Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Brass suggestions?

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.