybodies opinions on component selection.
I love the 25-06 but it has crossed my mind to possibly jump ship ,maybe 284 parent case in 24-26cal.

All i have for measuring weights is a beam type lee precision scale.Can i get by w/that for weighting cases?
Could someone give me a quick schooling on what to look for in case evaluation?
I've got about 120pc of Winchester brass that was bought at different times,should i start w/all new -same run brass?
Anyway sooner or later the gun will be a 25-06 AI or 284 parent case wildcat for longrange varmints.

One more question-do i mark in some way the brass that takes the primer "firmly" and cull others-is real tight primer bad?Thanks for everyones help Mike

 

[LB]

There is not much point in salvaging odd brass, get new stuff, whatever brand you like.

I've used every brand except RWS, and I don't know what all the crying is about? I have to cull brass. Part of my Mojo. Is Norma and Lapua significantly better than culled Win or Federal brass? Beats me? BTW, I have had very good results with PMC when I can get it.

Good hunting. LB

edit: loose primer pockets, I don't screw with them, they are trash. Tight? No problem, as long as you have used a uniformer on them, I would not be concerned about crushing them, I never had that happen?

 

[Jon A]

[ QUOTE ]
RWS is tops, then Lapua, Norma, Weatherby and then Win, Federal and finally Rem IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]
Have you tried the Nosler brass yet? Just wondering where it would fit in...it's about $1 per as well for 300 RUM.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

[ QUOTE ]
Quality Brass is one of the top three criterea for extreme accuracy. The others are barrels and bullets.

[/ QUOTE ]

I always understood the " 3 B's" of accuracy to be bullets, bedding and barrels.

However, I agree with Bounty Hunter anyway. I only use high quality brass when available. Messing around with Rem, Hornady or other general production brass just isn't worth the time and effort to me. It also produced groups that were measurably larger in my custom rifles. The Win 284 brass seems to be the exception and some top 1,000yd competitors have used this brass to take home the trophys.

This may all be moot in a "hunting rifle". For 99% of the hunters it really doesn't matter if Lapua or Norma brass would reduce their group size by 10%. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

To answer your initial question - Yes, I do consider which cartridges will have quality brass available for them when making a decision on what chambering I want in a new barrel.

 

[dean253]

Mike, I do think Quality brass is a issue. I also agree that you can make Winchester & remington brass quality brass it just takes some time that most of us don't have. I feel your pain on the .25-06. I have shot a remington sf sendero for F-class competetion for the last couple of years & nobody makes quality .25-06 brass. What I finally did was bought .30-06 Lapua brass & necked it down to .25-06. I have been nothing but happy with the Lapua brass.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Jon A

I put a request on Nosler site to help bring out 300 RUM brass but I have yet to see it anywhere. Any ideas?? I heard from somewhere on this site that its just basically already prepped and weight sorted Winchester brass. I dont think Nosler really wants to clarify it as you and I both have asked for them to verify it, still with no answer from the moderator. Still should be a lot better then the Rem Crap.

 

[Waffen]

Midway USA has Nosler custom brass for the 300 RUM listed as "comming soon" Date Expected In-Stock: 2/21/2006. It's 50.99 for 50 peices. Time to max out my credit card!

 

[Bart B]

If one checks out the brass makes that's been used in the most accurate box magazine competition rifles will shoot sub 1/2 MOA test groups at 600 yards for 20 consecutive shots then learn Winchester brass has been a favorite, they may question it. And that full-length sizing that brass can be done between 50 and 100 times may also be hard to believe.

As long as cases have no more than a 1% weight spread and reasonably uniform neck wall thickness, they will do just fine.