Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Brass Quality

I have read/heard that Lapua is the best. What are everyone's thoughts on other production brass hierarchy? How would you rank WW, RP, Starline, FC, LC, and others on consistency, weight etc. Specifically looking at 223.

What is your game?

For HP, LC works great, but there are lots of alternatives. Starline is good from what I hear, and the FC with LC bunting is the same as LC.
I've been using a lot of Wolf and NT and they have been fine. I understand PMC finally has their flash holes centered too.

I am having a 700 223 built with a 1-7 twist for 600yds as a short term goal and would love to reach 1000. I am not planning on any competition other than against myself. I have never shot past 300yds and planning to take it slow but want to start out with good components.

Sorry, but I don’t shoot Lapua after getting an extremely bad batch of 223 match brass that had worse consistency than RP or WW. Maybe this will help maybe not.



The Norma 556 started life as 62 grain NATO.
Federal/LC 556 was 55 grain NATO
Nosler commercial
Norma commercial
Mix of Norma and Federal to fill out my 50.
Norma 556 being the heaviest and most consistent.
Norma commercial and Federal/LC being damn near identical
Nosler being the oddball.

Alpha , Peterson, Lapua all make good top quality brass. After those, I would go Starline, Federal, WW kinda in that order. I am sure I have left some out.
I just bought 200 pcs of new Lapua 223 brass the other day to do about the same thing you are doing, 600-1k playing against myself.

I shoot a lot of FC with the scamp markings. It is range pick up brass and has worked great for years. I also have some R-P, and Lapua. It's all about the same, after you properly prep it. I'd stay away from any new WW brass though. It's garbage, as is the LC coming from Winchester. I've seen a lot of crap ammo coming from them, after they took over the govt contract. I also must have different PMC than you speak of because the flash holes are all centered. That brass was picked up at the range (1,200 pcs) about 4 or 5 years ago. The ones I've seen with off center flash holes is the GFL brass that Fiocchi uses in their factory ammo. Its reloadable, but those off center flash holes are disturbing and hard on the decapping pins. Really, I avoid the chidt anymore. It's not worth picking it up..

Based on my experience with 243 and 308 I'd happily try some SIG brass in 223.

Wolfe that I have is good along with some lots of LC, and Lapua.

Do they make 223 rem brass? It's great brass from what I've seen in 22-250 and 308 Win..

I use to see Sig brass, but have not seen it for awhile. I have heard good things about it and would like to try it, if I could find some in something I need.

Thanks for all the input fellas. I appreciate it.

Thanks mathman. If I were looking for good brass, I'd buy some of that and try it out. It has been very good in the 22-250 and 308 from my experience. I don't check it as precisely as you do, but can tell you when TIR numbers are low, that says a lot about the brass quality and neck thickness uniformity. Neck tension always feels great as well, but we know our dies, and how we set them up, play a big role in that. I'm not like a lot of you guys, I keep schidt simple with simple dies (RCBS FL die sets). TIR kept below .003" and rock on as easily and trouble free as possible. The range pick up FC with scamp marks works well enough at the measly 400 yards I shoot at lately with my AR. If the rifle is shooting 1" 3 shot groups at 400, I'm happy.. You guys may require more precision than that, to each their own..

I've have some range pick up PPU in 223 and I haven't measured their necks, but they do assemble into very straight cartridges. The last batch of 30 I put together has two rounds with .003" TIR. The rest were .002" or less, mostly less. More than sufficient for my purposes.

I was gifted 1,100 rounds of Federal .308 Win. Gold Medal match brass that is supposed to be once fired. The brass was acquired from a trusted source so I believe it is once fires as stated. The problem is that lot must have been loaded awfully hot hot from the factory as the primer pockets are loose as a goose eating pork fat. I'll either have to just use them if light cast bullet loads or maybe scrap the whole deal.
PJ

With the disclaimer that my observations are from certain lots, so not necessarily valid for generalization:

I tried a lot of Starline 5.56 and found considerable variation in neck thickness. I have had good success with Starline straight cases. I am not confident about their bottleneck brass.

The best uniformity of .223 I encountered was older lots of Winchester, except for Lapua which is in another class.

My son, who these days is more dedicated than I am, just buys Lapua. He doesn't want to bother (screw around) with weighing, measuring, sorting, etc. I can't fault his reasoning.

Federal is known for that in the bigger cartridges. I had the same issues with some 308w, and 300WSM. Everyone generally knows this. There is a reason I stated "with scamp marks" on the 223 rem brass. It is more like the LC brass everyone likes. What I've found with 223 rem brass, is most of it is good. Primer pockets last for a damn long time in the FC 223 Rem brass I picked up at the range.


This is not a YMMV thing either. I don't fu ck around with schidt brass.. That FC range pick up brass shoots sub moa for 10 shots consistently. Lapua doesn't do any better. It's all about how you prep your brass and how uniform it is. You can pay more for Lapua, as it's great stuff. I prefer free, though, when it's good schidt.

What’s the consensus on Norma brass?

Norma is fhuqking Dog Schit. Hint.

Lapoeey is without peer. Hint.

Starline is suplizingly Skookum. Hint.

The Brokedick FC Floor Sweep Schit,is fhuqking HILARIOUS. Hint................

You ever won a match with Norma, Lapua or Starline?

Have you ever lost a match because of Federal LC?