Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Who makes Hornady brass???

My current batch of Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass is excellent. I put it on par with Lapua and Norma. Something tells me Hornady isn't making this brass in house.

I've seen other Hornady brass in the past that didn't compare to this batch for the 6.5.....doesn't even look the same.

I just watched a video made by the outdoor channel giving a tour of the hornady plant. They were producing brass from raw materials. Don't know if the make all their brass, but they do indeed make some.
http://www.downrange.tv/blog/see-how-hornady-bullets-and-ammunition-are-made/28791/

Frontier Brass was made by another US company, Most of the remaining brass is made by Horndy and is generally of good quality as far as I can tell.

JB has said that the Creedmoor brass is made by a Scandinavian company. It looks it too, with its obvious annealing. If its norma, its a bargain as its cheaper and more available than most norma brass around here.

I've had issues with Hornady brass in both .220 Swift and .257 Roberts having rims that're too thick. I want to like it, but I've started avoiding it.

The only stuff I've used from them is 9.3x62 but it's been outstanding.

I've only used their .450/400 N.E. 3" brass. Its great stuff. Of course I can only compare it to the Kynoch factory loads as that is the only other stuff I have used for that rifle.

Three or four years ago I was finding 5 to 6 primed Hornady 45-70 cartridges in 100 count bags of unprimed Winchester 45-70 cases. Only issue was the Hornady's were about 1/10 inch shorter than Winchesters.

I suspect it's the lowest bidder at any given time.

noknees,

No, I did NOT say Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass is made in a Scandinavian country.

I've done two articles on the 6.5 Creedmoor, and in one I said "I wouldn't be surprised if the Hornady brass was made in Scandinavia," since it had many of the characteristics of Norma and Lapua brass. In the other I said it was made by Hornady, because that's what I'd found out.

Well,I bought 100 hornady in 270 so I guess I will find out when they get delivered.

THAT is good info. As stated earlier, my Creedmoor brass is good stuff. Now that I know they make it, I'll look at some of their other offerings!

I just got done testing a .338 Ruger RCM with a couple of factory loads, and the brass is very good quality. Since Hornady is the only company offering ammo, I'd bet they made the brass.

John, what about the 17 hornet brass? Some is great, some have loose,crimped primer pockets, and some have too shallow pockets. Those not-deep-enough ones, had to have been primed with some custom, thinner primers.....

To tell the truth, I don't know.

Have you seen problems with brass all along, or was it mostly early? I didn't get any ammo or brass until more than a year after the cartridge was announced, and my 250 cases have all been fine. I did hear of some problems with early brass, and wonder if they out-sourced the first stuff, before they got their own machinery set up to produce it.

I had 250 rounds of early factory loads that were fine. Some later stuff was garbage and some from last fall were fine. Mix of brass and loaded ammo. I wish I'da saved lot numbers.....

Darrik, Dober swears by HDY 308 Win Brass... however, will say, it's about the same price as Lapua (counter per 50) so I just stick with Lapua.

John

I bought 1000 rds almost exactly a year ago anticipating my order for a CZ-527 17HH rifle was in the US. I hoped to toss a scope and rings on it and go shoot Beldings last April 15th, but the gun never arrived.

Mine is a varmint, DBC'd the bore after cleaning it up and went out back and fired 5 rounds to cure the DBC. I had them marked with a sharpie, and the shooting was rapid fire- compared to squirrel shooting or bench testing, and it was 90+ degree's outside. Shot #5 produced a blackened primer around the line between the primer and brass, and when I knocked out the primers with a base and punch it came out much easier than the rest. Taking a new primer I could set it on my finger and with light pressure it went in half the depth.


Another person and I have concluded that the web expansion on the one (s) that had black edges ( I only had the one, so far) that the head expansion is more than those shot in cooler weather, and we suspect heat plus possibly too high pressure ammo is probably the issue. I shot another 25 rounds in cooler weather, on paper, and no issues with excessive pressure ( measured at the web- or 0.200 datum to be technical) and my groups are sub 1/2" at 100 yards. Another Dog shooter was hot in the battle and never noticed until he got home ( it was his friends gun) that the owner found pitting on the boltface from primer leakage. I have contacted Hornady, and they said they never would sell dangerous ammo, send me some fired cases and we'll look at it. I told them I don't want to ruin my gun, and his reply was sell it to someone else or take it back to the store I bought it from. Problem with that is, it was an internet order, during the time nobody local had any to buy.

From the other guy who did send brass in and had the boltface problem, he got 1 free box of ammo for his troubles. I will try and shoot it when cooler weather and reduce my cadence to keep the gun cool. One guy made a good suggestion, cool the ammo before shooting and see if that helps me shoot up what I believe is a too high pressure -heat sensitive powder so I can reload that once fired brass with a better powder choice. The other option is to reform some old hornet brass labeled as Herters and scandinavia as it has a base diameter the same as new 17hh ammo so case head expansion will be less than undersized ww brass.

Mine was pre- crimping the primers ( staking) . Last a few heard, the next batch of ammo will still be staked, even though they claim the primer pocket issue has been fixed. My only hope is they change powders or charge to have less pressure.

Allen

Allen,

Thanks for the extensive information.

One problem with anything on the Hornet case is going to be constant: There isn't much brass even around a small primer pocket, no matter how "heavy" the brass. Hence it's easy for the brass to expand and the primer leak. It's also one reason for short case life.

Saw this in the .22 Hornet myself years ago when first experimenting with various newer powders, and it's why I switched entirely to Li'l Gun for maximum velocity .22 Hornet loads: Even with a case full of powder and a 40-grain bullet, pressures are far lower than with "traditional" Hornet powders, so brass lasts a lot longer and primer pockets don't leak even on hot days.

The .17 Hornet has had two strikes on it from the beginning: Necking down a case tends to increase pressures, especially when looking for higher velocities, and the SAAMI max pressure is 50,000 psi. The .22 Hornet's is 49,000, but with the larger bore it's easy to get top velocities with much lower pressures when using powders like Li'l Gun and 1680, rather than traditional powders like 2400, H110, etc.

Unfortunately, there aren't many temp-resistant powders suitable to the .17 Hornet case. The only one of Hodgdon's Extremes that works at all is H322, and then only with 25-30 grain bullets instead of the 20's most people want to run because they're so fast.

Pressures are considerably lower with the 25's, however, around 36,000 psi, and velocities are around 3100-3200, depending on barrel length. But with 30's pressures are close to 50,000 again, though they wouldn't rise as much in hot weather with H322 as with other powders.

All the loading data shows the top-velocity 20-grain pressures are right up to the max, and none of the powders producing the top velocities is very temp-resistant, whether Li'l Gun or Accurate 1680 or whatever. Aside from simply reducing loads with those powders for hot-weather shooting, the best solution would probably be to use H322 with 25's.

I'm going to be doing some more experimenting this summer and will see what happens. My own .17 Hornet is one of the heavier barreled CZ's that puts every bullet weight into the same group at 100 yards, so the experimenting will be relatively easy.

Short case life and primer leakage on brass were why I sold my 22 Hornet and bought a 221 Fireball.That was with Win.brass I believe.Also those thin necks were easy to fold or collapse.

I haven't had short case life or leaky primer pockets with any .22 Hornet since switching to Li'l Gun. Mostly load 40-grain Ballistic Tips so the necks don't fold up either.

Do have a .221 Fireball as well, though....

My Bad... Must have mis-read or remembered