Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Hornady brass

I bought some new Hornady brass several months ago, in 22 hornet. It would not eject from my Win 1885 rifle, but Win and PPU brass ejected just fine.
Just now a friend gave me several hundred pieces of mixed head stamp 22 hornet brass. I was resizing it and did not separate by brand. In the first 20, three of the brass pulled the deprime pin out of the stem on my Redding die.
I had to drive out the pin from the flash hole with a punch. It was stuck very tight. I tried a couple more Hornady brass, same result. The other brass was Win, Rem , PPU and FC. All of the non Hornady brass resized and deprimed just fine.
The Hornady brass was tossed and I sure as hell will never buy it again.

Then on the other hand, I've got Hornady brass for my 6.5 Grendal.

Not by choice mind you, but it was all that has been available...

That stuff is holding up like a brick...load development, pushing it to the edge to find out where it is...
Then downloaded with Blue Dot etc, to find out where the minimums and maximums are...

Got several groups of 10 in ziplock bags, that just passed their 30th reloads...

Used in a Bolt Action Ruger Predator... have loaded bullets from 85 grain HPs to 140 gr SP....finding out where redline is, and have only had to scrap 4 or 5 cases...low loss ratio consider the number of reloads and testing I have done..

It use to seem that the strongest brass for Remington based cartridges came from Winchester... and the strongest brass on Winchester developed cartridges came from Remington...must be a Ford/Chevy thing...

I would suspect bad brass slips out the door occasionally from every manufacturer. Generally, I've had good results with Hornady, just like all other makes of brass.

The Hornady brass I have for my 6 CM and Grendel is fine as well. None has been loaded more than 4 times, and those are going aside until I decide to start annealing. Have 200 Starline to try out, which is a bit lighter. The Starline 6mm brass is heavier than Hornady, go figure.

Some brass brass has a smaller flash hole that SAAMI spec.

Same here. The only one I dispise is the Winchester in the red and black bags I bought a couple years ago. I really hope it has improved!!! I hear guys crying about Hornady brass, but from my experience, it mirrors seafires. It's been good to me, so I keep using it. Just bought 2 bags of new Hornady brass for my 6.5 creedmoor rifles and it seems to be good schidt, just like the rest that was loaded in factory 6.5 creedmoor American Gunner ammo. Couldn't pass up the deal on that stuff when it was $149/200 rounds a couple years ago. It even came in a nice plastic ammo box...

Not a huge fan of Hornady brass but get a Forster die....

Recent manufacture Hornady 7mm-08 I have has been fine. Hornady .22 Hornet from several years ago was too.

I’ve had no problems with Hornady brass

What you are describing is the exact opposite of what I went through when forming my 22 K Hornet brass. I used Hornady, Winchester, WW super (another Winchester) and Nosler(250 count). For me, Hornady was the only one that had 100% survival rate. The failures on the others were split cases. Nosler was the worst at about 50%. Although Nosler was bad, the ones that survived have been the best brass so far in terms of consistency and long term use. I have over 14 loads on them. I’m thinking you had a bad batch of brass.

Hornady 223 brass has been great in my rifles.

I haven’t used Hornady brass in years. I have always felt the primer pockets loosened up faster than brass from other manufacturers. Nowadays, I guess what ever we can find?
QM

Might depend on cartridge.

Hornady brass for .375R has been excellent. I've bought it in three different lots, all good. First batch was run "to death" by FL sizing and shooting. I do not anneal anything. They made it to 14, at which point there were partial separations. Pockets never loosened. This is good, inasmuch as they're the only game in town for .375R.

My experience with Hornady in .308 Win is exactly opposite Quartermaster's. Pockets remain tighter till end of life vs any other brass I've ever used. Otherwise, weight variations are no more or less than RP, Win, FC. Maybe a little greater than my LC LR, and a little lower than LC. Don't use the expensive Lapua/Norma/Nosler/eieio stuff. So maybe Hornady pales in that comparison.

Hornady 7-08 brass also gtg, IMO, though haven't loaded it to death yet.

I have some very early Hornady .308 win brass that was very bad.

So it left a bad impression on me so I always avoided it.

Now comes a .300 Win Mag. "october 2022" and I have some cases but they are Hornady.

Anyway, they worked and are still going strong on their 5th loading.

But that was just a pile of brass, new range pickups that a guy next to me was sighting in a deer rifle and left all this brass on the ground.....wasteful FUDD.

So they came home with me.

Now its all NORMA for said 300 win mag.

That is what I'm thinking. Seems that way with other manufactures as well. My experience mirrors yours. I use a shidt load of Hornady brass, from 22-250, 308w, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08, and a couple others. It's always been great. I'm also wondering if the older Hornady brass was of poor quality? Maybe some bad lots here and there??? That happens with every manufacture. To make note of how certain components shoot, I'll usually list what brass I'm using on the target. Anymore, if I'm getting close to 1" 3 shot groups at 400 yards, I don't sweat the small stuff:


And when the brass is holding up well and concentricity is good, that tells me it's good stuff.. Now, if neck tension was all over the place or excessively loose and primer pockets were failing after 3 loadings I would not be using it. I have some newer Winchester brass that is garbage like that.

Same here. I have a batch of 7mm-08 which is very good.