Brass for loading

If you're not bench rest shooting, you should be fine. You can make match quality brass from any good commercial cases by weight sorting and proper case prepping if you have the time and patience. Use what you have and just have fun working up loads.
 
Interesting question, and a little vague. With no reference to caliber or intended use, a definitive answer isn't possible.

Today, if Lapua brass is produced in your caliber, it is probably the best brass. Very consistent in weight, easy to prep. Some shooters do not sort or prep, it's that good. Winchester brass used to be of the similar quality, but that was a long time ago. As far as surplus, the old Lake City was hard to beat. Starline brass is good, probably the best brass for the oldies like 44-40.

In most calibers Federal brass is not my first choice, it is not the best. However in some calibers it is my first choice, because it is works the best for the application.

Weight sorting is easy, and doesn't take much time. If you do that, your brass will work a bit better. My next step in prepping is to FL size, limiting the shoulder setback to around 0.003". Then I trim to length, and deburr, 22 degrees for the inside, and uniform the flash hole. My last step is to uniform the primer pocket.

If you do that to your Federal brass, it will be pretty good.

Now for the caveats. In my limited experience I find that Federal brass is more malleable than most other brass. It is perfect for lots of calibers/applications, and not so good for others. If you load for 35 Remington, my advice would be to avoid Federal brass, especially if shooting cast. There is nothing wrong with their factory loaded ammunition, very good ammo, but I have had issues when I reloaded it. For 30-30 Win it is perfect, OK in 7x57 as well, not my first choice for 30-06, but I've never had any issues. I could list a few more, but I think you get the idea.

If you could tell us what caliber you intend to load and the use (target load, long range hunting, cast, plinking or ???) I'm sure someone will have had experience specific to your application and could pass on some hints.

Nitro
 
I agree that Lapua is probably the best quality brass you can use, but for most fellas any other brass will work fine unless you are really into precision shooting.
 
Didn't mean to be vague.
In the middle of building a .308 long range target/hunter.
I am knee deep in Federal brass.... All one lot. Once fired.
Spent a lot of time sorting , sizing , trimming, and then thought there may be a better option for brass.
I have access to all makes, so if the Federal will be an issue for accuracy,or durability perhaps I should not waste my time with it.
Just interested in opinions of currently available brass.
 
thegunnut said:
Didn't mean to be vague.
In the middle of building a .308 long range target/hunter.
I am knee deep in Federal brass.... All one lot. Once fired.
Spent a lot of time sorting , sizing , trimming, and then thought there may be a better option for brass.
I have access to all makes, so if the Federal will be an issue for accuracy,or durability perhaps I should not waste my time with it.
Just interested in opinions of currently available brass.
Click to expand...

Sounds like where I was a few years ago. Few hundred of federal once fired from my own rifles. Had consistency issues with my reloads so down the rabbit hole I went. Flash holes, primer pockets, neck turning, then the brass developed loose primer pockets between 2nd and 3rd firing of moderate loads.

Using Lapua and PRVI now. Much happier and primer pockets staying consistent after 4 and 5 moderate loads.

On one hand wish I never started with the federal stuff...on the other I sure learned a lot. That being said, the non recurring time invested didn't pay off.

YMMV. I'm just a hunter that started out trying to achieve repeatability and now am applying this to see how far I can hit longer targets consistently. This longer range stuff is really addicting.

There's a few threads on the subject on here.

FWIW
Regards
Ronr
 
Thanks for the specifics, 308 Win and Long Range, Lapua is the answer. That was the advice I was given, didn't listen for the first 500 or so rounds, but eventually smartened up. Lapua brass is cheaper in the long run, even if what you have is free.
 
nitro-express said:
Thanks for the specifics, 308 Win and Long Range, Lapua is the answer. That was the advice I was given, didn't listen for the first 500 or so rounds, but eventually smartened up. Lapua brass is cheaper in the long run, even if what you have is free.
Click to expand...
And initially don't even have to size it..
 
thegunnut said:
Didn't mean to be vague.
In the middle of building a .308 long range target/hunter.
I am knee deep in Federal brass.... All one lot. Once fired.
Spent a lot of time sorting , sizing , trimming, and then thought there may be a better option for brass.
I have access to all makes, so if the Federal will be an issue for accuracy,or durability perhaps I should not waste my time with it.
Just interested in opinions of currently available brass.
Click to expand...

Let me preface the following by saying that by all accounts, Lapua is the best.

Now that that's out of the way. Load some up, shoot em, and see how you feel about the results. I regularly have conversations with other range goers who spend infinitely more time and money on their guns, their reloading setups, and their processes to end up with results that should be achievable out of any modern factory rifle with good factory ammo.
 
Some say that the Peterson Cartridge Company is making brass as good as Lapua

https://www.grafs.com/peterson-cartridge-company

Peterson 308 brass
http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/peterson-308-brass.3947130/

76152.jpg
 
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Federal brass almost feels like they tried to make one-use brass so people wouldn't reload their original cartridges. In large magnum calibre the pocket becomes loose after 1 reload. Max 2. So that's 2 or 3 uses total.

I once bought 200 1Fired 300WSM brass on the EE, about 150 Winchester and 50 FC. The Winchester I can reload them a few times, the FC the primer feels soft right the first reload then I dumped them. Got the whole lot for a pittance so not complaining, but still, FC is kinda crappy even compared to budget brand winchester.

Lapua, Norma and Peterson make good brass. Most other brands (Winchester, PMC, LC, IVI) are ok unless you shoot benchrest. Federal is ok but not dureable at all.
 
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