I am thinking about building a new rifle, but hornady is the only on making brass for the cartridge. I haven't had any experience with hornady brass, but have heard mixed reviews. before I head down this road, I thought I would ask.

Is it good, okay, or crap?

Thanks for your time.

I just picked up some hornady brass for the .300 savage, which I thought was an interesting find. Looks purtier than the winchester brass I've been using, but then for all I know they might both be coming from the same place.

if you're talking about the 6.5 CM, my understanding is that the hornady brass for it is actually pretty decent.

338rcm

Seems good, I am on the 6th load of some and primer pockets are still fine. I collet size and runout stays below.005 so I am happy with the consistancy.

The issue you might find right now is finding any.

I've been using their 30'06 brass for sometime. Primer pockets feel much better than the Winchester brass I've used. Shoots excellent groups, and has not needed triming.
The .308 Hornady Match brass I just started using is a bit odd. It is a bit longer in the shoulder, so it fit's tight on the first loading. After it is fire formed, it works quite well.
I'm very happy with it. E

I've found it to be pretty good. Not Norma or Lapua good, but not as pricey either.

I am running some in a 25-06 and was wondering the same thing when I first bought it but it was all I could find.
So far it has done fine but I am only on my 2nd loading.

"Hornady brass good, or garbage?"

That's an odd question. Hornady is an old, solid maker of all things reloading except powder/primers; is it possible their cases would be "garbage"?

My sun doesn't rise and set over a Hornady plant but I would trust Hornady much more than some anonyomus web poster saying it isn't good.

I've got a bunch of their 300 wby brass. The primer pockets go faster than norma or rem but I love everything else about it. Very consistant neck thickness.....very concentric in virgin form....very very accurate in my gun.

My apologies iour hurt your feelings or stepped on your toes.
However a quick google search shows more than a few unsatsified customers of hornady brass. But that's why I asked here.... Forgive me for wanting to hear some opinions before jumping into an expensive custom that only hornady makes brass for. Next time I will just trust the company.


Thanks to all the others who have actual experience with the brass and have commented.

IME, its good stuff. in fact a couple of lots I bought are better that some of the Federal gold medal match brass in '06 I used to run. But then not all lots of brass are the same, and everyones experiences are going to be different.
I'd use it with confidence.
YMMV

BD

Only Hornady brass I have is for the 405 Winchester, and I like it fine. Of course at the time, it was the only stuff available to me, so the like factor climbs unabashed.

Be careful of the negative reviews. I haven't used it recently since I heard they were making their own. When I've used it they were outsourcing the manufacture of it and openly told you it was made by Remington or Winchester, depending on cartridge. Haven't had any experience with it since I heard they were rolling their own but based on past experience, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. In their older days it seemed that theirs was more consistent than the supplier's and I attributed that to specs and quality control.

Just finished loading 400 rds of mixed head stamped 243 for one of our rancher friends out West. Had to chit can all the Hornady and Frontier brass as it would barely hold primers, personally I think it's junk just my 2 cents.

Their .45-70 and .444 are too short by about .1" IIRC.

Yep that's why as much as I need some 444 I'll wait but won't buy that crap..

338 RCM and 375 Ruger brass are good quality. But there is no other choice......

I use their 6.5 Creedmoor and its good stuff

Fwiw...the reason some of their lever action brass is short is because it has to be that way to cycle the longer leverevolution bullets.
I guess they make the brass specifically for their bullets in that case.
It won't hurt a thing to use it w/other bullets but the jump to rifling would be different...might be better accuracy...the same...or maybe worse.

I've used the short Hornady .45-70 brass in several rifles with fine results, and not just with Hornady bullets. Of course in a single-shot it wouldn't make any difference, but have also used it for lever-actions.

The last batch of Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass I bought looked suspiciously like a brand of Scandinavian brass in several details, and was very good.

"My apologies iour hurt your feelings or stepped on your toes."

You don't understand, I couldn't care less about your misperceptions.

It's just that the whole premise of your question strikes me as odd on it's face, even if I had never held a Hornady case in my hand. And I haven't. Nor am I a great fan of Hornady at all, except their bullets, but that's just me; I know they make very good stuff. So ... do they produce "garbage" cases? Not bloody likely!

I've wondered who makes all the brass for different manufacturer's. If anyone knows, please post.

I've been using the 6.5 Creedmoor brass from Hornady and it's great. I just recently got some once-fired .300 Win Mag brass from a buddy. Head stamps are Hornady and Frontier. Even though they are both Hornady products the brass is very different. The factory loads they came from are very different. The "Hornady" head stamped brass was from a case of "Superformance" ammo. It was obviously a Hot load and shot in the summer. Many of the primers just took a little poke with the decapping die to drop out. Many had ejector marks and I pitched them. Could have been the rifle they were shot in as well. Hope they hold a primer.

I sized all of them and began to turn the necks. The Hornady brass was thicker and cleaned up all the way around the neck and with the same cutter setting, the Frontier brass just got the high spots taken off. The brass also weighed differently on average. I then separated them as to head stamp. Thought I might get away with mixing them but decided not to.

Used some in my 300 WSM, and Remmy brass, both are just as good.
Haven't reloaded it too many times yet to determine it's life but on first 4 reloads look ok.

Most Frontier brass is mil-surplus brass, then I believe they had Federal making it for them for a while when that dried up. Now Hornady labeled brass is brand new and of better manufacture from what I've used of it anyway.

I saw a post somewhere where the guy said he was on a hornady plant tour and witnessed them making their own brass. But I do believe earlier stuff was made for them.
I can't say I was real impressed by early nosler brass but now I think much of it is Norma.
Bottom line is I think only the company can say who, when and where their stuff is coming from....and what tolerances were spec'd.......and it may change tommorrow!

Just bought some Nosler 6.5x55 brass and after doing some measuring it about has to be Norma brass. All dimensions lined up to Norma.

All their wby brass is Norma...if you can catch blems on sale its a real good deal!

Hornady is middle of the road brass for me.
338rcm is pretty hard on brass.

Are sure sure about this? I weighed both and the Hornady 257 Wby. was 8-10 grains heavier than my Wby norma brass.

That being said, I also thought it shot and reloaded fine.

I should have been more specific. The poster before me was talking nosler brass and I was (in my feeble mind) continuing the nosler talk.
Noslers wby casings are definately made by norma.

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