Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Different brands of brass.

Curious what's the opinions on the different brands of brass.

So I'm looking at helping reload for my Dad 6.5 grendel, the one sight up here in Canada lists Nosler brass at $139.99 for 50. Their is also Lapua brass and 100 for $184.

Is their a difference of quality between different brands? Which brands should I avoid?

Lapua is really good.

Lapua hands down.

lapua , alpha , peterson, all top tier

Geezuz, I need to set up a smuggling ring to Canada.......

Sig brass has been very good to me so far but not sure they make it in Grendel. Not in the same league as Lupua, but still good stuff.

Yeah, you guys down there got it good for sure!

Nosler can be excellent brass. But Lapua is known for its quality and consistency. In your situation, Lapua is also the better buy. No question on buying the Lapua. It's top tier brass, as mentioned above.

Yep, of those two options, Lapua is the better choice. For the Grendel, if you can find some original Alexander Arms brass, that is good quality as well. Starline is also good if you can find it.

Have found several brands of brass have improved considerably in the past several years--not doubt due to demand for better brass.

Wrote about this in Handloader, and then updated the article as Chapter 28 in The Big Book of Gun Gack III, published a couple of years ago. Will just say that there are several brands of brass that are very good these days, including some that many handloaders still disparage.

I don't know about any to avoid, but I have used Lapua and Starline brass with no problems. Rusty Wood in Mission, BC has Starline in stock at $108.50/100

https://www.rustywood.ca/shop/starline-brass-cases/

You shooting the Grendel out of a bolt or gas gun? If gas, get the cheapest brass you can find - as it’s going to beat up or lost long before you can take advantage a high quality brass brings.

CZ 527. Can't hunt with AR's up here

Thanks for the link.

Avoid the Winchester red and black bag stuff. It's garbage. Lapua is good, as we all know. So is older R-P and really old Winchester: WW SUPER. Sig Sauer brass is great, as is Starline (rifle and pistol). There has been mixed reports on Hornady, but I have shot a ton of it with no issues. Norma is known for being slightly "soft" and FC (Federal) has been known to lose primer pockets prematurely. Other brass that you you run into with some factory ammo like GFL (Fiocchi) I've found a lot of off center primer pockets. S&B brass seems to hold up well. PPV is borderline, as I've seen a bunch that was garbage, but some guys love the schidt.

Glad I could help.

I’ve used both Lapua and Starline brass in my CZ-527 6.5 Grendel. I’m very pleased with the Starline brass, enough so that I purchased more of it. I don’t think you’ll be at a disadvantage using Starline rather than Lapua and I have both. My most accurate load to date in my CZ-527 6.5 Grendel uses Starline brass.

No issues with Hornady in my Howa, and it shoots very nicely. Just cranked out 50 of my standard load in Starline, which is a bit lighter, and expect to test them soon. If, as expected there are no issues, I’ll grab more at the earliest opportunity, as the Hornady is on its 3rd and 4th loading in some cases.

This is typical, and good enough for scrawny public land whitetails:

I’m not seeing it. I picked up some R-P brass for my 338 a year or so ago because it was all I could find at the time. Almost unusable. Well it is unusable without bushing dies.

3/4 loadings isn't a thing. Anneal every 3/5 firings and you should get 20 plus firings from brass

unfortunately won't be able to own ARs soon either. Something needs to be done but I digress