Best 300 WIN brass

[montana_native]

I just opened a new bag of Winchester brand 300 WIN brass. All of the flash holes are off center in the primer pocket by a significant amount. I'm not sure how this will affect things, if any. What is a better quality of brass?

Thanks.

 

[gamedog]

RWS is supposed to be some of the best.

 

[7mmSendaro]

I have a hundred rounds of Norma that looks good at first glance. I have not started really working with it and inspecting it yet, however. It is expensive compared to the Winchester.

 

[johnnyk]

Winchester is usually pretty good brass, so I thought. I usually buy the cheap stuff (R P) and prep/grade it carefully. I was given some Frontier (Hornady?) .300WM brass from a guy back in N.C. and I've been using it for over a year now. I think I'm on the third loading and I've been getting sub-1/2" groups with it the whole time. I'm going to anneal it after this run (3rd firing of lot).
I was also given some nickle plated Win brass that I have run 3 high pressure loads through and it is giving up the ghost in the form of split necks. It's purdy, but not so shiney in the trash can!
If you can afford it buy Norma. They, like Lapua, have top notch brass. It's got a hefty feel to it and there doesn't seem to be a lot of variance in the 100 cases that I have (7mmRemMag).
Have you called about that brass? JohnnyK.

 

[Pdvdh]

RWS is supposed to be some of the best.

RWS is the best I'm aware of. Lapua stopped manufacturing 300 Win Mag brass between 1 and 2 years ago. Lapua is very good also if you can find some. Both the RWS and Lapua will cost significantly more than Winchester. Within the past month someone advertised some RWS 300 Win Mag brass on this Forum. If you do a search you should be able to find it.

RWS brass will have a strong case head, meaning they will handle higher pressure before the primer pocket swells and loosens up compared to Winchester, Federal, Remington, or Norma.

 

[Moman]

I had the same issue last year with some 300 WM Winchester brass. Half of the flash holes were off center and looked torn, other variances were trash. I called Winchester and they replaced all of it, although it's not much better.

I went ahead and bought Norma. It's great brass. Out of about 145 pieces, something like 139 made the cut and these are all very tight tolerances. The price wasn't too bad either, considering what you are going to expect from it.