Hornady 28 Nosler Brass - First Impressions

Roughwater

Roughwater

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I purchased some Hornady 28 Nosler brass recently. Actually, The first Hornady brass I received I had attempted to purchase more than an month back but was on backorder and it had finally shipped a week ago. But I really just got around to checking it out. I was impressed with my first look.
I found it to have very good concentricity as I checked several out on my sinclair concentricity gauge.
The several I checked read less than .001 on the end of the neck. Next I checked the trim length. It was a very consistent 2.580. That made me happy as well as I have only been able to find Nosler brass previously and it has been trimmed inconsistently at around 2.575. All the other calibers I load for I trim .010 down from max Sammi specs. The max Sammi for the 28N case is 2.590. I know Noslers recommended trim length is actually 2.575 but I have no Idea why since again, all other brass even magnum calibers like the RUM brass is trimmed .010 back from max. But what really sold me was how hard the primers seated in the Hornady brass. I load my primers by hand with a RCBS priming tool and it took a good deal more pressure to seat them in the Hornady brass. Just to verify, I followed up buy seating the same primer (215M) just to make sure I wasn't exagerating, and sure enough the primer seated much easier in the new nosler brass. I have no way to accurately measure the primer pockets but I would much prefer my primers seat more tightly like they do with the Hornady brass. Now I am hoping the Hornady brass will be a little harder as well as my impression in shooting with the Nosler brass is that it may be softer than is best with a magnum case. I'll soon know. This was all very encouraging to me so I went out and bought 2 more boxes of the Hornady brass before other folks realize and it be all sold out. I found that Both Grafs and Midway stock it. Grafs is slightly less expensive but I if you are looking for the best overall price see also check shipping costs for each.
 
A little add on to this thread - I live in the country and can shoot out my back door if I want. So I did just that this AM. I shot three rounds using the Hornady brass. All used Hornady 28N brass and 215M primers and 145 gn hammer bullets. I did it because I wanted to see if there would be any ejector marks on my brass. I had been seeing the marks on my brass using the Nosler brass at slightly larger powder loads so this test won't confirm this brass to be harder but if I see no marks I might assume it to be at least as hard as Nosler Brass.
That said my results were:
1. IMR 8133 with 84.5 gns got me 3304 FPS and no marks on brass
2. Retumbo with a Max load (Per Hodgdon with a 145 gn bullet) of 83.4 gn= 3366 FPS
3. Same Retumbo load as above just to verify= 3354 - No marks on brass
http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle
Note: that was a max load per Hodgdon for the Retumbo powder but Nosler shows a max load of 56 gn of Retumbo even with a heavier 150 gn bullet.
Also note that Hodgdon was only getting 3275 FPS with the max load of Retumbo with a 150 gn bullet where as the Hammer bullet was flying at 3354+ fps from the same load. Also just to do a basic test of the primer pockets in the Hornady brass my 2nd and 3rd shot was with the same piece of brass, I just reloaded it. After the second shot from that brass I put a third primer in it and it still seated as tightly as a new piece of Nosler brass. So far from what I see with the Hornady brass if I need any more 28 brass it will be Hornady.
As an edit I just wanted to add that I used a Magnetospeed type chrony to get my velocity results and I highly trust it to be accurate.
 
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Sounds great! Thank you for the report. Any chance you have done or could do some weight sorting to see if there is much change is weight between each case. Maybe even a H2O test?
 
As to a comparison of the brass weight. I did weigh a few already. Most of my 28N Nosler brass weighs between 282 to 284 gn so averages about 283gn. But the Hornady brass weighs between 256 to 260 gns. Also, the necks are generally at least .005 longer on the Hornady brass as Hornady trims their brass very consistintely to 2.580 where as Nosler trims to 2.575. I am not sure how to do a H20 test but when I dropped the same powder load into the Hornady my first impression was that it did not come up as high as with the Nosler brass. So my guess is that between the lighter weight of the Hornady brass and considering the longer trim length one could definitely load more powder in a new Hornady brass case than in a Nosler case for sure.

Also I thought I would mention that I did buy one box of Nosler loaded ammo. I found the brass to be inconsistently trimmed even less than 2.575. I'm thinking it was trimmed more like 2.565 to 2.570. So I wasn't liking that for sure.
 
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I have tried Hornady brass in a couple of guns in the last year and it looks like they are stepping up there game a little bit. now it isn't lapua but it is definitely better than years ago. also noticed there prices have increased and are now on par with higher quality brass so they better step up there game
 
can1010 said:
I have tried Hornady brass in a couple of guns in the last year and it looks like they are stepping up there game a little bit. now it isn't lapua but it is definitely better than years ago. also noticed there prices have increased and are now on par with higher quality brass so they better step up there game
Click to expand...

I agree. I also feel like higher costs for all brass will be the reality. Though brass for the 28 may go down some in the future if more players step in I don't see much chance there will ever be a huge drop. I have been searching the internet a lot for alternatives but not seeing much available. I've even looked for Norma 26N brass and can't find it either though I think they make it? Right now all I've seen available is Nosler and now Hornady but only have had a 28N a couple months. But I should be good for at least a year as I still have some 28N, some 26N I necked up and now several boxes of Hornady. But if and when I run out, if Hornady and Nosler are still the only choices I'll be buying Hornady for sure if possible.
 
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Just thought I should bump this to the top of the pile as 28N brass has been hard to come by and expensive so the availability of some possibility better 28N brass might be good news to some folks.
 
I have been wanting to try the Hornady ammo since it came out. LGS has it for 49$ a box. Glad Nosler is finally getting some competition.
 
19Wyoming said:
I have been wanting to try the Hornady ammo since it came out. LGS has it for 49$ a box. Glad Nosler is finally getting some competition.
Click to expand...

http://www.lgsguns.com/ammo/rifle-ammunition/horn-8069-ph-28-nosler-162-eld-x-2010

I'm not seeing it for 49 at LGS but they do have some for 51 but either way it's a good deal considering the price of brass alone is near that. Thanks for the Info about Larrys Gun Shop as I had never heard of it before and also for alerting folks to the fact that Hornady is also making ammo in 28 N which is something else I wasn't aware of so is another good source for brass. However, the Nosler brass at LGS is on the high side if that's a 25 count box they are advertising for 96.61?
 
I ordered a few boxes, going to try some 155 Hammer hunters in them once the weather warms up a bit. Hoping to hit 3400 or better.
 
Roughwater said:
http://www.lgsguns.com/ammo/rifle-ammunition/horn-8069-ph-28-nosler-162-eld-x-2010

I'm not seeing it for 49 at LGS but they do have some for 51 but either way it's a good deal considering the price of brass alone is near that. Thanks for the Info about Larrys Gun Shop as I had never heard of it before and also for alerting folks to the fact that Hornady is also making ammo in 28 N which is something else I wasn't aware of so is another good source for brass. However, the Nosler brass at LGS is on the high side if that's a 25 count box they are advertising for 96.61?
Click to expand...

LGS= Local Gun Store.
 
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