How much do you value brass brand consistency when reloading?

[ARlife4me]

I was never in the rabbit hole until I started reading on forums. When I started reloading I only used the brass from which ever brand of ammo was bought. At that time I only reloaded/shot 2 cartridges (1 per rifle)(264wm & 270win). I never gave any thought about using any other brass? I haven't tried mixed brass for 1 load for 1 gun, but I might have a thought about that? Forgoing case weight and just check case volume for testing before moving forward. What I do on every reload is fl size (works for me) on ba's and AR's. With a fair amount of brass from different mfgs I do separate. Most brass I buy is due from availability. I'm still using super-x brass from the late 70s and early 80s in my 264wm that's been fired and fl sized well over 10 times. I can't swear by 1 particular brand.

 

[lancetkenyon]

For my AR, I run Lake City for my 69SMK loads. Approx 4k rounds. For my 50gr varmint loads, I run mixed headstamp.

For every single bolt action I own, I run matching headstamped brass, and weight sort to within 3gr max ES for weight.

 

[LRNut]

IMO if you're shooting inside 300 yards it doesn't matter at all, and depending what your precision need is that range can be much much further.

I'm 1000% anal-retintive about my ELR and benchrest stuff, but it doesn't take much to pop a whitetail at 120 yards with a grab bag of random brass. My pig hunting brass is mixed headstamp, mixed number of firings, mixed 300 BLK-223 Rem/5.56 LC made into 300 BLK, etc, a complete and total random mix of cases that get shot until they split then that one gets tossed. More likely they get lost before they get shot enough to split. Even hunting loads for my 30-06 is random factory fired brass, I don't need anything better for doe control.

No harm in reloading what you have to get used to the processes before diving in and buying a box of something nicer that you'll keep track of over the lifecycle.

I have a Husky .30-06 that I shoot every day, one shot, offhand, at 84 yards. I mix brass for that rifle (we are talking about hitting a paper plate) but otherwise, I not only keep it with the same manufacturer, but try and keep it in the same lot.

 

[VinceMule]

jlarose85, as you start loading for the 308, you will see where you can soon achieve some super accuracy.

If you run Lake City, examine the brass after decapping and cull the off-center flash hole brass, some will shock you! Federal brass runs soft and so does norma for hot loads.

We have had exceptional results with developing loads in the same brand with Remington, Winchester, PMC, and Hertenberger. Of course, Lapua is top drawer for us for our serious longer-range loads.

If I were mixing brass, I would not be shooting near max loads but would be adequate for the Zombie Acopolipse.

 

[YZ-80]

Good topic. So, I use all kinds of brass. For serious load development, I always use consistent head stamps with a consistent number of firing cycles. But as was mentioned previously, I will bend the rules for short range hunting and plinking. I've used Winchester, Starline, Lapua, Hornady, Nosler, etc. Alot of the brass I have for my .243's and .22-250's is a mixed bag of Federal, Hornady and Remington that I saved up from the 90's when I did alot of groundhog hunting and was not a reloader. It all seems to work fine and produce acceptable accuracy. For my longer range rifles, I'm always consistent with the headstamp. Over the years, I've gotten a feel for how many cycles I can go and picking up on the failure signs (rings around the case, split necks, loose primer pockets, etc.,) which get familiar and predictable. I don't tend to run my stuff hard (i.e., hot loads) so even without annealing, I get several cycles out of quality brass without any problem. All that said, I appreciate and understand why guys are anal about this stuff. Consistency is the name of the game. I'm just starting to do some annealing after 16 years of reloading. I'm excited to see where this takes me in the continuous learning process.

 

[243winxb]

160 rounds of once fired brass

Sort by Brand/headstamp. Do full Benchrest prep. Sort by weight. Make groups that are withing 3/10 grs of each other.

Or skip the prep, sort by 3 grs maximum spread, after sorting by headstamp.

 

[jlarose85]

Can someone explain the sorting my weight thing to me? I understand that you are looking for consistency, but consistency in what? Is the weight a general proxy for wall thickness so the assumption is that you'll get more consistent powder capacity out of those?

I appreciate all the help everyone!

 

[P7M13]

For plinking rounds, I don't sort or get OCD about brass. With the cost of replacing powder and primers, I do this less and less.
For the serious loads, I have Lapua, Peterson or Norma brass.

 

[MagnumManiac]

I have one parameter when it comes to brand. For my comp rifles, only the best brass is used; Lapua, RWS & Norma.
For my Precision LR/ELR rifles, the same is used IF available, if it isn't, then another brand is obtained. For instance, making several cartridges from 375H&H brass, I always tried to use old Winchester brass, which I had many of, but lately this was hard to obtain, so I tried Remington, it worked very well even though it is softer than Winchester brass. For my 416 Rigby wildcats I always used Norma as it was all I could get and had to keep pressure lower due to Norma's thin webs, then Hornady started making it, so I tried that. Worked OK, but gets tired at about 5-6 reloads.
For everything else, I have Remington, Winchester, Norma and even old Kynoch brass for my big bore doubles.
There is brands I will not touch, such as Federal & Nosler…

Cheers.

 

[Bob Wright]

Think of it this way: if you wanted a high performance race engine or a daily driver, you wouldn't want each cylinder to have a different size and compression ratio piston in it.

 

[243winxb]

sorting my weight thing

Chambers have a volume, running from *bolt face* to where the bullet seals the bore. The amount of mass/matter in the volume, makes a difference.

 

[cajun]

You have to be careful with different brass as case capacities will affect pressure. A safe max load in one brand will not be safe in another.

 

[Gpkhill2]

I don't mix brass brands because of case capacity differences. And I have also switched a lot of my stuff to ADG, Lapua and Peterson. Because I'd rather spend my time loading instead of case prepping

 

[FEENIX]

So I'm about to start reloading for my .308 and was wondering how much of a emphasis you all put on using the same brand brass across all of your hand loads?

I have 160 rounds of once fired brass consisting of a mix of Hornady, Federal, Winchester, Nosler, Sig and Barnes. I'm wondering if I would be better served to just pick up some new brass and start fresh or use the ones I already have. I'd prefer to use the ones I already have but I'm not sure how much change you all generally see in consistency of loads when using different manufacturers brass.

Let me know what you all think and thanks in advance for the help!

I track all my brass and keep it with the rifles it is fire-formed with. IIWY, start fresh with virgin brass. I do not worry about consistencies until it is fired-formed off the chamber at least once, then adjust accordingly, but that's just me.