Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hornady Brass

Does the Hornady require prep like most of the bag stuff from Winchester. Or is the boxed stuff like Nosler good to go?

Thanks

It is not fully prepped like the Nosler brass. In my experience it is good brass. I have bought several hundred rounds of it in various calibers.

Tried Hornady and Nosler brass in my 308 with same 46 gr of Varget and Fed210 primer. Had to prep the Hor brass and did nothing to the Nos. Shot 1+ MOA with Hor and 1/2 MOA with Nos using 150AB in both cases. I know which to use now. My rifle is a 1974 manufactured Rem 788 w/factory bbl, Timney trigger. I love this little rifle! Mike

Were the cases of the same weight and capacity?

I bought some Hornady brass to try in my newest rifle (Tikka t3x superlite) and the primer pockets are extremely tight..... Damn, I wish I could find some good once fired R-P (made in the 90's preferably).....

I've got several hundred Hornady .243 cases and 100 Nosler bulk, not the prepped. The Hornady are very consistent in weight across lots. The Nosler are much heavier, on the order of 20 grains, and filled to the top with water, hold several grains less. This conflicts with a recent article by Brian Pearce that showed the Nosler having the greatest capacity among a number of brands, which makes me wonder if the bulk comes from an outside supplier, as is apparently common practice. I'm going to use the Nosler for different loads, naturally.

The next bunch I get will likely be Starline, based on the good price and past experience with their straight-wall cases.

Thanks guys your information iis very much appreciated.

I’ve used quite a bit of Hornady brass. I like it.

I use Hornady brass for my .308 and simply size the necks and trim to size...ready to go. I've found some Hornady cases seem to have tight primer pockets, as do some Lapua in .308 with the standard large primer pocket. I used a Lyman primer uniform tool on the pockets and never looked back.

I've been working with a batch of recently acquired Hornady 308 Winchester Match brass. I have not sorted them for neck wall uniformity. On the second loading and thereafter, when the new brass irregularities have been ironed out by firing and my processing, the loaded cartridges come out showing runout under .0015" with very few exceptions.

Good stuff..

I haven't loaded any hornady stuff, but in 7x64 and 8x57 it is the lightest cases
7x64
Hornady: 179.5
Norma: 183.6
RP: 197.3
PPU: 207.3

8x57
New Nosler: 172.0
New WW: 178.4
Winchester head stamp (W-W SUPER/ 8mm MAUSER) S (F): 177
Winchester head stamp (WINCHESTER/ 8x57): 160.1
PPU(F): 161.9
PMC(F): 187.9
RP(F): 174.8
S&B(F): 172.5
WW '06: 176.5 (reformed unfired)
Hornady: 157.6

I have been using it in 7x64 and 250. So far, so good. No issues with it, unlike the last couple bags of W-W I bought. Since Big Green got out of the brass biz, I will probably switch to Hornady when the R-P stuff runs out.

I guess they have greater capacity....

I've had good luck with Hornady brass in a number of cartridges. Keep an eye on lot to lot variation(which should be done no matter the brand), as I found a pretty large difference in case capacity in 9.3x74R brass. I had 4 boxes of brass purchased years ago when they first started to make it, and compared it to a couple of boxes of recently made stuff. I forget how much heavier the older brass was, but it was quite a bit. Dumped the same charge in each vintage. On the newly made brass the powder was just shy of what little shoulder there is on a 9.3x74R. In the older cases the powder was past the shoulder, and started up the neck.

Jeff

Which cartridge?
Paul B.