review of Nosler custom brass

[goodgrouper]

This stuff may just be the answer lazy(or busy) reloaders have been looking for.

I took some 308 brass out of the box yesterday and began running a few little tests on it.

The first thing I checked was the weight consistency. Of 30 pieces, all I could get in variation was 3 grains with the vast majority only being 1.2 grains variation. Test 1: A-


Next test was the neck wall thickness uniformity. 30 cases yeilded only 1.5 thousandths variation. Test 2: A-


Then flash hole burrs were checked. No burrs found and there was a nice little beveling job done on the inside web around the flash hole. Test 3: A+


Then primer pockets were checked. While not being uniformed by machine, they were surprisingly very consistent in depth and tightness. Test 4: B+


On to the case mouth chamfering. All cases had a beautiful chamfer inside and out and were consistent in length and angle. Very nice! Test 5: A


Sizing. They were all neck sized from the factory and appeared to be done very uniformly. No dings or dents in them thanks to the great packaging they do. Test 6: A


Then concentricity was checked on the necks. All 30 of my test pieces ran between .001" and .002" runout. NOt bad for just neck sizing in a factory sizer process. Test 7: B+

Then trim lenght was measured. All 30 pieces were trimmed to within .003" of each other. Very very good! Test 8: A-


All in all, this stuff beats the pants off of anything currently produced in the US and even beats the european stuff in many categories. I would like to see Lapua and Norma trim and chamfer for the price you pay.

Nosler brass is great stuff and can be loaded right out of the box by all but the most finicky reloader (myself being one of those) and in that case, all that needs to be done to it is turn the high side off the neck and square the case heads and it's off to the match!

[kraky1]

I bought some of their "blems" for my 300 win and was just as impressed as you (although you took the tests further than I). Loaded runnout without any sizing from me was really excellent....most loaded brass was under .003 runnout.
MOst 300 win brass I see is going for about $15/50 and these blems were $22. When you figure you're gonna own them for at least 5 reloadings that brings the cost down to less than $.03 cents per shot to use really good brass.
I think I can afford that and so can most anyone.
(ALSO..the wt uniformity from shell to shell on the blems was excellent even though they advertise that the blems might not be the same wt consistancy as the firsts.....I think they come from pretty much the same batches.

If you haven't been to nosler's proshop to buy direct and save big $$$$$$$$$$ you owe it to yourself to do that. I buy Accubonds (blems) for the same price that ballistic tips go for in most stores.

[Bart B]

How square were the case heads?

[jb1000br]

Lapua...Trim and chamfer? eh?

any lapua i have measured have been inside a 3-thou window (+- 1.5 thou) usually +-1thou OAL...

Though they could usea deburring [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

JB