How's Norma Brass?

[556]

I had problems with one lot of 308 brass. The primer pockets were very tight and shallow. I could not fully seat the primers using my press much less a hand primer. I used a Lyman primer pocket uni-former. They were still tight after I uniformed them, but I could seat the primers with my lee hand primer. They are still tight after several loads on them as well.

 

[deadidarren]

Yes, I had to use my Forster primer, no other (RCBS and Lee)would seat them. They eventually loosened up a bit.

i modified my RCBS unit 15 years ago it works fine

 

[Greyfox]

i modified my RCBS unit 15 years ago it works fine

What modification did you make to the RCBS. I am assuming its the hand unit with the plastic tray that attaches to it.
Thanks

 

[Kenny0709]

Norma brass is the only brass I use!

 

[deadidarren]

What modification did you make to the RCBS. I am assuming its the hand unit with the plastic tray that attaches to it.
Thanks

this is the one .......

i will post some pics if you need but all i did was shorten the priming rod just enough

to make it cam over in my favour .

just grind and try bit by bit.


hope this helps.

cheers D

 

[scottishkat]

I have 100 pieces of Norma 300 Win Mag on the way. Does anyone feel that they are also superior to lower priced brass in the areas of uniform neck wall thickness and concentricity?

I used some PPU brass in 300 win mag and while seating 210 VLD bullets with 75 gr of H1000 the shoulders were bulging out and unusable. Not very impessed with PPU 300 wm I have seated Norma to 76.5 without issue.

Good luck and shoot straight

Bob

 

[Dinky]

Bringing this thread back to report on my own limited, but I think, significant experience with Norma brass. So far I have not loaded any or tested any loads.

I bought 100 pieces of Norma 300 Win Mag brass and compared it carefully to 100 pieces of new Remington brass:

1. The Norma brass is beautiful stuff--looks like the Crown Jewels of Europe!

2. As already reported, flash holes are perfectly centered (not that the Remington brass is not), and they are clearly drilled--not punched.

3. A look inside shows no flash hole burrs, but rather a perfectly chamfered cone on the base.

4. Back outside, the primer pockets appear to be uniform in depth and are definitely square on the bottom. So I worked forever on the Remington cases, deburring and uniforming. On the Norma cases--nothing left to do.

5. I do not have the tools or skills to measure concentricity or case neck uniformity.

6. I carefully weighed all 100 pieces of each brand. As expected, the Norma cases were somewhat closer in weight uniformity than were the Remington cases--but not hugely so. Statistics makes my eyes bulge out so I did not try to find standard deviation. Four Remington cases were more than 3 percent off the Average and I rejected those. All 100 Norma cases were within plus or minus 1 grain of the average.

7. Here was the surprise--for me at least: the average weight of the Norma cases was 216.9 grains. The Remington average was 238 grains--a difference of 21 grains. The Rem cases were literally 10 percent heavier than the Norma!

8. The case length of a random sample of 10 Rem cases was anywhere from 2.610 to 2.616. The Norma cases were all right on the Trim length if 2.610.

 

[Greyfox]

this is the one .......

i will post some pics if you need but all i did was shorten the priming rod just enough

to make it cam over in my favour .

just grind and try bit by bit.


hope this helps.

cheers D

Thanks, I have the same one. I'll give it a try.

 

[Power]

Does anyone have problems seating the primers because the primer pocket is so tight?

I use the Lee handprimer and the primer pockets were so tight I couldn't do it.
Do you have to use a uniformer before you prime them? I haven't had to with Rem, Win, etc brass before.

I have 200 pieces of Norma 300 WSM brass. The new 100 I just got and reloaded and I'd say 70% had pretty tight primer pockets. Using the RCBS hand primer I was able to use them but they were pretty dang tight!

Otherwise the Norma brass has been good to me. I don't have any quantifications on it other than several reloads with no problems. I trust in the good word so many others have made.