Federal or Remington Brass, which is better

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As the title states...

just curious about the strength, durability, longevity of the 2 brands and which is better.

Will be using it for 300 WM and H4831SC with a 180 gr Barnes TTSX.

I have some R-P brass in my stash, if that makes any difference, apparently it is an older style?


Thanks
 
I've experienced loose primers with Federal brass more quickly on average than with Remington, and I use lots of both. The key though that if you load a cartridge to high pressure, expanded primer pockets are a fact of life. Throttle back some, and the brass from either manufacture will give you longer life. CCI primers seem to be slightly larger in diameter than the competitors, so you might get an extra load or two out of your brass before it has to be culled.
 
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I've been using Fed, RP and Win for many years and don't see much difference. Some of the new Rem brass has some quality issues as in folded necks and material missing on the necks. I prefer to prime cases with a hand tool that way i can pick out loose primer pockets easily and discard those cases before i get blown primers. All cases will get expanded primer pockets when loaded to or near max pressure.
 
Of those two choices, Remington, hands down!!
Federal brass is notoriously soft, in my experience.

You do not buy a 300 Win Mag to load it down, so
it is a good idea to use the tougher Remington brass.

Regards, Eagleye.
 
I prefer Remington myself. Of all my 308 brass and 45ACP, they have the most consistent weights. I have used lots of both Rem and Federal, and IMHO the Rem is better.

If you are worried about the older brass; just weigh it to make sure it is consistent with the newer stuff.
 
You will get the most case life by only bumping the shoulder back .002 less than the fired length meaning cartridge case headspace length. If you do not have one already I would buy the Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge as you get the most bang for your buck.

Below, retired Wilson case gauges in the rear and the Hornady cartridge headspace gauge in the front. You simply measure a fired case and adjust the die to bump/push the shoulder back .002.







Federal cases are noted for loose primer pockets because they are thinner in the flash hole area and the primer pockets enlarge after a few firings.

 
Does anybody have thoughts on S&B brass? I have a fair bit, and on a long shot I weight random picks of my brass from different brandnames. The S&B actually faired better than I thought in terms of consistency. Why I ask is because the s&B that I have shot over time was about 16 bucks per box. The mfg website talks about their selection of match ammunition but the only stuff I've ever been able to find in Port Perry was 147gr FMJ.
 
I have used S&B brass, it seems comparable with North American brass made by the "big three", nothing special, but no glaring problems either.
 
I avoid Fed and Horn brass like the plague, way too soft for my purposes. Rem is a big step up as far as handling pressure but W-W gets my recommendation for every cartridge I can buy it in. It is much harder and lighter than all other brands I've encountered. In the cartridges that it is unattainable I look for Rem and have had pretty good success with it.
 
bigedp51 said:
You will get the most case life by only bumping the shoulder back .002 less than the fired length meaning cartridge case headspace length. If you do not have one already I would buy the Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge as you get the most bang for your buck.

Below, retired Wilson case gauges in the rear and the Hornady cartridge headspace gauge in the front. You simply measure a fired case and adjust the die to bump/push the shoulder back .002.

Click to expand...

Hmm. I didn't realize there was such a tool or even how to use it. You tube sure helps. This will probably be my next investment. Thanks.
 
c-fbmi said:
I avoid Fed and Horn brass like the plague, way too soft for my purposes. Rem is a big step up as far as handling pressure but W-W gets my recommendation for every cartridge I can buy it in. It is much harder and lighter than all other brands I've encountered. In the cartridges that it is unattainable I look for Rem and have had pretty good success with it.
Click to expand...

In saying what I just quoted, what do you think about Norma and Lapua? I've heard lots, read lots about it.... but on the other hand I know of 2 people that say that it is garbage and prefer W-W, Winchester Match etc.

When you say "for my purposes" what are you getting at? My current batch of brass that I am using is Federal. Are you referring to that it just fails sooner than W-W or that you can't get bullets to curve as well when you fire them? Lol
 
bigedp51 said:
You will get the most case life by only bumping the shoulder back .002 less than the fired length meaning cartridge case headspace length. If you do not have one already I would buy the Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge as you get the most bang for your buck.

Below, retired Wilson case gauges in the rear and the Hornady cartridge headspace gauge in the front. You simply measure a fired case and adjust the die to bump/push the shoulder back .002.







Federal cases are noted for loose primer pockets because they are thinner in the flash hole area and the primer pockets enlarge after a few firings.

Click to expand...

I'm surprised Lapua ranked so poorly. I knew Norma made good brass, but it has always been conceded as being close to par with Lapua. That's discouraging since I bought a couple hundred of Lapua brass when I could have paid less for Remington. I hope the cost difference is in consistency, for my application I'd still choose the Lapua for that reason. Don't full length resize them either... but my 222, Winchester brass is kicking after reloaded five times and FL each time. I see on the Hornady site, the headspace gauge kit comes with bushings that would do most of what I reload. So what I'd be getting for $50 is the "caliper" with the bushings? all that's needed to measure headspace for common calibers?
 
klink1983 said:
In saying what I just quoted, what do you think about Norma and Lapua? I've heard lots, read lots about it.... but on the other hand I know of 2 people that say that it is garbage and prefer W-W, Winchester Match etc.

When you say "for my purposes" what are you getting at? My current batch of brass that I am using is Federal. Are you referring to that it just fails sooner than W-W or that you can't get bullets to curve as well when you fire them? Lol
Click to expand...

I have a little of both but not really enough experience to really promote one or the other. All I've heard and my experience so far has been very good with both the Lapua and Norma.
When I say "for my purposes", I mean that I like to find that last highest velocity/best accuracy node that I can, usually find just before the primers fall out. (slight exaggeration) In other words I want a 300 WM to give me 300WM ballistics not warm '06 ballistics. Neither Federal nor Hornady will stand up to the rigors of my load development, nor my normal loading practises. W-W and to a lesser extant Rem do very nicely and from my usage so far it looks like Lapua is better than Rem and maybe as tough as W-W.
 
c-fbmi said:
I have a little of both but not really enough experience to really promote one or the other. All I've heard and my experience so far has been very good with both the Lapua and Norma.
When I say "for my purposes", I mean that I like to find that last highest velocity/best accuracy node that I can, usually find just before the primers fall out. (slight exaggeration) In other words I want a 300 WM to give me 300WM ballistics not warm '06 ballistics. Neither Federal nor Hornady will stand up to the rigors of my load development, nor my normal loading practises. W-W and to a lesser extant Rem do very nicely and from my usage so far it looks like Lapua is better than Rem and maybe as tough as W-W.
Click to expand...

"primers fall out" made me chuckle. When I selected 6.5X55, I knew I'd be up against the reloading books to get a respectable velocity in a modern action. So I bought Lapua brass to contain the pressure that was easily within standard limits of the T3: My goal is to push a 139-140gr match bullet near to 2800fps, jungle juice loads compared to those intentionally kept weak for the 45g psi max rifles around etc. Accuracy being paramount, with velocity high enough to make the rifle a good 1000m shooter.

I intend on doing the same with a 7mm caliber, leaning towards 280rem and similar velocity only with 162gr match bullets.

I too have only started loading Lapua, no Norma so no first hand reports of long term performance - mostly W-W, S&B and to a lesser extent Rem. For the affordability of S&B commercial loads, the brass left over has proven to be great - perhaps a little softer than W-W, but that slows the rate of inevitable neck splitting.
 
Just got back from the range and got sub 3/4" 4 shot group from my 6.5X55 in a 700 Classic using Lapua brass and 140 gn NPs, IMR 7828 and WLR primers for a chrono'd 2890 fps from a 22" bbl and through an Oehler 35P. The bolt falls open and the primers aren't even flat. Next grain up gave another 50 fps but the groups opened up to over 1 1/4" still no pressure, but accuracy falling off.
I think I might like Lapua brass!!
 
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