Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Brass brand selection

Brass is limited right now and prices are all over:

What do all of you look for when deciding which brand of brass to use.


Is Hornady Brass going to last longer than Winchester brass? Is Nosler going to last longer than Hornady?


Just trying to figure out where the price spread on brass comes from.

Buy a sack of rem brass and call it happy.

No particular rhyme or reason to it, I always get Winchester or Remington because they are the least expensive and widely available, normally. As long as you keep loads sane and anneal every few firings (5 or 6 or 7 or so) they will both last a long time. I'm up to 16 firings on one lot of Winchester .243 brass (fireformed to .243AI) and that's not nearly what some folks have gotten up to.

Quality is same same for both brands. I've had batches of both that were excellent and some of both that were run of the mill. I sort by neck concentricity with no other case prep and groups are as good as the rifle will allow.

I've recently purchased two bags of Prvi brass from Serbia for 8x57 and 6.5x55 and it appears to be just as good as the Remington or Winchester.

In the December 2008 Issue of Handloader magazine, there was an article that, among other things, discussed the longevity and accuracy obtained with various brands of 308 Winchester brass.

For longevity, Norma brass was the best with 24 uses until failure occured with Remington nickel plated brass being a close second at 22 uses to failure. Plain Remington brass came in at 20 uses to failure. The worst was Nosler at 11 uses to failure.

As for accuracy using virgin brass, Nosler was the best, Remington came in toward the middle and Winchester was the worst. Using once fired brass, Nosler remained the best, Remington remained toward the middle of the pack and Hornady was the worst. Winchester brass which was the worst with virgin brass came in third best in the once fired brass category.

Lapua all the way

Lapua first if I deem the rifle worth what it costs. All the rest in no particular order after that. I agree that Remington and Winchester are essentially the same, one batch of Remington will be better and the next time Winchester will be better. It's basically a wash.

Lapua....

So for a standard hunting rifle, time to just wait out the shortage and use my new rifles a bit.

Just wasn't sure if the Hornady 243 brass was worth $10 more than the remington & winchester, which for a hunting rifle doesn't sound it.

Very interesting that the Nosler was the best accuracy but worst longevity

Yep; that's my method!

Not wanting to get into a pissing contest but if you're loading for a factory hunting rifle, I don't think you're gonna get enough more accuracy with Lapua versus Remington to justify the difference in cost. If you're one of the real anal types that does a whole lot of case prep, then the common brands will be your cup of tea since with Lapua, you won't get to neck turn, nor weigh, nor uniform the primer pockets, etc, etc.
With enough effort and prep, Remington brass can be brought up to Lapua standards. the Remington brass will cost a third of the Lapua but you'll pay the difference in sweat equity of case prep.
I shoot a lot of Lapua but not in hunting rifles.

I match the brass to the rifle.
Winchester is the thinnest, so, for a long barreled rifle I want Winchester.

Lapua is very consistant, so it's Lapua for the bench rifles.

I've had very good luck with Remington as well.

As for life, it will all last will if you treat it well.

Lapua is the best........for a game rifle that the casing will get ejected in the snow & mud & lost...buy whats available...
My varmint rigs use Lapua when possible...I have a batch of 6BR Lapua I've been loading for 10 years...at least 40+ loadings...still going strong.....pockets tight...

Heck, I just pick up lots of whatever is laying around for free at my favorite range. Separate them into brand names when I get them home and clean them. I am NOT into squeezing everything I can accuracy wise so do not stick to one name. I mean I reload to save money, not for extreme accuracy. I pick up stuff I don't even shoot, and trade them for calibers I do at ammobrasstrader.

Ammobrasstrader

Lapua is only expensive until you use it.The extra life you get out of a piece of Lapua brass more than offsets the cost.I usually use Winchester or Remington due to availability however and if you take care of it (anneal) it last a very long time.

Heck I found an online source for new Lapua 7.62X54R cases once selling them for $30/100. I snagged 600 of them before they ran out. Now they don't even have the listing so I am doubting they will get any more. With my C&R license holder dealer discount at Graf And Sons, they want $100/100. Midway wants $119/100. Don't know why the first place was selling them so cheap, but I bought as much as I could afford for that price.

I don't know that I agree with this allegedly long life of the Lapua versus the cheaper stuff. I've some rem 22-250 and .223 brass that I load for varmint shooting that I've been using for several years with only a few losses due to necks. They've been loaded close to the top end.
I've never annealed a single round of brass. I put it right up there with the other idle stuff that shooters do. If I owned some rifle chambered for an obsolete round for which brass was no longer made, I might have a go at it. But for ordinary brass, I've better things to do with my time. Like actually shooting some of the stuff.

Lapua is "the Best" as far as consistency in all circumstances, although some Norma lots will do the same. They will obviously make getting smaller groups easier by eliminating many variables.

If you have a schit die, a schit chamber, or a schit barrel, spending that money is often wasted, but I realize some like to be anal about their reloads, yet demand a budget on the platform they feed.

Bulk brass from the big makers works fine. If its junk, its junk out of the box. If it works, it lasts for years and piles of firings.

Bravo. I totally agree!!

Seafire posted results from a test back in 09. There was also an article I read once where the author performed several tests including a reload to failure test. He took a sample from each major brass manufacture and reloaded each until a failure occurred. If I remember correctly Lapua and Norma lasted the longest and Nosler lasted the least.

That test is pretty subjective though. Depending on caliber, load, and treatment of the brass, case life can be longer for one individual versus another

Check out Seafires post
http://24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/2897578/Stretching_out_Brass_life_to_5

Annealing doesn't take much time. Do it at night in front of the T.V and you're not missing out on shooting time.