Peterson Brass Review

Alpha Munitions and Lapua.

They are the only two brass manufacturers I will recommend. I have had extensive experience with nearly every brass manufacturer. Those aforementioned two companies "get it."

Everyone else seems content to make a quick buck off unsuspecting shooters with low expectations, bad service, and no ability to hold lot-to-lot consistency. Yet there are glowing reviews for all of it all over the internet. Just goes to show how low most shooters expectations are.
I have followed you for years but that will cease today, I bid you ado
 
Sorry for your misfortune. It definitely sounds like you received a bad lot. Component failure is a tough pill to swallow, but experience tells me it can happen with any manufacturer and some with far more failures. Customer service is really suffering in many companies right now. I hope this changes, but I hold only minimal faith that things will get better in this "it's all about me" world we are living in.
 
I found a long time ago that annealing extends case life. I was losing case with split necks in 3 firing. Started to anneal and stop that completely. Then only problem was primer pockets getting to loose in 10-12 firing. My loads are hot compared to a reloading manual. So now I am set up to anneal after each firing. I anneal before resizing.
 
Interesting. What are your expectations?
I expect that each piece be like the previous in that lot number. I expect primer pockets to hold together at mild charges. I expect to not have brass so soft that I get heavy bolt lift running 200fps under minimal cartridge velocities. I expect accuracy and precision to last more than 6-8 firings. What good is 50 firings if the brass won't shoot? I expect uniform neck wall thickness. I expect when I call a company to tell them about their deficiencies in the product they sent, to listen to what I have to say and make an attempt to address it. I've seen every brass deficiency imaginable... and only two companies continually show they can produce brass consistently for a precision rifle shooter that is trying to shoot small. They have been the least deficient out of all brass I've used. So much so that I will not even consider a cartridge these days if it does not have Alpha or Lapua cases available for it.

Above all, I expect the components I buy to be uniform. If they are not, it shows up on the target... and while there are a huge number of shooters that do not have the ability, resources, or facilities to discover that uniformity problem... I can, and do. Anyone that has spent time trying to get rifles to consistently perform under 2" at 600yds already knows what I'm saying is true.

At least 1 time a week I get a call from someone struggling to get the performance they are after. If Alpha or Lapua cases are available, I suggest they get some... and the next call I get is a thank you call. They say things like "I never would have imagined the brass would have made that much difference!" "Why does no one know about this problem!?!?" Why indeed.

I had one of our apprentice members here a few weeks ago for training. He said "You never have any flyers. Why don't you have flyers?" Keeping in mind that this guy was using all of the same methods and most of the same equipment I have. I had Alpha cases on hand for his cartridge... so I loaded some and let him shoot 50. It was unsurprising that his "flyers" went away. Granted, I'm not saying I never have flyers, because I do... but they are very rare.

Sometimes its once a day, other times is once a week... but it's a common call. If this reality makes anyone angry, then I do hope you put me on your ignore list, unsubscribe from my youtube channel, and don't buy any of our products... because if you're angry about it, then you don't care about the truth. Most all of the brass out there can achieve 1/2MOA. Maybe slightly better. Consistent 1/4 MOA? Forget about that with most of them. I wish it were not so, because I'd rather have more sources to choose from... but it is indeed so.


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Before you folks jump all over me, please understand this is my experience from this company. First, I want to say the brass when it arrives from their company is packaged very well. I had no issues with my first firing of any of their brass I used. A few cases, after the second firing, split. This was specifically my 6x47 Lapua I was using. After the third firing of the same lot, I had a few more split. When I went to resize them again, I had approximately 5 cases of 55 split the necks. I called Peterson hopefully to have them remedy the issue and they requested me to send in some of the split cases from the resizer. So I did. I even sent a few cases in after it was fired as they requested. These cases were all cleaned too in a Frankford arsenal water rotary tumbler prior to resizing.

Long story short, this company does not back their product once they got the cases I sent in. They pretty much told me that I need to anneal my cases after every 1-2 firings, I need to have my resizing die adjusted properly, and that I'm more likely than not bumping my shoulder back too much. The best part is the guy told me my bushing die was definitely not setup right. The funny thing is I'm not using a Bushing die. I'm using a Redding FL resizer non-bushing with a Carbide insert. Furthermore, I checked my shoulder bump and it was around 2 thousandths with my Hornady gauge. So with that said, they pretty much didn't respond to me again after I told them what I was doing. It's been almost a month now, so I've come to the conclusion I won't be getting any reimbursement from them let alone another response. I've had Lapua cases shot out of my 6x47 Lapua fired 10+ times never had an issue with necks splitting. The last time I had necks split was when I was using Remington brass years ago.

I also purchased some of their 280 Remington brass and already noticing the same trend as well, but it's too early to make a call on that lot. Once again, I'm using a regular FL resizer and not a bushing. At any event, I want folks to know these guys don't back their product and take no fault in their brass. I will not buy their brass again after this experience. I'm a varmint hunter, and I don't have time to anneal my brass every 1-2 firings as they told me. I never had cases split using Norma, Lapua, or Winchester even like this. If Lapua makes brass buy it over this company. They lost a customer and hopefully people are aware now they don't back their products.
I am not happy to read this post as I have been waiting for Peterson to get some .270 Winchester brass from them to fire form into .270AIs. I know it ought not to have to be done, but perhaps anneal before you start anything. If you tried to contact the company and they fell through, then shame on them.
 
Well maybe the cs rep you are dealing with just doesn't care or to lazy to put in the paperwork and probably on the way out the door. It's hard to get great help these days! I would call and try to speak to the cs manager and ask him to review the file. You may actually get all the brass replaced.
I know I get po'ed when stuff like this happens. I have even fired someone under me that was pulling that kind of bs when I was a manager at a company.
 
I expect that each piece be like the previous in that lot number. I expect primer pockets to hold together at mild charges. I expect to not have brass so soft that I get heavy bolt lift running 200fps under minimal cartridge velocities. I expect accuracy and precision to last more than 6-8 firings. What good is 50 firings if the brass won't shoot? I expect uniform neck wall thickness. I expect when I call a company to tell them about their deficiencies in the product they sent, to listen to what I have to say and make an attempt to address it. I've seen every brass deficiency imaginable... and only two companies continually show they can produce brass consistently for a precision rifle shooter that is trying to shoot small. They have been the least deficient out of all brass I've used. So much so that I will not even consider a cartridge these days if it does not have Alpha or Lapua cases available for it.

Above all, I expect the components I buy to be uniform. If they are not, it shows up on the target... and while there are a huge number of shooters that do not have the ability, resources, or facilities to discover that uniformity problem... I can, and do. Anyone that has spent time trying to get rifles to consistently perform under 2" at 600yds already knows what I'm saying is true.

At least 1 time a week I get a call from someone struggling to get the performance they are after. If Alpha or Lapua cases are available, I suggest they get some... and the next call I get is a thank you call. They say things like "I never would have imagined the brass would have made that much difference!" "Why does no one know about this problem!?!?" Why indeed.

I had one of our apprentice members here a few weeks ago for training. He said "You never have any flyers. Why don't you have flyers?" Keeping in mind that this guy was using all of the same methods and most of the same equipment I have. I had Alpha cases on hand for his cartridge... so I loaded some and let him shoot 50. It was unsurprising that his "flyers" went away. Granted, I'm not saying I never have flyers, because I do... but they are very rare.

Sometimes its once a day, other times is once a week... but it's a common call. If this reality makes anyone angry, then I do hope you put me on your ignore list, unsubscribe from my youtube channel, and don't buy any of our products... because if you're angry about it, then you don't care about the truth. Most all of the brass out there can achieve 1/2MOA. Maybe slightly better. Consistent 1/4 MOA? Forget about that with most of them. I wish it were not so, because I'd rather have more sources to choose from... but it is indeed so.


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No anger here. Just wanted to know what your expectations were that made everybody else's expectations so poor. You answered, .25 moa or it is not acceptable. Tall order for bench rest rifles, let alone hunting rifles.

We just got our first batch of Alpha brass in 6 Creed. Looking forward to trying it. I was not expecting better accuracy. We had a guy in the shop recently saying that the Alpha was capable of 80k pressure without issue. Now I will be interested to see if it not only can handle more pressure than the Hornady brass, it is currently loaded with, but a significant improvement in accuracy. My current load for this Ruger American with Hornady brass, no brass prep or sorting, consistently shoots 5/8" at 200y. My poor accuracy expectations are now much higher.
 
Before you folks jump all over me, please understand this is my experience from this company. First, I want to say the brass when it arrives from their company is packaged very well. I had no issues with my first firing of any of their brass I used. A few cases, after the second firing, split. This was specifically my 6x47 Lapua I was using. After the third firing of the same lot, I had a few more split. When I went to resize them again, I had approximately 5 cases of 55 split the necks. I called Peterson hopefully to have them remedy the issue and they requested me to send in some of the split cases from the resizer. So I did. I even sent a few cases in after it was fired as they requested. These cases were all cleaned too in a Frankford arsenal water rotary tumbler prior to resizing.

Long story short, this company does not back their product once they got the cases I sent in. They pretty much told me that I need to anneal my cases after every 1-2 firings, I need to have my resizing die adjusted properly, and that I'm more likely than not bumping my shoulder back too much. The best part is the guy told me my bushing die was definitely not setup right. The funny thing is I'm not using a Bushing die. I'm using a Redding FL resizer non-bushing with a Carbide insert. Furthermore, I checked my shoulder bump and it was around 2 thousandths with my Hornady gauge. So with that said, they pretty much didn't respond to me again after I told them what I was doing. It's been almost a month now, so I've come to the conclusion I won't be getting any reimbursement from them let alone another response. I've had Lapua cases shot out of my 6x47 Lapua fired 10+ times never had an issue with necks splitting. The last time I had necks split was when I was using Remington brass years ago.

I also purchased some of their 280 Remington brass and already noticing the same trend as well, but it's too early to make a call on that lot. Once again, I'm using a regular FL resizer and not a bushing. At any event, I want folks to know these guys don't back their product and take no fault in their brass. I will not buy their brass again after this experience. I'm a varmint hunter, and I don't have time to anneal my brass every 1-2 firings as they told me. I never had cases split using Norma, Lapua, or Winchester even like this. If Lapua makes brass buy it over this company. They lost a customer and hopefully people are aware now they don't back their products.
Why not try the annealing and see what happens?
 
I expect that each piece be like the previous in that lot number. I expect primer pockets to hold together at mild charges. I expect to not have brass so soft that I get heavy bolt lift running 200fps under minimal cartridge velocities. I expect accuracy and precision to last more than 6-8 firings. What good is 50 firings if the brass won't shoot? I expect uniform neck wall thickness. I expect when I call a company to tell them about their deficiencies in the product they sent, to listen to what I have to say and make an attempt to address it. I've seen every brass deficiency imaginable... and only two companies continually show they can produce brass consistently for a precision rifle shooter that is trying to shoot small. They have been the least deficient out of all brass I've used. So much so that I will not even consider a cartridge these days if it does not have Alpha or Lapua cases available for it.

Above all, I expect the components I buy to be uniform. If they are not, it shows up on the target... and while there are a huge number of shooters that do not have the ability, resources, or facilities to discover that uniformity problem... I can, and do. Anyone that has spent time trying to get rifles to consistently perform under 2" at 600yds already knows what I'm saying is true.

At least 1 time a week I get a call from someone struggling to get the performance they are after. If Alpha or Lapua cases are available, I suggest they get some... and the next call I get is a thank you call. They say things like "I never would have imagined the brass would have made that much difference!" "Why does no one know about this problem!?!?" Why indeed.

I had one of our apprentice members here a few weeks ago for training. He said "You never have any flyers. Why don't you have flyers?" Keeping in mind that this guy was using all of the same methods and most of the same equipment I have. I had Alpha cases on hand for his cartridge... so I loaded some and let him shoot 50. It was unsurprising that his "flyers" went away. Granted, I'm not saying I never have flyers, because I do... but they are very rare.

Sometimes its once a day, other times is once a week... but it's a common call. If this reality makes anyone angry, then I do hope you put me on your ignore list, unsubscribe from my youtube channel, and don't buy any of our products... because if you're angry about it, then you don't care about the truth. Most all of the brass out there can achieve 1/2MOA. Maybe slightly better. Consistent 1/4 MOA? Forget about that with most of them. I wish it were not so, because I'd rather have more sources to choose from... but it is indeed so.


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Thank you for this explanation. Can you explain specifically what was wrong with the Peterson brass you tested? I'm interested because neck thickness variation was very good on my batch. Primer pockets were tight when I stopped using.

With ADG, I found neck thickness variation to be a bit much. Still working with it. But may neck turn. Need to measure now that it is all once fired. It was pretty expensive for what it measured new.

Starline is working ok, but again I'm sure it will lack consistency in the long run.

Winchester is obviously total crap. Neck thickness variation is sooo much it is hard to turn the excess off!

Hornady….no idea.
 
I did not mention neck turning in my example bc I was not changing calibers. Definitely necessary in this case going from .308 to .257
Yes you can, More than one way to skin a cat!

To the OP, I forgot to mention, Tumbling brass in stainless pins actually work hardens the necks, This is not going to be a problem for your blasting ammo for your AR, But it needs to be annealed for your match ammo for sure, You will feel the difference when you size brass after it has been tumbled in pins. You mentioned that you were doing this. If you are one of those people that tumbles for each loading, (I do not) then you are definitely going to have brittle necks. I just started using Peterson 7.62x54R brass because the Winchester brass (S&B) only made it 3 firings, I'm on my 3rd firing with the Peterson brass so the jury is still out.
 
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