Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Question about 222 Remington Brass

I recently got a 222 Remington and have been getting components to reload. Brass has been the hardest thing to come by, but I managed to find some Remington and Winchester brass and was wondering what everyone's thoughts were about each manufacturer.
Thanks!

I like to use winchester if I can get it. Lapua is in the states again with 222 so if you want high quality brass I would try that. 222 is one of my most favorite rounds have fun.

CharlieFlagg: I am currently loading for 6 Varminters in caliber 222 Remington.
I am using Federal match brass, Remington brass, Winchester brass, Federal nickel plated, Norma and Remington Nickel plated brass respectively in these Rifles.
I get excellent accuracy and case life from each of these.
It would be hard for me to pick a favorite from this group!
So its tough for me to recommend one brand/type of brass over the others to you!
I don't believe the Federal brass is available anymore in the "match" designation.
I wish I knew a little more about your intentions for your 222 - if you are going all out for accuracy then maybe the extra cost of the LaPua or Norma brass would be worth it to you?
Best of luck with the 222.
Long live the 222 Remington!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I am mostly using Winchester brass today for my 222 Rifles. But, I've got some loads made up using Remington brass, and recently bought 60 Norma 222 cases new. That Norma stuff stands tall among all competitors, Norma brass is the best I've found, but, I have not used any Lapua which I hear is good stuff. Norma brass is expensive, however, the quality is very high. I weighed all 60 cases and the extreme spread was 1.25 grains; all cases were within 1.25 grains of each other, or less for those that fell in the center of the bell curve. Not too shabby, and all case necks were perfect, no dents or bent necks.
You can approximate Rem and Win brass to the Norma by weight sorting, deburring flash holes inside and reaming primer pockets. You get good stuff this way with some work on your part. I do that regularly.
Good luck with your 222 Rem rifle. They are flat accurate!!!

Don

Thanks guys! I should have put in my original post that "I got another 222", as I have a Remington 788 in that caliber. Last fall, I bought two Savage Model 24's in 20 ga over 222 and gave one to my long time hunting buddy. I'm just going to work up some rounds for us to use on coyotes/coons/possums etc.
I haven't shot the 788 in a long time, but am getting a little more free time now, so that's in the future also. I also have reloaded in a awhile but that's in the future too.
Take care.
Martin

I have one recommendation, try to keep the weights of the brass as close to the same as possible and I think you will see your best accuracy. The premium brass is usually weight sorted and some do it better than others and is one of the reasons it is premium. Nosler is the best I've ever bought because it's fully prepped and ready to load, last 250 rds I bought were all mixed up lot numbers and all case weights were less than a grain difference in weights and only had one slightly dented neck. My brother in law makes some of his triple duce brass out of 223 cases.

VarmintGuy; Few years back I bought a bunch of Federal nickle-plated .222 brass which came in 100rd boxes and was labeled "Match Brass." You have actual Federal brass stamped "Match"?....... I only have 2 heavy barrled .222's, one is an older 40X single-shot action with a 1x14 25" Broughton barrel and the other is a 1977 Rem Varmint Special and I have Win, Rem, Federal, PMC, Norma, Lapua and RWS brass and of these I think Rem brass is the worst, especially in neck thickness. Turn it to clean up the neck and it does better, of course this could be just with the lot I bought. PMC brass is very good stuff except that it comes with a thinner neck thickness to start off with which requires using a smaller bushing. I think Norma makes the best .222 brass then RWS.

Ole

Ohlsen: My loading log book shows my handwriting under the column for "BRASS" - and "Federal Match" is written by me there - and I started using that in 1991 or almost 18 years ago.
I don't know why I wrote Federal Match there - IIRC it was because I bought them in 20 round red and white cardboard containers that said "Federal Match" on them.
I am going to get down in the loading room ASAP and see if theres anymore info (on the brass).
Its probably a moot point as Federal has long since been out of the "brass" business - aren't they?
I do know that 222 Remington brass by Norma, is running in excess of 90 cents apiece (not counting shipping!) from Midway USA.
$1.10 a piece if you buy it in the smaller 20 round batches!
More later
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I only have one 222, and it's a Rem 722. I like Lapua because of its uniformity. But in all fairness 222's, at least mine is so forgiving it's hard for them to shoot bad with any brand of brass that I have tried.

Lapua is producing 222 rem brass again spring 2009.
Like most fellows have said the deuce will shoot good with most brass. but the most consitant brass by far is Lapua pin holes are drilled nice and clean not like rem & win brass and you can reload thema lot more.

Unless you have a BR quality .222 there is no sense to be using Lapua. Mine shots like this with junk factory brass.

I agree with this to a point, I have a batch of 200 Lapua cases that have been reloaded 12 times and will be reloaded at least another 12 times. the primer pocket's are still tight and the necks were almost perfect right out of the box.
When I heard a couple years ago that Lapua was discontinuing the 222Rem brass I bought the last 200 cases I could find, after opening the box I noticed the necks and shoulders were not annealed in true Lapua fashion and the neck thickness varied .003". I e-mailed Lapua and asked what the problem was and they told me that for the last few years of production of the 222Rem cases that they had been sub-contracted out. They also said that when they come back out this spring they will be once again made in-house with better quality than ever.
I know I will buy some to try out.
B

Guys I probably have 2K of virgin .222 brass. I just keep shooting the same cases over and over. Unless you are way out on the fringe loading a .222 case is going to last a very long time. The cases I used in the target posted above have been used since Mid 1990's and been loaded more than 20 times.

Yep 17 AB.

I still load the first 500 winnys I bought with my 1999 700. At least 20 shots. They are still all truckin'.

I ran an experiment with shiddy R-P cases versus my best W-W cases sorted. It really ticks a guy off when out of round R-P's beats sorted and prepped Winchesters; repeatedly.

It's called, Character Building...LMAO

17AB,
Shooting a duce in the early 1970's before the advent of the PPC's in benchrest competition, I used the same cases for years, and never had to replace any of them...
In that game you load between relays. I used the same 20 cases over, and over, and over, every match.

DMB what you say is totally true. Been there done that. Buy the way I always FL resize all my .222 brass because I have 3 .222's I use it in. It still is hanging in there go figure. It cost me way less than $78 a hundred too.