Norma Brass from Tradex
- Thread starter Mik123
- Start date
I know lots of folks think highly of Norma ... but I have always been a little suspicious of their quality. Stems back many many years when I paid top dollar for (so-called) premium .270 W Norma ammunition .. was in a sealed 20 rd box and labelled "Boat tail" .. I decided to pull the bullet on one round and discovered it was a run of the mill flat base with an extremely small heel. Probably most people don't dismantle new factory ammo. I always do now and weigh the bullets just out of curiosity. When available I prefer Lapua although I have used some pretty "hot" Lapua .308 in the past. As for "once fired" .. I guess when buying from a reputable (and frank) source like Tradex you are ok ... otherwise I dont purchase used brass under any circumstances.
Nice. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm new to reloading so pardon the dumb question but I'm assuming the swede brass is better since it's thicker (aka it's last longer)?
I'm new to reloading so pardon the dumb question but I'm assuming the swede brass is better since it's thicker (aka it's last longer)?
It's good stuff too, but you need to reduce your loads (5%) due to the smaller internal volume. If you neck size both will last a very long time. If you FL size, at some point annealing will be required. Might get a few extra loadings out of the swede brass in that case.
I bought 200 pcs of Norma .308 1 fired from Trade Ex. I got a little over 200 pcs. They had mixed primers (brass and nickel or w/e) and had varying headspace from tighter than my .308 bolt to longer than some of my M14s. I fL sized them all and have been slowly fire forming them with a pet load. So far no issues.
If your going with a neck die, Lee Collet dies are very popular. From what I have read they are better then Redding for producing next to no runout.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1311322050/norma-reloading-brass-7mm-remington-magnum
italics and bold are mine; apparently the magnum calibers are drilled - fwiw I use several old Whitetail flash hole uniformers.. and when I have used it on Norma brass .. sometimes there is evidence of brass shaving and some times there isn't. If its working ok for you - wonderful. Like I said earlier - I havent drunk the Norma "Kool Aid".
The Browning Norma 30'06 is from Europe, I'm not sure where the .308 (range brass) I have is from but it looks identical. US manufacturing has always punched primer holes, Europe Norma and Lapua brass has always been drilled as far as I can tell. Norma USA may do things differently of course.
OK you can see the indented ring from the stamping process in the 2 fed cases in the middle, holes have obvious burrs on the edges.
Norma .308 on the left doesn't have the rings, and a nice chamfer with no burrs. Norma on the right has a dome on the inside around the hole sticking up, no burrs, not sure how this one was made but it's clean.
OK you can see the indented ring from the stamping process in the 2 fed cases in the middle, holes have obvious burrs on the edges.
Norma .308 on the left doesn't have the rings, and a nice chamfer with no burrs. Norma on the right has a dome on the inside around the hole sticking up, no burrs, not sure how this one was made but it's clean.
Did you buy that Norma brass new? Just trying to rule out someone having cleaned up the flash holes.
