Any love for Hornady brass?

I run the 308 win MATCH brass and I really like it. Scored 500 once fired on the EE and that should last my bolt gun for a very long time. I also run hornady in my 223 but I find they are starting to get loose primer pockets after about 6 firings. I wouldn't buy hornady brass at current prices but overall I like it
 
Hornady doesn't make their own brass. They job it out to the lowest bidder. The first batch of it I bought in 30-06 is great stuff and I am still using it after at least a dozen reloadings but that also includes annealing in between.

I bought some a few years ago that I would swear was made by Privi in 223 rem.

Hornady brass is a crap shoot. One batch I had that came from a half case of commercial 308Win was so hard it had to be annealed after the first firing. It was fine after that.

Brass is very expensive and I am sure the people that make the cases for all of the different commercial loaders try to keep costs as competitive as possible. Sometimes that means a bit to much tin or copper for ideal reloading purposes but that is of no concern to the commercial loaders who consider us to be competitors. I am often surprised they haven't all gone to steel cases.
 
A friend brought some 1F 300WM Hornady brass over for a little reloading "how to"... He brought his dies over as well and told me he was having issues with the necks looking crooked... Sure as schnitzel his FL die had a bent decapping pin and the button in the die was tight to one side... I removed a primer with my universal decapper and the flash hole in the case was about a hole diameter off centre.... We used some federal cases I had under my bench and my redding dies to get him going.

I've loaded a pile of Hornady .308 and .223 cases with good results tho.. Think I even loaded up some 30-06 cases as well.
 
I think I might just buy some, if it works great, if it doesn't, I've spent that much money on worse things, like an sks lol

Kevin
 
laker415 said:
I run the 308 win MATCH brass and I really like it. Scored 500 once fired on the EE and that should last my bolt gun for a very long time. I also run hornady in my 223 but I find they are starting to get loose primer pockets after about 6 firings. I wouldn't buy hornady brass at current prices but overall I like it
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This was my experience. I bought 200 rounds of the Hornady 168Amax just before I started reloading. That brass (Hornady Match headstand)has now been through 6 loading (so 7 firings). The primer pockets were crimped, but I just swagged it out. I now have 195 left (2 lost, 2 loose pockets, on "oops" with the seating die that folded it). The primers were slipping in pretty easily last night, so I am debating one more firing. Other than annealing them once with the socket method, they have been great. Weights were very consistent. I have about 550 Norma cases to work through now, so I'm not sure when I would get more, but if I'm in need, I would run the MATCH cases again. Not sure about the standard fair or other calibers though.
 
Check Higginsons for new or once fired brass.
Xreload usually has stock as well.

My only experience with hornady brass was some 30'06 I picked up at the range. It was very light, 15gr lighter then Winchester which is pretty thin brass to begin with. 20-28gr lighter then FED/REM brass.
 
Great news! I found a bunch of brand new Winchester 7mm rm brass at P&D in Edmonton in my travels, however no 300wm, I purchased 4 bags, and there was still 4-5 bags left for anyone else that's looking! Persistents pays off!

Kevin
 
The only Hornady brass I use is in 6.5 Creedmoor. No complaints. I full length size and on the 4th firing. Primer pockets still good. Have not annealed yet.
 
My experience with it is it is junk.... its to damn soft.

It had a very limiter life span for .223 and .308,in 338 it sucksin the savages because it doesn't contract enough and jams.

4 reloads, maybe 5 and it was done.

I put in on par with federal garbage


If I'm Going to spend the big bucks I will buy
1)norma
2)lappua

if i'm looking for good inexpensive brass that will take the abuse from the semis I buy lakecity/ IVI

win/remington I will buy for odd calibers like my .30 carbine. or get a boat load of PPU which has surprisingly good brass.
 
Kevlak said:
Great news! I found a bunch of brand new Winchester 7mm rm brass at P&D in Edmonton in my travels, however no 300wm, I purchased 4 bags, and there was still 4-5 bags left for anyone else that's looking! Persistents pays off!

Kevin
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Let us know how many necks split on that current production Winchester brass at the first firing.
 
'Boo said:
Let us know how many necks split on that current production Winchester brass at the first firing.
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I've gone through about 100 Winchester brass in my 308, I'm on my 4th reload and I haven't had any issues yet, but I can see your point with the heavier loaded 7mm. I will definitely keep posted if I remember.

Kevin
 
The only Hornady brass I've used is .375 Ruger and the experience has been the best. I got my .375 about six years ago and I'm still loading the original brass. I use it mainly for pussy loads now but early on some of the loads were pretty hot. I'm guessing I'm up to 8-9 loads/case with zero splits. The second batch I'm using is also holding up really well.
 
I get a lot of split cases with Hornady 10mm Auto brass. Through the 30,000 or so rounds of rem, win, fed etc. I have loaded and shot I can't say I have had more than 6 split cases. I recently started buying Hornady and its already around 30-40 and counting.
 
I have some .45-70 cases from Hornady, they are a bit shorter than regular .45-70's. It makes reloading a pain because the case mouths never bell properly and the bullets don't seat and crimp the same as the other brass from winchester and remington. So I usually pull out the Hornady and load it with black powder only, makes an easy distinction. Other than that the brass seems of good quality, no other issues.
 
skokie said:
I have some .45-70 cases from Hornady, they are a bit shorter than regular .45-70's. It makes reloading a pain because the case mouths never bell properly and the bullets don't seat and crimp the same as the other brass from winchester and remington. So I usually pull out the Hornady and load it with black powder only, makes an easy distinction. Other than that the brass seems of good quality, no other issues.
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It is short because they use ftx/monoflex type bullets in it. In the hornady manual it talks about trimming brass shorter to use those bullets
 
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