Lapua or Hornady match grade brass? Help

[Zen Archery]

If you "don't wanna spend money" Hornady will work just fine just don't expect life and consistency of Lapua!

 

[BlackTail30]

X2. It's functional, it works, and it's a lower cost option. I'm not in a huge rush to feed Lapua, Alpha or Peterson cases to my ARs or M-1, so it has a place in my reloading room. They take more work to prep and match up into batches, but you can get 20-case groups that are pretty well matched to each other capacity-wise, and those can go out to distance well enough. 3x 20ct boxes of 26 Nosler resulted in two 15-case batches that are close enough together to be good. The rest still shoot just not tight enough together to be considered matched. More than enough cases for a hunting trip, not enough for a range rifle.

I have some barrels that will shoot about 1" at 100 yards feeding them basically anything, so not every round I load has to be the most best perfect ideal tuned secret sauce thing ever. Sometimes I have friends that just want to hear a 12" gong go DUNK and Hornady/Rem/Win/PPU/etc all fit the bill out to respectable distances.

That was exactly my point. Hornady brass has its place. No doubt Lapua is better but is Hornady good enough for what you want to do? Obviously the OP is weighing the cost/benefit for each. Going out to try and win the Nightforce ELR? Yeah, go get some Lapua. Ring steel at 500 yards and hunt 400 yards and in? You won't be able to blame anything on your Hornady brass.

 

[ShootnMathews]

That was exactly my point. Hornady brass has its place. No doubt Lapua is better but is Hornady good enough for what you want to do? Obviously the OP is weighing the cost/benefit for each. Going out to try and win the Nightforce ELR? Yeah, go get some Lapua. Ring steel at 500 yards and hunt 400 yards and in? You won't be able to blame anything on your Hornady brass.

Exactly. I went ahead and ordered the Lapua though. Buy once, cry once. The Hornady may have worked for me but the Lapua will be better no doubt

 

[cdherman]

And never buy a lot under 200 rounds. I've made that mistake too often. 500 that someone else notes is a bit much for one gun. Maybe they have multiple 280 AI. But 100 is too much trouble. Get 2-3 hundred with a new barrel. Sort and you will never have to switch brass. Bag and label virgin brass by weight. Throw out some extreme outliers, or label as rejects ( I have often wondered what would be wrong with using a file to cut a small "notch" in the rim, to designate for use to warm up) Start at top or bottom and always label fired brass by #of firings at least, perhaps weight lot too. Having some extra brass allows you to load up a large lot of rounds for a particular use, but play around with other stuff on the side if needed. 100 is just not enough.

 

[Two Trees]

Lapua, superior quality. It will actually end up costing less when you factor in the extra loads you will get if you take care of the brass.

 

[nhhunter]

Lapua all day

 

[Mark37082]

Bolt rifles are fed Lapua, Peterson, and ADG. Auto loaders are fed PPU, Starline, or anything that is cheap. It pains me to see expensive brass mauled by a auto loaders.

 

[Mike Matteson]

And never buy a lot under 200 rounds. I've made that mistake too often. 500 that someone else notes is a bit much for one gun. Maybe they have multiple 280 AI. But 100 is too much trouble. Get 2-3 hundred with a new barrel. Sort and you will never have to switch brass. Bag and label virgin brass by weight. Throw out some extreme outliers, or label as rejects ( I have often wondered what would be wrong with using a file to cut a small "notch" in the rim, to designate for use to warm up) Start at top or bottom and always label fired brass by #of firings at least, perhaps weight lot too. Having some extra brass allows you to load up a large lot of rounds for a particular use, but play around with other stuff on the side if needed. 100 is just not enough.

Try nail polish on the base of the case. I would mark the case in set way using only part of the letters or numbers. I had or have a chart showing the weight of those cases.

 

[cdherman]

Try nail polish on the base of the case. I would mark the case in set way using only part of the letters or numbers. I had or have a chart showing the weight of those cases.

Stainless pins would remove nail polish pretty fast I fear.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Stainless pins would remove nail polish pretty fast I fear.

I haven't used Stainless pins. So I don't know. I read about using nail polish a long time ago. Wife went missing polish.

 

[cape cove]

I have used Hornady brass in the past in a 25/06 and a 22/250 that I owned and got great performance and case life from them. They most certainly don't come as well prepped as Laupa but once prepped they were great for me. JMO