I put some ammo together tonight, and I definitely recommend buying new Ham'r brass, versus making it from .223 cases.
Why is that, Dan?
Prepping brass is, easily, my least favorite loading chore. Trimming 50 pcs of .223 brass down to .300 Ham'r length took a fair amount of time, even with an RCBS power trimmer and 3-way cutter.
When the dies arrived, I split a bunch of cases (about 40%, actually) when I necked them up to .30 cal. Some splits were minor, and I saved those cases to make dummy rounds, but a lot of the split cases are completely unusable. These were all fired cases, so that may have had something to do with it. If I'm buying new brass, anyway, Starline's .300 Ham'r brass doesn't cost a whole lot more than their .223 brass. For the significant difference in case-prep time, though, I prefer to just get right to it.
I buy new .280AI brass, as well. Fireforming just doesn't do it for my anymore, either.
