Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Nosler Brass vs Winchester Study

I stumbled across some new Nosler 264 Win Mag brass. Didn't even know they produced it, paid $90 for 50 cases. In an effort to substantiate whether it fulfilled the claims, I decided to weigh 50 cases each of both Nosler and new Winchester. I also compared reamed, trimmed, and turned Win cases which had been fired - 29 cases, so while not 50, still statistically relevant. These cases were not decapped, so primer weight is part of that variability although I would suspect the contribution to variation is very low. Here's what I found, all weights expressed are in grains and were measured in an RCBS digital Powder Pro scale, which was mastered and verified with calibration weight before and after measurements.

A. Nosler measurement range was 1.1gr. Std deviation 0.285
B. Winchester new brass range was 7.4gr. Std deviation 1.723
C. Trimmed, turned, reamed Winchester fired brass range was 4.4gr. Std deviation 1.020

I did not cc cases, but it appears that the Nosler brass is more uniform. Other observations on the Nosler brass:

A. Primer pockets were flatter.
B. Primer hole size appeared the same.
C. Primer pocket to case head radius was more generous, likely easing primer seating.
D. Necks were about 0.002-0.003" thicker.

Based on the data, the Noslers should be more consistent.

Thanks for your efforts. How did you measure neck thickness?

Winchester brass is fn garbage. I thought everyone knew that?

I quit buying Winchester brass back before Obama. It was 25 bucks or so per 100 but usually had to cull 35-40% which put it in the cost range of Norma. Even Remington brass was better with a cull rate of 25-30%. So doesn’t surprise me with the results.

Neck thickness was measured with dual calipers.

It's sad that many years ago, when I started reloading, Winchester brass was great. The last couple of times that I 've bought it, it was absolute trash.

I worked for a rifle tuning shop while in college, Winchester was our go to unless customer wanted lapua, etc...the amount of Winchester brass I weighed and we went through was ridiculous, I've weighed and prepped a stupid amount of it. There was always 6-7 grain deviation with it, and this was 20 years ago. But when you went through so much of it, it was easy to have 100 pieces of each weight bagged up and ready to go, etc. I can certainly understand the frustration if you only needed one bag and had that much deviation.