One more that has had very mixed results with Hornady brass. Their 17 HH brass was crap when it first came out, and remains so to this day. Same is true of the 308, and 45-70 brass I tired. Their 375 Ruger brass works just fine, holds up well, some are on their 7th firing, and I never anneal any brass. All 3 375 Rugers will do under .5 using Hornady brass and Barnes bullets. I also neck size everything with minimal working of the brass. (Not interested in hearing why neck sizing is bad, it works for me.) The other Hornady brass that has worked well is 7x57. I have no idea if they use different makers for some of their brass, but it sure is variable in quality by Cartridge.
Another Hornady brass thread!
- Thread starter okie man
- Start date
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I don't know what to say here. I have a whole loading bench with Hornady brass, I don't find it much better or much worse than other brass that I reload for. And.....no I don't use Lapua brass because (1) it cannot find any .270, 358 Winchester or 35 Whelen in Lapua or Peterson brass. And...presently I cannot even find 30-06 brass in Lapua or Peterson brass. Before reloading any new brass I always prep it like it has already been fired, meaning the I trim to length, deburr the mouth of the case inside and out, deburr the flash hole, ream the primer pocket for uniformity, and anneal the brass before doing any reloading. I have found Winchester brass to have the lowest of case life of all the brass mentioned in this post. I started fire forming brass for the .270 Ackley Improved with some once fired Winchester brass because I couldn't see learning how to fire form brass with expensive brass because I did not know the process, nor did I know anyone who could help me with the exception of the folks on this forum. If I push the loads too hot, I 'might" get three reloads out of it before the primer pockets start to get too loose. I have Hornady brass that will give me four to five reloads before the primer pockets get loose. Another cartridge that I load exclusively using Hornady brass is for the 35 Whelen. I am getting at least 5-6 reloadings on the brass before I start to notice the necks starting to split. I also anneal my brass after two reloads, this could be giving me a bit more case life. I also use a Sinclair mandrel neck sizing die for "all" of my reloads as well. I remove or will grind the the sizing plug out of the resizing die and then mandrel size the necks. After a couple of reloads I turn the necks with a Forster original tool. Right now I am low on 35 Whelen brass and 45-70 brass, if I do find some Hornady brass I will purchase it without and hesitation. I did manage to get my hands on some PPU, 30-06 brass. I believe this brass was supposed to be manufactured by Norma, the jury is still out on this brass. I have quite a bit of it because in the dire straits of reloading supply shortages I figured I would get brass that I could form into the cartridges that I reload for if necessary; .270 Winchester, 30-06, 35 Whelen and even .308 Winchester if I had to. I've read different reviews on PPU on this forum, some positive and some no so positive. Presently I am working up some loads for a new 30-06 build, however have not had enough time put in to get a load that my rifle likes. And.....lastly "NO" I don't work for Hornady brass company.
Ok I was just wondering as it sounded like a new rifle with just that ammo so could have been a chamber issue but try to anneal it and see what happens.
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
Hey that's interesting….I'm working with a sample size of 2 so my input isn't all that important except as it compliments and confirms yours…the two cartridges I've worked with give the same disparity you're talking about.
My experience with their 270 brass is not very good. Even after full resizing it seems oversized and gave some chambering issues, as it did when new in factory ammo form (back when i shot factory ammo
)My experience with their .300 win mag brass is unremarkable in a comparatively good way. It works same as the others.
misterc01
Well-Known Member
So far, zero problem or complaints about Hornady brass.
I didn't use anneal my belted cases. I would only get about 3 firing for them, then split necks. When I anneal them in poor way a great many years ago, The case after one annealing would last until the primer pockets would lose there shape. Annealing is the way to go. Now I anneal every time, before sizing.
