Why so much dislike for Hornady brass?

[Veteran]

Your post doesn't add up my friend. If your 338 has less brass in hdy than the others, than the volume should be more... The actual weight also does not directly correlate with the strength of the brass. That has more to do with the alloy and the annealing. I get that hdy did have a bad run of 338 Lapua brass early on, but from what I've heard things have changed.

Here's the measured Weight Data Grains:

Lapua Dry Filled with H2O

336.5 451.4 114.9
329.5 446.7 117.2
330.2 446.35 116.15

Avg. Case vol. water weight Lapua 116.1


Hornady


319.3 426.8 107.5
318.8 426.4 107.6

Avg. Case Vol. Water weight Hornady 107.5


Do your own comparisons. This was on once fired brass. Clearly the Hornady Brass weighs less Dry and has less volume of H2O
when filled. Could be its just shorter in the neck or case, or maybe it doesn't have the same alloy, weighs less and is less volume.
Yep, try this on your own too.

 

[Veteran]

Third column above is just the difference between dry and filled, ie, case volume in grains of water.

 

[gbett308]

IMO, both are about the same. If I had to choose, i would go with hornady in general.

went and checked, I have some hornady 308 brass that I have fired nearly 10 times and only remember 1 split case with an above max charge. hornady brass will work for the average joe, precision long range work may be a different story. also, I have hornady 7mm 08, no issues after 5x firings. winchester brass in my win mags, 5-7 firings, no issue.

 

[Veteran]

All the experts on this site can't be wrong......

Brass Quality - Best to Worst

Another thread got me thinking (Reloading gear you regret buying). There were a couple comments about Hornady brass being among some of the worst. I’m still new to reloading and found that thread to be really informative. To honor the OP’s request and NOT debate what IS the best gear, I...

www.longrangehunting.com

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

Simple...because it's junk !! Almost as bad as there bullets but not quite.....there I said what your all thinking...

 

[QuietTexan]

Naw it's not all bad. If you're shooting a $700 rifle with an $500 scope why buy Lapua brass? That'd be like putting premium gas in my old Ford truck, it would just run about the same it has for 20 years. Maybe a Rem 700 ADL and Hornady loads won't be as accurate as a full custom 6.5 blooga blooga something fancy or other shooting brass made out of carved unicorn bone, but for most people it'll fill the freezer for another year.

I'm going to go jump on a Corvette forum and ask which Wal Mart oil to buy and complain about their tow ratings now.

 

[Veteran]

You can shoot Hornady Brass and Ammo all day long. But if you want to reload, why reload something that has less
life and costs you more in the long run. And may not take maximum loads, and may have case head separations. And may cause
cussing as a side effect. Only 0.8% or 1 vote on the poll for Hornady Brass. 86.2% of folks here voted for Lapua for a reason.

Disclosure: I never had any problems at all shooting Hornady brass 1 time. None.

 

[waspocrew]

No issues for me (so far)- I've used it for my 6.5 Sherman, 6 Creed, and 22-250 AI. Forms totally fine and still doing well with 5+ firings. I'm not expecting crazy case life out of them.

That being said, I do have a pile of Peterson brass ready to go once the Hornady craps out

 

[Veteran]

I like Peterson brass too. Especially in belted magnums. It erroneously was not listed in that poll but I would bet it would be in the top 2-3 on this site.

 

[Steves1911]

I bought some in 300 win mag during the shortage because it was all I could find. I got 3 reloads on it before primers literally would fall out.

 

[Dean2]

I am not a fan of Hornady brass because I find it very inconsistent. That said, you guys that are losing primer pockets after 1 to 3 firings on any brass need to look at your loading practices. You are well above max pressures. Yes some brass takes that better than others, but that isn't one of the measures I use to evaluate brass. Drop 1 or 200 fps and get back into proper pressure levels.

 

[shootallday]

I am not a fan of Hornady brass because I find it very inconsistent. That said, you guys that are losing primer pockets after 1 to 3 firings on any brass need to look at your loading practices. You are well above max pressures. Yes some brass takes that better than others, but that isn't one of the measures I use to evaluate brass. Drop 1 or 200 fps and get back into proper pressure levels.

hornady 6.5 prc ammo, I could just about pop the primers out by hand, I tried new brass stating loads only got 2-3 reloads.

 

[Dean2]

hornady 6.5 prc ammo, I could just about pop the primers out by hand, I tried new brass stating loads only got 2-3 reloads.

Well, that being the situation I would say that at least the 6.5 brass is built wrong. I have shot most of the brass reputed to be too soft, Federal, Norma etc and always found them able to take multiple reloads as long as I stayed just below max loads.measured by grains or velocity. Only time I saw "soft brass" drop pockets is when I pushed over max so that is the basis of my comment above. With what you are seeing I would be calling Hornady. I had a lot of problems with their first runs of 17 HH brass and they replaced all of it, no arguements at all. Found them excellent to deal with.

 

[shootallday]

Well, that being the situation I would say that at least the 6.5 brass is built wrong. I have shot most of the brass reputed to be too soft, Federal, Norma etc and always found them able to take multiple reloads as long as I stayed just below max loads.measured by grains or velocity. Only time I saw "soft brass" drop pockets is when I pushed over max so that is the basis of my comment above. With what you are seeing I would be calling Hornady. I had a lot of problems with their first runs of 17 HH brass and they replaced all of it, no arguements at all. Found them excellent to deal with.

i agree it's sort brass and other brass guys are running to hot. The 6.5cm guys seem to do this the most.