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Posted By: AnsonRogers 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
Thinking about buying some before the next shortage. Currently using Remington but that appears to not be available. Is Lapua worth the extra $$ over say Winchester or Hornady?

How about Starline?

Gunwriter or not, chime in please.
Posted By: smokepole Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
Before Lapua started making it I used Norma and it's been some of the best brass I've used in any chambering, uniform and straight.

I haven't bought any in years though, so I'm not sure if the recent stuff is the same quality.
Posted By: Pappy348 Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
Don't know, but you've got the right idea. Might want to check the reviews on Midway, if you can sift through the baloney. During the last drought I picked up 500, mostly LC .308s from Evergreen(?) for just such a scenario. Takes a bit of work to process, but is of excellent quality. I sorted them by year, then prepped 100 to use. The rest remain as backup, just in case. $75 well spent.
Posted By: hanco Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
I like Winchester, I have about 500.
Posted By: Godogs57 Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
I loved Federal and Lapua.....however Hornady really turned my head in my 7/08....it loved it. Matter of fact, I've been very impressed with all Hornady brass lately...good stuff.

41.0 grains of IMR-4064 behind a Nosler 140 grain BT = little bitty bug holes in my rifle. Death ray on whitetails too.
Posted By: JamesJr Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
I have 50 pieces of once fired Nosler brass I'd part with. As a matter of fact, some of it was never fired.
Posted By: lone wolf Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
Peterson brass company out of Pa makes some nice brass. I have not heard anything but great things about them, going to try some out soon myself.
A lot of guys on accurate shooter prefer it over lapua.
Posted By: 1234 Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/20/18
just picked up some 7mm08 starline brass neck thickness or run out is very good. got some loaded haven't had a chance to shoot it yet.

Ed.
Posted By: AnsonRogers Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/21/18
Pulled the trigger on Winchester brass from Powder Valley. Hope that was the right call. I've had good luck with Win in the past but hear it isn't as good now. We'll see.

Thanks for all the input.
Posted By: NEBHUNTER Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/21/18
I also picked up some Starline because I couldn't find Federal at the time. I was very impressed with it so I stocked up. Midway had a good price on it awhile back.
Posted By: mathman Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/21/18
Originally Posted by AnsonRogers
Pulled the trigger on Winchester brass from Powder Valley. Hope that was the right call. I've had good luck with Win in the past but hear it isn't as good now. We'll see.

Thanks for all the input.


I was off WW brass for a while because of quality problems. Relatively recently I tried a bag of 308's in the newer black/red bag and it was pretty good stuff.
Posted By: Mule Deer Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/21/18
I''ve been using Hornady 7-08 brass for at least a couple of years with good results.
Posted By: pete53 Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/21/18
really there is never a 7mm-08 brass shortage for a reloader ,just neck down 308 brass to 7mm neck and maybe turn the necks too ? some of the most accurate brass I used in some winter money shoots was to take 308 lapua brass, neck it down ,turn the necks ,fire form and then reload with neck sizing ,weighed all my brass only used this brass in my rifle.
Posted By: 22250rem Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
What pete53 said............ When 7mm-08 brass was scarce I processed a bunch of once fired Federal 308 premium brass that I had here. Turned the necks also just to get it to duplicate 7mm-08 brass. This was two winters ago and I still have some that I haven't even fired yet. Years back I got half a bucket of once fired .308 from a local SWAT team that used my club's range while theirs was being re-done. All of it from a few of those Mod. 700 Police Sniper Specials. Good once fired brass in quantity for free..... What's not to like?
Posted By: Crow hunter Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
For a rifle that I'll just need 100 pieces of brass for I'll always pick Lapua if it's available. For 100 pieces it's not that expensive and if you keep it annealed the brass will last as long as the barrel. For something like a prairie dog rifle where I need lots of brass I'll use cheaper stuff. With Lapua you just anneal and keep running it, most others you throw it away after a period and have to work up loads with new brass.
Posted By: Mule Deer Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
Have been running Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass since 2010, and so far it seems to work like Lapua (which I use plenty). Very uniform and no "failures" yet--though unlike some handloaders I don't try to turn the Creedmoor into a 6.5/.284.

I have PLENTY of .308 brass on hand, but wanted 7mm-08 cases because the rifle was going to be used by a new hunter, and didn't want any mistakes or concerns when out in the woods. Even during the "shortages" I found Hornady 7mm-08 American Whitetail ammo priced so low on an Internet site it was as cheap to shoot factory as load it. Bought five boxes and it shot very accurately, but also worked up an equivalant handload with the empties so she'll always have a supply.
Posted By: mmgravy Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
I see nothing wrong with Hornady brass.....
Posted By: Mule Deer Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
Yeah, I've been using a bunch over the past 3-4 years, in probably a dozen cartridges from .22 Hornet to 9.3x62. In general the dimensions and hardness have been very good.
Posted By: smithrjd Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
I was surprised at Hornady brass, got a deal on new brass in 7X64, very good in dimension and quality. I was expecting to have to find RWS or another European brand. Only three times loaded so far but no issues at all.
Posted By: mathman Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
I've had excellent luck with a bunch of Hornady 308 Win. Match brass. A local store must have bought a large supply of Hornady components on a good deal because they ran a great special on that brass and Hornady 168 gr. BTHP Match bullets for quite a while. If I have any complaint with the lot of brass I have it's the primer pockets are very much on the tight side. Federal 210M primers are tough to seat.
I've used Hornady & Nosler brass for 7-08 and 7x57. The former had a few neck thickness issues, but has been otherwise quite good. The Nosler brass has had excellent neck uniformity, but has been unexpectedly soft.

FC
Posted By: RevMike Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
I don't know about the 7-08 brass, but I've been using quite a bit of Prvi in my 7x57, some of which has been loaded six or seven times. The weights are uniform, the primer pockets are still tight, and I haven't had a split neck yet (I use Mule Deer's candle method of annealing). Best of all, it is pretty cheap and plentiful.
Posted By: colvin Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
Star line brass is top quality brass for a decent price . I have used it in my hand guns for years and having just bough a 7-08 for the wife and seeing midway had a sale on star line well it was a no brainer.
Posted By: AnsonRogers Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/22/18
The Winchester brass came today, Tuesday, from Powder Valley. Not bad for ordering on Sunday. Opened one bag and it looks fine. It will need the usual neck sizing, inside neck chamfering and flash hole deburring. I won't need to load any of it for quite a while but it should work just fine.
Posted By: JSH Re: 7mm08 brass opinions - 05/28/18
This is not in reference to the 7mm-08 specifically. I have probably used more Winchester brass than any other brand over my handloading career. It was my go-to. I have had multiple bad experiences in the last few years with Winchester brass the is starting to have an effect on my opinion. A couple of bags of 22-250 brass had such deep creases in the neck shoulder junction that a couple were actually split already. They really looked awful and there is no way they ever should have gone out the door. Winchester was good about replacing them and the replacements looked better. 2 bags of 6.5x55 had some weird neck length issues: a couple from each bag that were way short and a couple that were significantly long. One was so long it was obvious just pulling it out of the bag, almost .250 too long. A few also had rim thickness issues that wouldn't allow them to slide into a shell holder. I ended up with about 95 usable brass out of 100 (after trimming the long ones and deciding to live with the short ones). I didn't contact Winchester about those but I will probably be buying fewer Winchester components in the future. I will say that Winchester has been good about replacing things when contacted but their QC seems to have slid considerably. There was also the primer issue that cost me a scarred bolt face. I ended up with 3 cases of replacement primers but I lost a little confidence in Winchester primer as well. I still have lots of older Winchester brass that have given me no problems.

Based on what I am hearing about Hornady lately I am likely to start looking to them for new brass when I need it. Similar in price to Win/Fed/Rem but looks to be closer to ready to load. The few I have used so far have been very nice.
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