Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Mixing brands of brass

Anyone seen a huge difference in accuracy mixing brands of brass like Hornady, Remington, Winchester. I got a bunch of Winchester and Hornady at the range some guy come in shot up a bunch of factory ammo and thought about sizing it and loading it with my others.

I keep them segregated. Neck thicknesses vary, hardness varies, internal capacities vary, ...

In general, mixing head stamps is not a good idea. Different neck thickness and volumes will make for different pressures.
It can also give you split groups.

I keep them separated too. And if I end up with less than a full box, that's OK. I'll treat that as a separate lot.

Dale

Yep.

+1

DF

I have never had any riots in my loading room when mixing brass.

If hunting loads is what you are after load some of both and see if one type makes a difference.

I just treat them as brass and they have not complained.

Not mixing brass was one of the rules I was taught when I started reloading more than 40 yrs. ago and I have never violated the rule. Nearly all my brass has come from factory ammo and the only brand I've ever bought is Winchester.

Forgive my ignorance, as I am just starting into reloading.

I understand the reason for not mixing brands of brass, but I assume it doesn't hurt to load brass of the same manufacture from several different lots, correct? (I hope I explained that clearly)

If you're picky about uniformity you won't mix lots either.

Like a lot of things it depends. As long as you are not loading near max pressures and are only plinking, loading from different lots/manufacturers shouldn't cause any problem. For near max pressures and serious accuracy work you would not want to mix head stamps and may even want to separate lots of brass by weighing each one and grouping them into lots of similar weight.

Using the same manufacturer's brass I have been able to load ammo for my hunting rifles that shoot 1-1.5" five shot groups. Weighing, checking neck thickness etc. usually does not yield enough improvement in hunting rifles to be worth the time. Benchrest rifles are another story.

I appreciate the clarification. How much weight difference would justify separating them into different groups?

Diversity...??

DF

I don't know cuz I've never bothered. I only load for hunting and all of my rifles will group into 1 1/2" with most doing less than an inch. Never thought it was worth my time.

I was given several hundred .222 cases several years ago from two sources. Most was Winchester and about a fourth was Remington. Big difference in weights, more than ten percent from lightest to heaviest as I recall. I compared the same powder charges in the light cases and the heavy ones. Muzzle velocities varied 100 fps or more. I wouldn't want to mix this brass.

Keep the brass separated by head stamp.
If not the same batch I would also sort by weight.
It does make a difference for grouping.

If the brass for larger cases is within ±5g, the head stamp doesn't much matter. There is more variance than that even in the same brand and same lot of brass. Invariably I cull two or three cases out of every lot of 50 new cases. If you don't prep brass and really don't care about accuracy, then I wouldn't worry. It's worth the time to weigh any new brass, prep and have it all quite similar if not identical.

Can't speak to accuracy...but I am very careful not to do it based on this experience: Working a load up for my Weatherby Mark V in 7mm Weatherby Magnum. Had all of my load workup done, nice load with 160's moving along at a nominal average of 3,030 fps. Shooting for sight in and my recoil and muzzle blast increased...chronograph said a touch over 3,200...what the heck!!!! Upon inspection I had loaded up a Remington headstamped 7mm Weatherby when my load workup was all done with Weatherby/Norma brass.

I sorted all of my brass a second time, and that was the one case that slipped through the first sorting.

Could have been real bad.....I don't mix headstamps at all, ever.

I do have a handful of Remington headstamped 7mm Wby brass if someone wants to pay shipping ;-)

That brass probably weighed a lot more than the Weatherby/Norma brass. If you weigh brass and keep it as stated at ±5g, there wouldn't be any problem. Benchrest matches have been won with cases that may have as many as 5 or 6 different headstamps. It's all with the internal volume of the case.

Pseshooter300: Learned to NOT do THAT (mix brands of brass for a Big Game Rifle!) many years ago.
Mixing brass just begs for problems and inaccuracy.
Be patient and find/use all one brand.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy