Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Brass suggestions?

I haven’t bought any brass in 5 years so I was wondering what brands are proving to be of good quality and consistent now.
I need some .308 Win. brass and have looked at a few websites and have seen some off-chute brands available. It’s going to be used in a hunting rifle, so I don’t need any high end stuff. Just something fairly consistent.
For some reason Winchester and Remington were not available on the few sites that I have checked.
Also does anyone have any good experience with Starline brass? I have seen it around for years but have never tried it.........
(Been making my own 308 brass from ‘06 and 270 cases in the past but would like to get some head stamped .308)

I've used Starline handgun brass in .38 Special, .44 Special, and .45 Auto Rim; probably at least as good as anything available. I would certainly expect the same of their rifle brass.

Take your pick.

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/768?

Have never had any issues with Starline.

I'd go LAPUA in .308 Win.

Peterson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only Starline rifle brass I have used are .223 and 6.5 Grendel. The .223 brass seems to be just as good as Nosler---based on a handful of groups shot out of a 788 in .223 Remington. The Grendel brass...hard to say. I had only used Hornady 6.5G brass until I tried Starline. My first impression is that Starline's 6.5G brass is better than Hornady's for toughness, but I can't be sure until I've worn some of it out. I'd try Starline .308 in a heartbeat---if I had a .308.

Starline brass be good

If consistency is the main goal, Alpha Munitions, all day every day and twice on Sundays. It will last for a long time too. It is premium brass though. If not looking to spend that much, I'd go Hornady.

Norma and Lapua have proven their worth to me. That’s all I buy these days.

Hornady 2nd choice over Lapua brass. I believe Lapua is the top brass maker these days. But damn pricey.

A lot of the long range guys use Winchester brass in the 308. They claim that in that caliber, Winchester brass has the largest water volume... they can stuff more powder in it.

I don't shoot my 308 a ton. Currently, I have batches of R-P and FC loaded up. Hard to go wrong... keep in mind that Lake City brass is thick. Your normal loads would have to be backed off, then worked back to the sweet spot.

Winchester brass is total garbage right now. If starline makes 308 brass, I'd jump on that band wagon. If not, I'd buy Sig Sauer brass. I've been using the hell out of it in my AR10 308. It's excellent stuff... Of course, if you want the best buy Lapua...

I'm a Lapua first guy. If I don't want to pay for that then the peterson I have for my 6mm creedmoor is very nice, I'd use it for other rounds based on the stuff I've got. After that I'd buy whatever and neck turn it.

Weight sort, deburr flash holes, uniform primer pocket, neck turn & anneal and you can make pretty much any crap brass shoot OK.

I haven't tried the Sig Sauer brass but BSA isn't the first person I've heard say it's good.

I have used the Sig brass in 308 and its pretty good stuff.

Alpha, Lapua, RWS, Norma on the high end and Lake City or Winchester on the low end. There are some newer ones I haven't tried like SIG, Petersen and some others.

If Privy Partissan is on sale don't overlook it either. Primer pockets need more work but it is very tough brass and was more uniform than recent lots of Winchester and Remington.

In my two 308's I've tried Lake City, Remington, Winchester, Lapua, Hornady, and, PPU (Prvi). The two best for my rifles were the Lapua (on the high end) and Hornady (not so high end). Hornady lasts for several loads, the Lapua will last for a lot more in my experience.

I use the Hornady match for my 308’s

PMC brass is pretty damned good, better than Fed, Rem or Win IMO. You can get 308 on gunbroker at a pretty good price.

Lapua brass IS a little pricey, but you definitely get your money’s worth from it in terms of quality of manufacture, longevity (I have 7mm-08 brass that’s been fired 12 times and still going strong), and accuracy. But, with Lapua, you’ll need to cut back a bit on powder charges. It has less inside dimensions. Best brass going in my opinion.

Regular Hornady stuff has never given me any complaints, but the Hornady Match is my choice if I can get it

Since I started reloading nearly 45 yrs. ago I have used Winchester brass for the majority of my loads. Some of my pistol brass is Starline, neither has given me any issues.

I have been using Winchester brass from factory loaded 308 ammo and it seems to be working out just fine. Started using ADG brass and that is really nice brass. That company is local to me so I can skip shipping charges.

Alpha has no equal.

Nothing is fhuqking schittier than Peterson.



Hint..............

Gee, IME if you have a range close by..you can pick up a bunch of once fired stuff...I`ve done that, and sorted it by make.
Haven`t bought 308 stuff for a very long time.
Or go to a local Cabela`s..LOTS of cheep stuff...fire it and reload.

The LAST thing that interests me,is a "good deal" on a piece of fhuqking schit.

Hint.................

Who said anything about a good deal??????????

Every Drooling Turd Polishing Dumbfhuqk. Hint.

Congratulations?!?.................

That's what I've always been told, and Lapua is generally pretty good, no doubt. However, some recent load development I did in my 308 AR showed me that Norma brass was a little tougher and more consistent than the Lapua. It could (and is likely to be) just that batch, but it showed me that Norma brass is at least worth considering. It was without question head and shoulders above Hornady Match, both in consistency and in the level of loads it would handle.

Combine that with the experience I had with some Lapua 6.5 Grendel brass a while back that was .010" short on headspace and split 1 out of 5 pieces at the neck has made me a little less enthusiastic about Lapua lately. Not enough to stop using it, but I'm not sure it's the best thing out there at the moment.

Alpha smokes Lapooey.

It takes farrrrrr more than .010" headspace,to fail brass...especially Lapooey Grendel as it's rather robust.

Hint................

Brass is brass. In .308 Winchester I like Nosler Brass, or Hornady Brass, or Privi Partisan which in most calibers they produce measures on a par with any other (the Privi .25-06 Remington brass proved quite uniform). Lapua brass has proven problematic in some plain Jane standard cartridges for me, and doesn't really become something spectacular until we crack open a box of 6mm BR Norma, then it's obviously different and worth the cost. Starline is premium brass, I buy it by the 1000 case lots in rifle and handgun cartridges, especially for kooky stuff such as the .357 Maximum; .375 Winchester (for reforming to .375 Super Mag, or the 7mm IHMSA Rimmed); their .348 Winchester (because it's available); the old standby .45-70 Government; their .44 Magnum; .45 Colt; and .480 Ruger; and I plan on buying a lot of .308 Winchester with the small rifle primer pocket for use with H-322 powder and a mystery bullet. Otherwise I buy all the Winchester .204 Ruger and Winchester .223 Remington brass I can get my hands on, enough to require stacking over floor joists so the floor doesn't sag. Otherwise, I load up on new Federal Lake City 5.56 NATO brass, all of which shoots the same and kills ground squirrels.

My “go-to” brass is Lapua for bottle neck cartridges larger than .223, and star line for .223 and pistol.
Great results and many reloads on both Lapua and star line.

I had very good luck with Winchester brass several years ago, but will no longer buy their stuff based on two purchases I made in early 2018..... l’m sorry to say that it was very poorly manufactured.

I did. Bought 1000.

I always preferred Remington for several reasons. But, they no longer care about their customers.

I second this. By far the best brass I've ever bought. If not this I find Winchester to be more consistent than most of the other brands.

I just bought some Hornady 270 and the stuff is better than I would have expected.

There's been a lot of suspect brass in Winchester bags for a few years now.

Cabela's has Remington .308 Win brass.
https://www.cabelas.com/product/Remington-reg-Unprimed-Rifle-Brass-Per/1160414.uts?slotId=0

Remington took a crap a while back too.

Since we’re talking 308.. Are there any opinions about LC or other military brass? I’m considering sizing to within two thousandths of my headspace with a body die and then using a collet die to do the necks.

LC brass is pretty durable. Depending on its origin it may have a primer pocket crimp to remove. A lot of the once fired LC on the market was fired in machine guns and will likely need some heavy duty sizing.

I've bought new LC headstamp brass under Federal's American Eagle label and it has been pretty good. After its first loading I've used a Lee collet die and a Redding body die to size it, and a Redding or Forster competition die to seat bullets and the cartridges have come out straight enough that I never bothered sorting for neck thickness et cetera.

I won a contest and received a lot of previously fired LC and other military headstamp brasses (mostly SBS & PMJ) with primer crimp removed but otherwise unprocessed. It was indeed a heavy resizing job with Redding body die and Lee Neck Collet die - and that was after I annealed everything. I used the Redding “Competition” shell holders to get headspace clearance where I wanted it. I have some bullets on order so wish me luck to see how it goes.

And best of luck for OP and everyone else with all the good brass choices discussed above.

I’m thinking that a key aspect of good brass would be consistent water capacity weights. Have any of you done a study like that for your recommended brasses?

Frankk, what lube are you using?

Imperial Sizing Wax or Hornady Unique is much better for that application. (Ask me how I know)

I’d only been using the Imperial Sizing Wax. I’d been leery of trying anything else like the hornady spray lube or homemade lanolin lube - but those things have been on my shelf for a very long time. Sorry to see the implication of stuck cases

I’m also glad that I had a heavy Rockchucker press for that particular task. Processing 350 cases was quite a workout. Whatever these military cases were originally fired in clearly had a very loose chamber - but they now all fit my bolt gun very nicely.

LC 308 is good stuff, I use a bunch of it, both for 308 and formed into 6.5 Creedmoor.

Just make sure to check with a flashlight inside each case for impending case head separation; you'll see a shadow from the stretched ring in the bad cases.

Thank you!

Glad you are already on board with the best.

I really like the Hornady Unique sizing wax for heavy initial sizing. For subsequent sizing though, my preference is to put the cases in a ziploc bag and use a spray lube; after spraying a little in the bag I close it up and shake the bag around a bit. It seems to be an efficient method of lubing without getting too much on the cases and getting lube everywhere.

Yeah, I do the ziplock trick on brass that has been fired in my .223's, not sure if I learned it from you or someone else. Perhaps I'll get courageous and try it on the larger cases sometime.

My old M1A was another matter, perhaps I was sizing the brass too much, but I stuck enough cases that I went hunting a better lube, someone at an LGS pointed me to Hornady Unique and I still use it.

Of course that was in the Dark Age Before The Internet, had to rely on manuals, gun rags and a couple of old cranks at the LGS.