Several years ago, I was doing an article on the 6BR. Amazingly enough, 6BR brass was not on Remington's sample list (consumables that they send to writers).
About the time I learned of this problem, I went to the SHOT Show in Dallas. I atteneded the Remington seminar and there was a time for gunny writers to talk one-on-one with the Remington execs.
One of the execs walked up to me and asked, "Is everything going well between you and our writer's contact folks?"
I told him of the problem of the 6BR brass not being on the writer's sample list. The exec told me, "You will have a box waiting for you when you get home!" He took my card, wrote a note in his DayPlanner and that was it.
When I arrived home, a FedEx package from Remington was waiting for me.
The box was a full CASE of Remington 6BR brass. The case contained something like 1,260 rounds of brass.
Now, here's where it gets interesting: The 6BR brass in the case are spot perfect. In measuring many, many cases, the necks have a runout of .000", as closely as I can tell. The case weight runout is well under one-grain. It is without a doubt the finest lot of brass I have ever seen ... bar none.
I've often wondered about that case of 6BR brass, most of which still remains in my gun room. Was it someone's "hideout" brass. Was it the product of brand-new forming dies? Obviously, this brass is the exception, rather than the rule. And YES, it shoots wonderfully.
The remainder of the 6BR brass, perhaps 1,000 rounds will go with my 6BR rifle, a converted XP-100 Holland Vee-Block, when I sell the rifle. One day, someone will use this brass and be amazed by it.
I bought 140 rounds of .257 Weatherby brass from Cabela's about three years ago and it was absolutely SUPERB. All of the necks measure within .001" and I'm surprised by how very consistent it is from case to case.
I haven't fired my .257 Weatherby yet, but I expect great things from it. The rifle is a Remington SPS Stainless/Synthetic with the 26-inch barrel. I've free-floated the barrel, Marine-Texed the recoil lug mortise and action and teched-out the trigger to a perfect 3.0-pounds.
Anyway, fabulous brass CAN BE MADE and it sometimes comes from the strangest places.
In the long-run, I've always been enormously pleased with Winchester brass. Yes, I have to detail it, but after I've pitched the four-to-six percent of the cases whose neck run-out exceeds .001" (one one-thousanth) and done several case detailing operations, I always end up with superb brass. Winchester is for sure a WINNER ... it just takes a little work and knowledge to render it perfect.
Blessings,
Steve
