Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 243 Win brass

Other than Lapua, what is the best brass? Candidates are Hornady, Nosler, Prvi Partisan, Winchester, Starline and any that I missed.

I've never had a problem with Remington or Winchester brass. Yes, one can expect to discard a percent or two but the pricing makes it still a good value.

Further, I've used Hornady brass with good success as well....I just purchased a bag of 50 7mm-08 with no rejects at all and they price their product fairly competitively.

I consider Nosler to be simply overpriced.

I've purchased Starline when there was no alternative and have had poor success with Privi mostly in 6.5 X 55 and 9.3 X 62.

I have no proof that the metallurgical content of these brands are different from each other and have never had an issue with anything that would point to a difference.

Generally speaking, I buy Winchester or Remington brass.

I have bought literally thousands of rounds of new W-W brass from Midway. The price was right, but the reject rate was not good, 1-3 in every bag of 50. There's nothing wrong with Federal brass, either.

What criteria are you guys using to reject cases?

RWS, Lapua, Norma, Petersen, Nosler, then not sure about second tier as it varies so much. PPU, Winchester, Remington, Starline, Federal, Hornaday. These in no particular order. If you prep and sort heavily almost all brass will be workable. Some you will get noticeably more loads out of than others.

Have not tried Sig, Jagerman, and some others.

I've not been super excited about Hornady brass in 243. This was in their factory load. The rim was noticeably thinner than other brands. Ruger MkII wouldn't hold onto it.

May have just been the one box.

Look into SIG brass. It has been top shelf quality at a very reasonable price for me in 308 Winchester.

Not specifically in .243, but I I would rate RWS at the top of the tree out of those brands I've used. It is really well turned out, and needs no sorting or preparation. I also rate Lapua highly, and there's Geco (RWS economy line) which is also good, though doesn't get the final polish the RWS line gets. Nosler and Hornady brass seems quite good, though I haven't used much of it, and I've also been impressed by PPU as excellent value for money. As Tejano said, your Winchester, Remington etc will also work, but you do have to do a bit of sorting and preparation.

Why would you not want to use Lapua brass? It seems to last forever with any reasonable load and not oversizing it.

I have some Lapua .308 Win brass that has been loaded more than 10x and still is fine with annealing.

Time is worth something. Take it out of the box, run it through the sizer to make sure the necks are round after shipping, load and go to the range.

Winchester brass can be made as good as Lapua, but it takes fire forming, sorting, and sorting, and some more sorting.

Bought some Jagemann brass recently in several calibers including 243 Win and have found it to be very good. Will be buying more.

GreggH

bought some starline in 223 and 308 recently was impressed with the even neck thickness.

Ed

I use Winchester

Yes, I'd like to know please, and not just to "reject", but what your criteria are for weight-sorting into groups as well.
Any particular technique or measuring tricks used?
Thanks,
Rex

Mostly Winchester and R/P brass. Several years ago, I bought 200 pieces of CFL primed brass from a place that some poster on here told about. I've been pretty well pleased with them. I think we tend to overthink the brass thing.

First, how uniform are the neck walls?

If the necks are really bad then nothing else matters diddly if you're looking for precision.

This can be quite true depending on the application.

Everyone has an opinion about what is best. I think they are all fine. If Remington or Winchester were as bad as many on this board believe, both would have been out of the brass making business long ago.

Think of this like you're in Vegas. Play the odds. What are the odds that you'll get bad brass? If you buy US made, the odds are higher that you'll be disappointed. If you buy European, you'll get better quality. Personally, I believe that the Europeans do a better job. Or perhaps their QC is better. I'm not trying to start any brass wars.

I buy PP and Lapua mostly, but those are personal preferences. If I had to buy US made, I would go with Starline. Of course, that's great if these companies make the brass I need, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and buy whatever is available.
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I think this is the part of the show where the testimonials and the negative criticisms start. Just to be fair, I'll start.

In 1985, I bought some Remington brass that was poorly made. Out of the 100 cases, six necks were visibly cracked and a couple had off centre flash holes. I wanted to kick Remington in the flash hole and vowed never to buy their crap again.

For 223 and 308, I only buy CDN milspec surplus brass because the cull rate is almost non-existent.

Have tried several new brands of brass over the past year or two, partly because I've been less and less impressed with some traditional brands. In fact published an article in HANDLOADER on the subject not too long ago.

Have been impressed with the consistent dimensions of Jagemann, Jamison, Peterson, RWS and Starline, along with brands usually known for their consistency, such as Lapua and Norma--but also found Prvi Partizan and Sellier & Bellot pretty darn good.

But when looking for new brass for a basic hunting rifle, whether varmint or big game, these days I tend to use quite a bit of Hornady brass. It's not only very consistent dimensionally but pretty reasonably priced, and available in quite a few cartridges at local stores. In fact 100 pieces of 7mm Remington Magnum Hornady brass picked up for a magazine article was as consistent as ANY of the specialty brands that have appeared recently. Plus, Hornady often offers more specialized brass, along with the usual suspects. In fact, the .243 cases I've been loading for the past few years are Hornady.

As mathman noted, consistent case dimensions (especially neck thickness) are far more important than a certain amount of weight variation. Yet I've known a bunch of handloaders who weigh and sort every new batch of brass, yet have never measured case-neck thickness.

What are the chances those are some of the same suspects who weigh powder charges to the gnat's eyelash increment for deer rifles that can't prove out to be MOA shooters under controlled conditions?

The only thing I would add to this conversation is hunting brass for 200 yd or so, measuring the necks is unnecessary. It's not going to make any difference. One has to be careful when talking about hunting brass. The ranges at which people engage is different, depending on what part of the continent you live.

Shooting 222 Rem from the bench at 100 and 200 yards, measuring necks was necessary because when I started, most brass was Win or Rem. That was back in the dim times however, and quality between then and now has changed markedly.

I agree:

mathman,

Have also noticed that some of the same handloaders "uniform" the primer pockets in every new batch of brass, which is even less relevant than case-weight when searching for accuracy.

I wind up uniforming primer pockets more than I'd like to, but it's not for the sake of precision. Pockets are often on the shallow end. Combine this with an overly large radius between the side wall and bottom of the pocket and there will be primer seating problems.

My .243 Ruger MkII won't hold onto Hornady brass either. I bought two boxes - 50 each - of new unprimed. All the rims are bad that way.

Rifle feeds and ejects fine with other brands.

I sort my brass by neck wall thickness. I purchase Lapua whenever possible, then Norma, for most of my bolt guns.

For my high volume rigs (such as my M700 .223 Varmint) I buy bulk lots of Winchester and then sort through them for the most consistent case neck pieces. All of the culls get tossed into the AR / practice pile where I am not as discerning about MOA accuracy.

Teal (and ClearAirTurbulence),

That's interesting. Have you measured the rims?

I just did on my batch of of Hornady .243s, and the rims are just slightly thinner than the SAAMI maximum of .054 inch, averaging .051. (You don't want rim thickness OVER the SAAMI max, as it might not slide under some extractors.) Have you measured yours?

My batch has worked fine in three .243s, including a Barrett Fieldcraft, Husqvarna (based on the small-ring 98 Mauser action), and a custom on a Mexican Mauser military action.

I've always liked Winchester brass first, Remington second and never much cared for Federal brass, at least in rifle cartridges. A while back I was gifted 1,100 rounds on once fired Federal Gold medal Match .308 brass and the primer pockets are loose enough that the brass is worthless.

A few years before the big scare I was at a gun show and found a vender who had a lot of Winchester and Remington 7x57 brass. As you probably know that stuff is "seasonal" so after a bit of haggling I took every last bit he had. Both brands have been quite good holding up quite well with my rather hot loadings. About the only Norma brass I have is some .257 Robt. ammo which I haven't shot much of and 100 rounds of original Herter's 7x57 which I understand was made for them by Norma. I haven't loaded any of those yet.
Paul B.

You didn't say what you want to do with the brass. For hunting yardages, just about any brass will work. If you're trying to tighten groups, the field is reduced to a few. Those few for me when I'm shooting 600+ yards are Lapua and Alpha for calibers I shoot.

For hunting brass that I may lose, I've always deferred to Winchester and Remington brass in .243.

Thanks for all the feedback. Looks like Winchester has the most positive comments. Use is for hunting and coyote control at up to 250 yards most times. I have two 243 rifles and use Lapua in one and Winchester in the other. When I bought Lapua, it was all I could find but I prefer cheaper brass.

I will probably go with Winchester but am interested in Starline and Privi Partisan.

JB you seemed to like Starline and Privi. How do they compare to Winchester? I'd like to be able to use the same loads in both rifles without having to adjust powder because of one brand having a smaller capacity.

Unfortunately, haven't tried Starline and Prvi .243 cases.

Unfortunately no. I pitched it. Was my son's rifle. He's using Win brass now. Was noticeably different to the naked eye though.

MD: I just ran my calipers over my Hornady brass. I can't quite get a square reading on the rim thickness because my caliper jaws are a tad too wide at the end. I was getting .049 on the average but that was on a tiny angle.

I measured some Barnes cases (which I haven't loaded up yet) and some Federal and Barnes factory. The headstamp on the Barnes is Winchester. They all ran a hair over .050.

I don't know what it is. I've shot 50 rounds of (mild) reloads in the Hornady cases and if I don't whip the bolt back hard the empty case will come back an inch maybe and then slip off the extractor. It doesn't clear the chamber.

I tried to make that happen with the Federal and Barnes factory loads by varying the speed of the bolt but it doesn't happen.

I know there has to be a reason but for now it's a mystery to me.

You enjoy the hell out of that Win brass! Go harvest some coyotes.

Exactly my experience. I'm not crying and didn't call Hornady as this was about 3 or 4 years ago. No ill will towards Hornady either. Love their stuff.

Teal: I love Hornady bullets. I'll still use them.

As far as precision - minute of prairie dog works for me, in the 243.

I have tried most all available .243 brass. Most are OK, except Federal, I don't care for Federal. I like Sig & Starline the best.

I completely agree with you on the old 222 Rem brass, when I bought my first 222 Rem it was a constant battle to find consistent brass. the weight and neck thickness varied greatly in the Win and Rem brass (worse than any other chambering I have ever owned). I can't remember what year Lapua started making brass for this round but I bought all of it I could find and have been a happy camper ever since.

As for the 243 Win I still like Lapua brass, I had a few issues with Win brass and moved on from it quickly.

Hi boatanchor. I don't shoot much 243 these days, but I remember the consistency problems I had with Rem and Win brass. I bought 200 Lapua cases and that solved everything.

It's unfortunate, but incidents with several cartridges soured me of Rem and Win. That was a while back though, and I am certain that they solved their QC problems.

I have not done this but if you factor in heavy culling or sorting where up to 20% can end up in the second string batch and then limited number of reloads say 12 or less, sometimes a lot less especially with over sized belted chambers compared to Alpha brass with less than 1% culls (usually none) and then 20+ reloads with annealing and case trimming every 4th or 5th reload then the price starts to not seem too bad. The softer brass needs more frequent trimming and gets worked more in the course of reloading. When I buy brass I get the best I can afford at the time, if I am also buying some budget brass it needs to be 30-40% less than Lapua or it is not worth it to me. Somewhere at 50% or less than the cost for Lapua it becomes a wash and even lower if you factor in your time.

I pretty much use used brass.... range brass or purchased from a local guy, campfire member.. The Brass Man..

Followed some campfire advice from Pat Sinclair on his load techniques shared on line here...
am getting some high mileage and better accuracy out of brass....

and don't get over zealous at the reload bench for max velocity...