Nosler 300 Win Mag brass, very unimpressed!!!!!

[Fiftydriver]

I was working on a customers rifle that was having some issues chambering some new Nosler 300 Win Mag brass. Got to checking the dimensions on the cases he sent me with the rifle.

Of the 4 cases he sent me, the headspace on the cases varied by 10 thou!!!!!

Even worse, I got to checking the neck thickness on the Nosler cases, again, just four cases to check out. One case had neck thicknesses withing 1 thou all around the neck, certainly not great but acceptable from factory brass.

The next best had 4 thou variation on the neck thickness, the next, 6 thou and the worst, 7 thou variation. Now understand, this is not from one case to another, its the neck thickness from one side of the case neck to the other!!!!!

I do not believe I have ever seen brass this poor in quality from a major brass maker.

For all the touting that Nosler does about their brass and say thats why it costs more then the other commercial brass available, its true quality is horrible.

They tell you its ready to load out of the box, I am sure not that they say that to try to keep the handloaders from checking out the specs for themselves because they are simply horrible.

This may be an isolated batch of brass but they are BAD, not worth much other then paper weights in my opinion, certainly not good for anything resembling long range hunting precision.

Its pretty sad to be honest, I think alot of handloaders have been taken a time or two by bad brass, I just hope for Noslers sake, this is an isolated occurance but I suspect its not.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Do you mind if I copy/paste this over on the Nosler forum??

I'll keep your name out of it.

It would be good for them to know about it though IMO.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Sure, you can paste it where ever you want. If you want to include my name thats fine also, I have the cases sitting right here if they need proof. I am in no way trying to spread bad press about Nosler. I use a ton of their bullets, Probably as much as any other commerical bullet company other then maybe Sierra.

In comparision, I also had four Winchester cases which were dang near as consistant at Lapua brass for that matter. Why spend the big bucks on Nosler brass when you can get more consistant Win cases that will last longer anyway?.............

Not trying to pick a fight with Nosler, just reporting the facts so my fellow shooters do not get taken..

 

[kfrye]

Thanks for the heads up and saving us some money. I guess I can quit waiting for the 338 RUM brass to come out.

 

[243redmist]

Not trying to pick a fight with Nosler, just reporting the facts so my fellow shooters do not get taken..

Yer
Heavens forbid that someone speaks out about this.I have been taken for a ride twice (iam a slow learner) so they will never see my money again.

The first lot i bought was 243win (ready to load what a crook) they had the hardest primer pockets of any cases i have ever seen.So i struggled and got them done.Loaded them up for fireforming (i use a medium load)38grs of BM2 behind a 65gr Vmax.

Out of fifty i had 8 necks split.Now in comparsion my standard load with either Rem or lapua is 41 or 41.5 of BM2 behind the same bullet.

They will never see my money again.

 

[woods]

I started using Nosler brass when I got my 280AI a couple of years ago. That brass was excellent, very very consistant neck thickness at .014" which I turned down to .013" for a .313" neck.

I then got some 22-250 brass which was also good but I do not turn for that factory rifle.

So I got some 30-06 brass and I noticed that the neck thickness varied too much for my liking, I don't remember exactly how much since it's been awhile. Thought it was probably just a bad batch.

Now I have a new box of 300 win mag cases and they vary in neck thickness from .011" to .015". Since this is also a factory chamber I just cleaned them up to .013" but with this thread I am through with Nosler for a while also.

Rather just get Remington. They are usually so thick that I can turn to preference.

 

[ericpetritz]

First off, I am the customer Kirby is referring to in this post. I have been visiting the site for quite some time now but this will serve as my first post so I would like to say hello to everyone. I will preface this post by saying I have been shooting long distance for a long time and I am a professional engineer--leading to an anal person when it comes to my rifles!!!!

Some History:
When I ordered the rifle from Kirby I sent him some Lapua brass to set the rifle up on. The problem is that by the time I received the rifle Lapua discontinued making 300 Win Brass leaving me up the proverbial creek without a paddle. I figured I would try some Nosler brass and see if it lived up to their bragging so I bought two boxes (100 brass). I came up with a load and headed to the range where I found that roughly 50% of the rounds would not chamber. I figured I must have made a mistake and seated the bullets out too far so I headed to the house and seated them in further--they still did not chamber. I then pulled the bullets and could not seat the empty brass either.

At this point I called Nosler and explained my problem. I was informed that they had seen this problem before with a specific lot of brass (the same lot I had, of course). They promptly sent me 100 new brass with a different lot number and when I tried them I found that many of them would not chamber either. Figuring that the Nosler brass was the problem and not owning any headspace gauges, I bought a bag of 50 WInchester brass to try. I tried chambering these brass straight out of the bag and found some of them did not chamber either. At this point I contacted Kirby and was instructed to send the rifle back to figure out the problem. After receiving an email from Kirby today I went and mic'd the necks of a dozen Nosler brass out of the same box as the four I sent to him and found the thickness varying up to 0.005" on the sample I checked---not good!!

I too use many, many Nosler bullets but I sure won't be using any more of their brass!!! As for the Winchester brass not chambering properly, I am sure Kirby will figure it out. Perhaps it is because I didn't full length size them before I attempted to chamber the brass??

Eric

 

[LRHWAL]

Thanks for the heads up on that Kirby!

I've seen very varied reports on it everywhere that I looked (if I recall correctly particularly on 22-250?).

The local shooting and hunting magazine here tested the Noslers in 30-06 for this month's issue and was very impressed with the consistency. The weight seemed very close as those numbers were provided (heavier than other brands though), but details as to neck thickness variation was not provided simply stated that it was "very consistent".

It may vary caliber to caliber, but I'll not be buying it. It's a really premium price I expect a really premium product.

Eric, I use WW in a 300 WM and it chambers just fine, but I figure my chamber neck is cut a bit generous (actually I view it as I problem and posted elsewhere on that). I think if you neck size it you may be fine.

Out of a sample of 50 WW generally: I get 3 or 4 cases with variance over 2 thou, 30-35 within 1 thou, 40 plus with 1 1/2 thou, balance within 2 thou (last 100 cases from the same lot 2 different bags of 50). I use anything within 2 thou, but prefer 1 1/2 thou. for the price you could sort for 1 thou and still be cheaper than Nosler.

Whilst I'm posting here, as I didn't get many responses on my post, can you tell me what your neck wall thickness runs on those 300 WM WW if you get a chance. Sorry to highjack. Thanks!

WL

 

[beartooth]

I was working on a customers rifle that was having some issues chambering some new Nosler 300 Win Mag brass. Got to checking the dimensions on the cases he sent me with the rifle.

Of the 4 cases he sent me, the headspace on the cases varied by 10 thou!!!!!

Even worse, I got to checking the neck thickness on the Nosler cases, again, just four cases to check out. One case had neck thicknesses withing 1 thou all around the neck, certainly not great but acceptable from factory brass.

The next best had 4 thou variation on the neck thickness, the next, 6 thou and the worst, 7 thou variation. Now understand, this is not from one case to another, its the neck thickness from one side of the case neck to the other!!!!!

I do not believe I have ever seen brass this poor in quality from a major brass maker.

For all the touting that Nosler does about their brass and say thats why it costs more then the other commercial brass available, its true quality is horrible.

They tell you its ready to load out of the box, I am sure not that they say that to try to keep the handloaders from checking out the specs for themselves because they are simply horrible.

This may be an isolated batch of brass but they are BAD, not worth much other then paper weights in my opinion, certainly not good for anything resembling long range hunting precision.

Its pretty sad to be honest, I think alot of handloaders have been taken a time or two by bad brass, I just hope for Noslers sake, this is an isolated occurance but I suspect its not.

Fiftydriver, would be so kind as to pm me and I will give you an address you could send that Nosler brass to me and I will pay for the shipping. I would like to measure that myself and see those brass. Thank you beartooth

 

[Fiftydriver]

Its not my brass to send to you. Ask Eric for permission.

 

[boomtube]

"They tell you its ready to load out of the box, "

All cases are made in vast lines of machines, what we get is a variety of those cases, rarely off a steady stream one after the other. I often see posts of people agonising if they should FL "new" brass before loading it; what nonsense! The only way we can insure that each case is as close to the same as possible is to FL size it and then trim it to lenght, other wise it's a crap shot, no matter the brand. Anyone expecting to purchase brass from any maker and having it be as precise as parts for a watch simply doesn't understand manufactoring!

Yes, it's true, on average Norma and Laupa cases ARE more consistant than more common brands but the stress should to be on "average", not each case. And that doesn't mean common brands are automatically "bad". I've had some Federal, Remington and Winchester brass that was amazingly consistant. Most of it is not, but that is the effect of "averages" roughly half is better, half is worse. We live with it or take up fishing.

Pay the money you are willing to spend and test each case if you are looking for bug-hole groups. Actually, I rarely find any significant difference in accuracy between "perfect" cases and more typical cases if my loading methods are right.

 

[beartooth]

"They tell you its ready to load out of the box, "

All cases are made in vast lines of machines, what we get is a variety of those cases, rarely off a steady stream one after the other. I often see posts of people agonising if they should FL "new" brass before loading it; what nonsense! The only way we can insure that each case is as close to the same as possible is to FL size it and then trim it to lenght, other wise it's a crap shot, no matter the brand. Anyone expecting to purchase brass from any maker and having it be as precise as parts for a watch simply doesn't understand manufactoring!

Yes, on average, Norma and Laupa cases ARE more consistant than with more common brands but the stress should to be on "average", not each case. And that doesn't mean common brands are automatically "bad", I've had some Federal, Remington and Winchester brass that was amazingly consistant. Most it not but that is the effect of "averages".

We live with it or take up fishing. Pay the money you are willing to spend and test each case if you are looking for bug-hole groups. Actually, I rarely find any significant difference in accuracy between "perfect" cases and more typical cases if my loading methods are right.

I thought I would try some so I ordered 30-06 brass from them. Then I measured the case length and they were extremely close in length then I measured the neck thickness, bases of every case and weighed every case. I was impressed so I loaded them with out resizing
and I will be shooting them tomorrow and will post the accuracy of these rounds. Have you ever loaded any of the Nosler right out of the box? I will see tomorrow how they preform but the box I got is very uniform in all respects.

 

[beartooth]

I bought the Nosler 30-06 brass over a week ago and my Mark V Custom will be in today from the Cera-Kote I had put on it and the B&C Medalist stock and tomorrow I will try out the Nosler brass that I did not resize. Here is a picture of my Custom Mark V 30-06 and the Nosler bullet (E-Tip) and brass I will be trying out tomorrow.

 

[boomtube]

" I will be shooting them tomorrow and will post the accuracy of these rounds. Have you ever loaded any of the Nosler right out of the box? I will see tomorrow how they preform but the box I got is very uniform in all respects."

Good question, but no, I've never even though of loading new brass without sizing it first. Even so, I doubt you will find any major difference in groups from new brass, unsized vs. sized. Enjoy your shooting and don't sweat such small things, they are rarely significant on a target!