Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles How accurate is new Nosler brass?

Does new Nosler brass shoot good on it's first loading? Would I be just as well off loading older once fired brass from Federal or Hornady, if they were once fired from a different rifle?

I have used nosler brass it works fine for hunting loads,if you were into targets rifles lapua is the only brass to use

In my experience if the handloader's technique and equipment are good then for any given batch of brass it's best firing is the second, being carefully prepared 1x fired.

I like to start with new brass for my own rifles. Once fired from different rifles can be a pain in the rear if the chamber of the other rifle is bigger than your chamber.

New Nosler brass is fine. I've found very little difference in most rifles between new brass and once fired. My cousin took a nice bull elk last week at 300 yds with ammo I loaded in new unfired nosler brass.

I've used quite a bit of Nosler brass over the last few years, particularly in 270Win and 300 WM. As far as accuracy, it is very nice stuff, near perfect finish and uniformity, when virgin.
However, I agree with mathman, I like that second loading for hunting.

It’s very good brass, pretty much ready to load.

It will be as accurate--or not--as any other brand of new brass.

All the Noz brass I've tried has been exceptionally soft. I've stopped using it.

Let me expand on that......

There is no such thing as "accurate brass". Some brands are more uniform than other brands, but regardless there is a certain amount of checking and prep involved, regardless of brand. Some brands/batches require more prep than other brands/batches. Some brass has more capacity than others. Some rifles may exhibit a preference for a brand. But as a general rule I can make any brass accurate. But there has been exceptions when it appears a individual rifle didn't like that particular brand or batch of brass.

Brass doesn't become accurate until it fits the chamber with fire forming in the rifle it's going to be used in, and is sized in a manner that promotes bullet concentricity.

And of course, a rifle may like a particular factory ammo, or like the shape of new brass, and shoot lights out. It happens.

I don't think I've ever taken handloads with new brass hunting.

Can you expand?

Just trimming the Noz brass on Forster trimmers I could tell it was soft. But moderate, and even minimum loads produced extractor marks. This is in rifles and loads I'm familiar with and being run through an accurate chono.

A little less than 2800fps with middling loads of H4831 and H4350 with 95 NBt's and the brass in a 243 was flowing into the extractor. Same thing with two 270's and a 30-06.

How many do you have? If you have a box of 50 like I do for my 8x57, these were on sale at Fleet-Farm for $30!!, I ran them through my die, primed, loaded and shot 10. I shot two 5 shot groups at 100 yrds, they printed 1.5 inches max, with most falling around an inch. Close enough for deer here in Northern Wi. I`ve loaded 20 more for November.

I've found that bullet runout has more effect on accuracy than whether the brass is new or once fired. However, all of my rifles have min spec chambers and minimum headspace so new brass isn't going to expand as much as in a factory rifle. My bull this year was also taken with handloads in new unfired brass. In my case it was Norma brass that I'd prepped and neck turned, but the cases I took hunting were unfired. I had 28 unfired cases left from the original 100, I'd used the others over the years for hunting and load workup and they were getting a little long in the tooth. After working up loads in the older cases I pulled out the new cases and loaded them for the hunt. I spun the loaded ammo on a concentricity gauge and used the straightest ones for hunting, I marked those over .003" runout as sighters. The 145 Barnes LRX worked on my bull at 380 yds.

For my prairie dog rifles I use the cheapest decent brass available and make it straight. The last 22-250 I had built I bought 500 pieces of Prvi brass then sorted, trimmed, neck turned, uniformed the primer pockets, deburred the flash hole and annealed. It's now as good as anything out there and shoots great. I likely wouldn't have had to do that with Lapua brass but it just took a little time and I enjoy the hobby, and I saved some money.

Oh, I have no problem with accuracy or how uniform they are. But I ain't going to run 3100fps with the 95gr NBT's using THAT brass. The entire case would probably flow into my bolt body........then I'd have hell'uva mess.......

Exactly

I use Nosler brass exclusively in my 243. 95gr. Partitions at an average of 3156 and 100gr. Hornady Interlocks at an average of 3033. No brass flow, no pressure signs at all.

I use it in 338 Winchester 7mm STW and 25 06 Remington. Although I prefer once fired in my hunting loads .I have found no difference between once fired or virgin hulls accuracy wise.

Using some bagged Nosler 6.5x55 brass I found a good deal on. I loaded "pulled" 120g NBT's that I got here over R-19 all the way up to 0.5g over Nosler max. in my T3 Lite SS the worst group during development was just over 0.8" Most of the rest were 0.4-0.5".

3 or 5 shot groups? I'm chasing ultimate accuracy with my Forbes but I'm getting 5 shot groups in the .5's and 3 shot groups in the .15's and .2's. I may be at the point where I just need to stop obsessing about how good I can get it.

You're there for a light weight field rifle.

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3 or 5 shot groups? I'm chasing ultimate accuracy with my Forbes but I'm getting 5 shot groups in the .5's and 3 shot groups in the .15's and .2's. I may be at the point where I just need to stop obsessing about how good I can get it.[/quote]

I say you should quit your in danger of recto cranial inversion. The Forbs is a light hunting rifle and a .15-.2 group is about as good as it can get. But I stop way off that at a half inch or on a big boomer once I get to around an inch or less. I doubt a NULA would do any better than your Forbs and almost all of them are very accurate. My Forbs is showing promise but I have not even tried it on a decent rest yet.

3 shot groups. When I loaded up a bunch of the load I decided to go with and went back for final sight-in it was still shooting 0.4-0.5"

3 or 5 shot groups? I'm chasing ultimate accuracy with my Forbes but I'm getting 5 shot groups in the .5's and 3 shot groups in the .15's and .2's. I may be at the point where I just need to stop obsessing about how good I can get it.[/quote]

I say you should quit your in danger of recto cranial inversion. The Forbs is a light hunting rifle and a .15-.2 group is about as good as it can get. But I stop way off that at a half inch or on a big boomer once I get to around an inch or less. I doubt a NULA would do any better than your Forbs and almost all of them are very accurate. My Forbs is showing promise but I have not even tried it on a decent rest yet.
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I do sometimes suffer from that problem.

I lucked out trading for this Forbes locally. I learned from Mule Deer here and later confirmed his guess that being one of the first dozen rifles to leave the shop,it was likely built by Melvin himself as he was trying to teach the Forbes staff the proper way to do things. I have no idea why it's first owner would have gotten rid of it since it has shot everything excellently. Good luck with yours. I like the platform so much I'm lusting after a Fieldcraft pretty bad.

Basically you got a NULA as the prototype had the lighter stock. For production runs I think they changed something in the lay up. Still light but it sounds slightly different than the NULA stock.

I do plenty of tail chasing in load work up. Can't stop too fast or the inversion could happen.

How accurate is new Nosler brass?

It don't throw worth a durn <ducking>. you're getting very involved with this handloading thing. :-)

Yep, I'll OCD until I've sucked every bit of the fun out of it.

I find it as good as anything out there, at least in hunting rifles. Nosler's +P .257 Roberts brass has proven to be interchangeable with WW +P in my rifle. Regardless of brand, I always run my new brass through the FL die and back over the expander plug, give the necks a quick deburring twist, and run a flashhole deburring tool into 'em. I'm not sure it is necessary with Nosler brass but I prefer to control consistency myself rather than leave that in someone else's hands.

Tom

You may find new Nosler brass a bit short from base to shoulder, which can allow the cartridge to move forward at firing pin strike and result in a light primer hit. I had problems with factory ammo not firing on several different lots of factory ammo, This has been mentioned elsewhere on this site.

i’ve used a good bit of Nosler brass in 223and 260. Shot great but didn’t last too long - split necks and loose primer pockets after not too many reloads. I went back to Norma and Lapua.

I’ve used it for a while in 7STW. The last box I opened had a half dozen primer pockets that were a unusually tight. Interestingly, that box resulted in a couple blown primers with a load I’ve been using for years and has never showed signs of pressure. I’m not convinced it was the tight pockets as it was with a new can of IMR 7828 which may have been the culprit. Even the brass which blew primers had no ejector marks. I’ve had nothing but uniform results in in 30-06 and 35 Whelen brass.

Interesting. Was the blown primer load above book max?

Yes—worked up in the heat of the summer 10 years ago. One other explanation is the load was originally worked up with Remington brass. Funny thing about that load with blown primers was it still grouped 3 into 5/8”. Rifle is a Sako 85.