Nothing ****es me off more than soft brass, and I do believe after reading this thread that some companies have "soft brass" in some lot numbers and tougher in others.
Whats the best made brass today in order
- Thread starter dgr416
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redneckbmxer24
Well-Known Member
The best is Lapua, ADG, and Alpha. There is absolutely no disputing the fact that these brands produce the absolute most consistent and ready to load brass right out of the box, has the best lot to lot consistency and lasts the longest.
The best value brass is Starline. Out of the box it's very consistent in weight, primer pockets, neck length and headspace and doesn't have nasty burrs on the flash holes. You'll need to run an expander mandrel through it and chamfer it though because they get dinged up in shipping. I had no problem getting ES's around 10fps and great accuracy on initial loadings doing nothing more than that with a lot of their 224V, 243, 6CM, and 6.5CM. It did always have a couple thousandths more runout on the initial firing than the premium stuff but after that there was no difference at all between it at the premium stuff measuring runout or groups on paper and accuracy at distance.
Remington brass is good but requires a lot more prep in my experience and can be pretty inconsistent for the first firing as far as headspace and runout which can lead to a lot of inconsistent results during load development. Shooting factory ammo to fire form solves that problem though and core lokt is cheap for a lot of loadings and makes good break in ammo which is always a good thing do to before starting load development anyway. Not great weight consistency, but not bad either.
Winchester component brass was decent at one point but then I started getting batches that 10-20% of the cases had folds in the necks and shoulders in every batch and was trash. They must have some QC check for it in the loaded ammo because I've never seen that in their boxed ammo. Like Remington, getting factory ammo and shooting it and then loading it works out well with some brass prep.
I was pretty unimpressed with Nosler and Peterson the little I used it as well. I wouldn't spend my money on it unless it was my only choice.
I can't take anyone seriously that thinks Hornady and Norma is good brass, they're the absolute softest worst brass I have ever used. It's typical for half of the brass to have loose primer pockets after the first firing with loads that aren't high pressure at all and after the second firing you throw away half of what's left again. Absolute junk compared to other options on the market. I would never spend money on it and will rarely even load it when I have 1x fired brass from shooting factory ammo.
Federal is pretty soft too and I'd never spend money on it but if I have it from once fired factory ammo in that rifle I'll use it. The FGMM brass is actually pretty good, just expect to trim it more than some others but I do every firing anyways. It's usually good for 5-10 firings depending on how you load it, annealing, and what your expectations are. I've never had it lose pockets like Norma and Hornady though so it must be tougher in the case head even if it is softer brass.
The best value brass is Starline. Out of the box it's very consistent in weight, primer pockets, neck length and headspace and doesn't have nasty burrs on the flash holes. You'll need to run an expander mandrel through it and chamfer it though because they get dinged up in shipping. I had no problem getting ES's around 10fps and great accuracy on initial loadings doing nothing more than that with a lot of their 224V, 243, 6CM, and 6.5CM. It did always have a couple thousandths more runout on the initial firing than the premium stuff but after that there was no difference at all between it at the premium stuff measuring runout or groups on paper and accuracy at distance.
Remington brass is good but requires a lot more prep in my experience and can be pretty inconsistent for the first firing as far as headspace and runout which can lead to a lot of inconsistent results during load development. Shooting factory ammo to fire form solves that problem though and core lokt is cheap for a lot of loadings and makes good break in ammo which is always a good thing do to before starting load development anyway. Not great weight consistency, but not bad either.
Winchester component brass was decent at one point but then I started getting batches that 10-20% of the cases had folds in the necks and shoulders in every batch and was trash. They must have some QC check for it in the loaded ammo because I've never seen that in their boxed ammo. Like Remington, getting factory ammo and shooting it and then loading it works out well with some brass prep.
I was pretty unimpressed with Nosler and Peterson the little I used it as well. I wouldn't spend my money on it unless it was my only choice.
I can't take anyone seriously that thinks Hornady and Norma is good brass, they're the absolute softest worst brass I have ever used. It's typical for half of the brass to have loose primer pockets after the first firing with loads that aren't high pressure at all and after the second firing you throw away half of what's left again. Absolute junk compared to other options on the market. I would never spend money on it and will rarely even load it when I have 1x fired brass from shooting factory ammo.
Federal is pretty soft too and I'd never spend money on it but if I have it from once fired factory ammo in that rifle I'll use it. The FGMM brass is actually pretty good, just expect to trim it more than some others but I do every firing anyways. It's usually good for 5-10 firings depending on how you load it, annealing, and what your expectations are. I've never had it lose pockets like Norma and Hornady though so it must be tougher in the case head even if it is softer brass.
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What you actually want is hard case heads and forward past the .200 line, soft everywhere else. When necks and shoulders become to hard they get brittle and crack/ split. Anneal to remedy that issue.
LRNut
Well-Known Member
I am not a fan of Lapua simply because its weight varies quite a bit, but I will admit I didn't try a lot.
Norma, as you point out, is very consistent. Interestingly, at least in .338 Lapua, Nosler and Norma both generated the same AMP code, which makes me wonder if Norma makes Nosler brass.
I use Hornady brass in my .308 Win; does just fine, but I use it in my 500 yard gong rifle. Otherwise, I don't use any Fed, Rem, or Win brass in LR rifles. I use ADG, Norma, and Nosler.
I use Starline for my .45-70 and pistols but I was speaking with an F class shooter last month who swears by it for his F class rifles.
after many hours reading about this topic on many different forums, this is the list
lapua is ALMOST always #1. with the other 3 taking different spots of 2-4
on the calibers i care the most about, i have lapua and the other cal i have alpha because of availability issues of lapua.
Your never going to let the spina scope thing go, are you? He was strange! Think his replacement has shown up but I'm not pointing him out yet. I could be wrong.
Lefty7mmstw
Well-Known Member
One guy on one of the Facebook forums I'm on is having issues with his Lapua 300win brass. He says he isn't having this problem with other makes.
FireFlyFishing
Well-Known Member
Nah..I'll let it go. It's still a funny joke but wearing thin.
Your right, it was funny.
Your right, it was funny.
What sort of problems? Ah, I see it now.. Any other information?
I use ADG mostly, then Lapua and Nosler. I do have some Peterson Brass but have not used any of it so I can't add it to my list yet. A lot of people on here seem to have problems with Nosler but I have not experienced any issues yet., knock on wood.
dgr416
Well-Known Member
I hope the norma 375 weatherby brass I just bought is good to make 416 rem mag out of should be .I use to get bulk rem 416 brass and alot of them were damaged so bad you couldn't reload them.The brass was also so soft in tje 416 rem brass I could bend it with my fingers .I have a whole case of 500 rem 338 win mag brass that's so soft I can't use flat based bullets in it .I can't find and 338 win brass so I am necking up 7 mm rem mag brass .The norma brass of past years was some of the best brass I ever used .I have a bunch of 416 weathetby norma brass you can run it over with a truck won't bend it .Starline brass has been awesome in pistol brass ihave not tried the rifle stuff yet .I have some federal 308 brass that will not size or take primers it's super weird has blue ink on the primers .I split tons of 264 win mag brass it's been the worse of anything .
Lefty7mmstw
Well-Known Member
not really, other than he was having issues with consistent neck tension also. I suspect bad annealing...
