Hi there. I am new to your forum, although I have read comments regularly. I was reading the comments on Nosler brass, and had to get my two cents worth in on this one because it is a subject dear to my heart.
I have been shooting and reloading for 60 years, and as far as brass goes, I have used every well-known brand of brass available. Since I love wildcats (don't we all?), I spend a lot of time changing the shape of cases. So I need brass that can hold up to reshaping. Here is my strictly personal preferences for brass and the reasons.
Best brass made: Lapua, hands down. Comes already annealed and if sorted by weight and cared for properly, trimmed, chemically cleaned, primer pockets left ALONE, they can be loaded 10 to 20 times depending on what you are loading for. Obviously my 22-243 Middlestead, shooting at 4500 and above, cases are not going to last 20 times. Shooting a little 243 with light loads, you can load them forever.
Second place: Nosler: very good brass that comes weight sorted and ready to load, although running them through the dies is always a good idea. Annealing after the first loading is a good idea with any brand of brass, because, what is the first thing to go on a case...the neck splits. Again, chemically clean them, trim them, anneal after the first or second loading, and leave the primer pockets alone. If you use chemical cleaning, you rarely have any reason to ream out the primer pocket.
Third -place: Norma, all around good brass if cared for as described above.
Fourth place: Weatherby. Good brass if you do all of the above, but not even close to being worth the money they want for them.
Fifth place: Remington: Remington is surprisingly good brass for the price, and maybe should be ranked higher. If you do not want to spend a ton of money on your brass, Remington is a good choice. All the above care applies.
Last place: without a doubt, Winchester makes the worst brass on the market. No matter how well you take care of it, it will not last. I have a Tikka 25-06 rechambered for AI, and tried to fire form cases with Winchester brass. The first one split in four places. The second did the same. I annealed the rest of the lot of 20, and every one split wide open. (I stopped at about eight or ten.) I went to the local sporting goods store and bought some Remington brass, and using the same load as in the Winchester, not one case split.
I own 56 rifles, and I went through all the cases for all of them and pitched every Winchester case into the garbage can.
So what do I use now? Almost exclusively Nosler. I have never had a problem of any kind with a Nosler case. The only Lapua brass I use is for rifles in Lapua calibers. I am not sure how much logic there is in that, but it is what it is.
Thanks for reading this (if you did). As the "Old Teacher," I am used to talking forever. Forgive me.