Brass manufacturer difference?

[BoomFlop]

I am looking at getting into reloading (.223, 7mm-08 and 308 Win). I am trying to put my equipment list together. All rifles will be used for hunting purposes only.

I know Lapua and Norma seem to be the "best", but what are the differences between each brand? What makes Hornady brass not as good as Winchester, and what makes Lapua better than Winchester?

Does Lapua require less case prep tools than Winchester or Remington?

So many questions....

Thanks
Steve

 

[lancetkenyon]

As in most other things, there is top quality, consumer quality, and junk. Most has to do with consistency and QC.

For me, and ALL of my rifles are hunting rifles, I use the best available components for my handloads. Gives the rifle a better opportunity at accuracy.
Lapua is my first choice if it is available in the case I am loading.
ADG and Alpha are my second choices.
These 3 seem to have outstanding QC, and very consistent procedures and end product. It is very common to have 100 pieces in a box be within 1 grain of brass weight across them. The brass is very well made, annealed, and fully prepped.

Next would be Nosler or Norma. These are very similar in weight to Lapua/ADG/Alpha as far as weight sorted. But these cases seem to be a little softer around the head, and do not handle pressures quite as well. Still great brass.

Rem & Win are much cheaper. Weights start to vary with these. You can see 3-5 grains difference in 100 pieces. Little brass prep is performed on virgin brass, so you need to do some extra work. Weight sort and expect an 20% cull rate on out of spec brass, outside of a 2-3 grain difference. Uniform primer pockets, deburr flash holes, round out the necks, chamfer inside and out. But the costs allow you to buy twice as much for the same as above. So you end up with about 160 pieces for the same price range as 100 of the top tier brass.

There are a few brands I won't even consider for my rifles. Hornady and Federal. Weight is all over the place, primer pockets seem to go quickly, and they take a lot of prep to get ready. Plan on 40% cull rate if you want to keep it within 2-3 grains from what I have observed.

I have not tried Starline or Petersons. But I hear decent reviews on them. Especially Petersen's.

Bertram is supposed to be good, but my one experience with it (in .338 Edge) was quite disappointing. 8 grains of weight variation across 100 pieces.

In .308 & 5.56, I like Lake City military brass too. Tough as nails. Decent quality. Easy to find.

There are other less common makers out there like RWS that have good brass. Just quite rare to see it.

 

[Dmagna]

Peterson makes really good brass.

 

[BoomFlop]

Thank you Sir! I won't be shooting 1000's of rounds and would prefer the least prepping work required. Not that I'm lazy, but because I am inexperienced and don't want to start off with any more processes than is needed to reload great ammunition.

Have a great 4th of July!

Steve

 

[BoomFlop]

Doesn't Lapua also usually get to speed/pressure with less powder? This would be a cost savings to consider to narrow the gap in cost between Lapua and the others, correct?

 

[ShtrRdy]

I would use Lapua for those cartridges. I've been using Lapua for just a few years but my experience is you might have to open up the case necks on new brass and you're ready to load. On the 6mm Creedmoor brass I didn't even have to do that.

Lapua is generally considered a little less volume and therefore getting to pressure quicker. However I recently measured case volume on some .308 Win brass. Lapua came up with 55.4 gr of water weight and Federal Gold Metal Match had 55.3 gr of water weight.

I don't think the volume difference can be considered a significant powder cost savings.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

The benefit of quality brass in production rifles is wayyyyyy overrated, especially for a neophyte reloader. Rem, Win or Hornady brass can produce fine accuracy in a hunting rifle.
Many years ago I built a 7STW before there was much interest in the cartridge. All of my brass was Rem 8mm mag necked down. It wasn't all that difficult to reload ammo that produced 1/2moa groups.
I currently shoot a 7WSM. The only brass avail for the longest time was Winchester. I'm still shooting Win brass today and reloads have been consistently achieving 1/2moa at 400yds. Regular brass is capable of surprising accuracy.
Very few production hunting rifles will produce consistent 1/2moa groups but regular ol' brass is certainly capable of producing it if the rifle can.
While its nice to use high quality brass, its benefits are more noticeable in custom rifles loaded with ammo using advanced reloading techniques.

 

[YZ-80]

The benefit of quality brass in production rifles is wayyyyyy overrated, especially for a neophyte reloader. Rem, Win or Hornady brass can produce fine accuracy in a hunting rifle.
Many years ago I built a 7STW before there was much interest in the cartridge. All of my brass was Rem 8mm mag necked down. It wasn't all that difficult to reload ammo that produced 1/2moa groups.
I currently shoot a 7WSM. The only brass avail for the longest time was Winchester. I'm still shooting Win brass today and reloads have been consistently achieving 1/2moa at 400yds. Regular brass can is capable of surprising accuracy.
Very few production hunting rifles will produce consistent 1/2moa groups but regular ol' brass is certainly capable of producing it if the rifle can.
While its nice to use high quality brass, its benefits are more noticeable in custom rifles loaded with ammo using advanced reloading techniques.

I agree. I've had very satisfactory results with Hornady and Federal brass out of my production rifles but at the same time, I've come to realize the limitations. Before I started reloading, back in the mid-90's when I was in grad school, I'd get home from class and walk the freshly cut hay fields looking for groundhogs with a .243 or .22-250. I would usually shoot Remington or Federal factory fodder and would always save the brass. It wasn't until a decade later that I started to reload and I cut my teeth doing it with this old Federal
and Remington brass. I'll add here that I think the .243 is hard on brass, particularly the necks, so I get about 4-5 cycles out of these cases and they usually crack at the neck. I've run plain old Winchester brass in my .25-06 with great accuracy and get 6-7 cycles out of a case. Anyway, now I have some more "exotic" cartridges (6.5x47, 6.5 Norma, etc.) or exotic for me anyway, and I have used Lapua, Norma and recently Starline brass. There are obvious quality advantages to these brands, the most notable of which for me is case life.
I run the higher quality stuff in all my 6.5s. I guess that's my long winded way of telling the OP to go get what's available and give it hell. You don't need "Foo-foo" brass to shoot great groups and drop whitetail at respectable ranges. I've been doing it for 10 years with standard stuff.

 

[MagnumManiac]

I wiil say this, most brands have had their issues, but ONE I have rarely had issues with is Lapua.
Winchester make good brass, although culling around 10% per 50 is disappointing, the web thickness makes their brass tough.
Norna make very good brass, BUT it is soft and primer pockets open in short order.
Remington brass is also good, has thick walls and thinner webs, not as thin aa Norma though.
I steer clear of Hornady in most cases (excuse the pun) but in 416 Rigby it is fine.
I will not use Federal EVER, EVEN IF FREE. Have had 2 case ruptures and blown primers with this brass and even a locked bolt on 1 occasion. Simply far too soft to reload, even factory ammo was blowing primers in a 300WM.
I have Frontier brass that is very good, but hard to find.

Cheers.

 

[Canhunter35]

I think Lapua makes brass for all 3 cartridges so that pretty much all you need to know

 

[Buzzsaw]

For serious reloaders, case capacity comes into play. The more capacity, the more powder it will hold. Some reloaders will push the limits and "test" till they find "pressure" then back off a bit.
For me, I buy the BEST, Alpha/Peterson. I dont chase the fastest loads I can. If i want faster speeds, I shoulda built a different caliber.

Your calibers are among the VERY easiest to reload. You should have no trouble. Cry Once

 

[Pauleye]

I just bought 200 pieces of alpha brass. Doing a search on the internet, alpha and Peterson come very close to Lapua. Both are made in the USA. I have Peterson and will have the alpha. I don't think you can go wrong with either

 

[Kaptoe]

So first off welcome to the reloading club. You can get as crazy into it as you want.

Good posts already. In general you can't argue with Lapua. It hasn't earned it's reputation for no reason. I reload 9 calibers currently and there are caliber specific stories with brass. For 308 I have moved almost exclusively to starline and you can go small or large primer pockets. I use starline almost exclusively for pistol calibers. My only wish for starline is more rifle calibers

For factory ammo you buy and shoot and then reload the case do not overlook fiochi in 308. You can also buy 308 brass at certain retailers. I have found their 308 brass to be heavy but extremely durable. Much tougher stuff than Hornady or other mainline factory brass

Good luck. I don't load .223. Anything I can spot buy for .24 a round isn't worth the time for me

 

[Pizzaman1]

I am looking at getting into reloading (.223, 7mm-08 and 308 Win). I am trying to put my equipment list together. All rifles will be used for hunting purposes only.

I know Lapua and Norma seem to be the "best", but what are the differences between each brand? What makes Hornady brass not as good as Winchester, and what makes Lapua better than Winchester?

Does Lapua require less case prep tools than Winchester or Remington?

So many questions....

Thanks
Steve

I go with Lapua-have had outstanding results, and you can use them longer before tossing them.