Brass weights - heavier is better?

[Redpoints]

In my .308 empties collection, I have 3 brands. Winchester, Federal, and Remington. All once fired. After resizing, decapping, trimming and cleaning, I weighed the cases.

The weights are as follows:
Winchester brass: 158.2 gn +/- 1.1 gn
Federal brass: 178.6 gn +/- 1.4 gn
Remington brass: 166.4 gn +/- 0.2 gn
This is for batches of 20 random cases from my bag.

Question is this. Is heavier brass (thicker walls?) better than lighter brass? Note the fact that the Federals, despite being the heaviest, were also the most variable in weight.

I wonder if anyone could post up the weight of their Lapua virgin brass prior to capping, just to compare to these three brands.

 

['Boo]

Question is this. Is heavier brass (thicker walls?) better than lighter brass?

Not really. You will find that the Federal - while thicker - is manufactured with a softer alloy than Remington or Winchester.

With heavy loads the Federal actually will usually "wear out" faster than other brands due to primer pockets loosening up.

 

[maynard]

I have 1800 Lapua .308 cases. weights run from 170-175gr. Maybe 200 of them run 170gr and only about 50 run up at 175 gr. Maybe 100 are in the 172 gr range while all the rest are 171 or 173 gr.

Like 'Boo said, Federal will wear out faster because of loose primer pockets and would be my last choice.