Chosen Brand of Brass?

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22to45

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Here is a chance to say what brass worked well for you, and what did not.
Is there any difference between Winchester and Remington? and Federal?
How many uses do you get out of your chosen brass? Have you seen a difference between lot numbers?and how hot do you load it. Do you find one brand more accurate? or more consistant in weight? What brand do the serious target guys use?
I think this is valuable experience to share if you have it.
 
22to45 said:
Here is a chance to say what brass worked well for you, and what did not.
Is there any difference between Winchester and Remington? and Federal?
How many uses do you get out of your chosen brass? Have you seen a difference between lot numbers?and how hot do you load it. Do you find one brand more accurate? or more consistant in weight? What brand do the serious target guys use?
I think this is valuable experience to share if you have it.
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When I buy new commercial brass, it is either Winchester or Remington. I find that they are about the same in terms of reliability and quality. I'm sure that they are not as good as Hornady or Lapua brass. I also scavenge brass from the range. With that you get a mixed bag of stuff.
 
kevguy said:
When I buy new commercial brass, it is either Winchester or Remington. I find that they are about the same in terms of reliability and quality. I'm sure that they are not as good as Hornady or Lapua brass. I also scavange brass from the range. With that you get a mixed bag of stuff.
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there is no brass left at the range when I leave either. One day I will list all the stuff I have but have no rifle for.
 
22to45 said:
there is no brass left at the range when I leave either. One day I will list all the stuff I have but have no rifle for.
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Interesting you say that. I have a buddy who does the same. For example he has many calibers but I know he doesn't have a .270 or a .300 WSM, BUT he still picks up this brass at the range. If the brass is nickel plated, he doesn't care what caliber it is, he picks it up. I've gotten into the habit of picking up .300 WSM and .270 for him now too whenever I see it.

The current calibers I scavenger from the range are .223 rem, .308 win, 30-06 sprg, .300 win mag, .300 WSM, 7MM Rem Mag and .270.
 
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Perhaps it is just greed, but I pick for trading stock....I tumble it and sort it. I am not at the range that much, but I could buy a 270 or a 308 and shoot for quite a while on the brass I have. Plus there may be a 6.5/06 in the future for me, 270 brass will come in handy...
 
Lapua if I can get it, Norma if I can't. Nosler is great stuff but on the soft side. If I can find a load that shoots and doesn't eat the Nosler for lunch it's not bad. Federal gold match in the few calibers I used it in,.308, 30-06, .300 well, see the comment on Nosler.
Day in, day out I use a lot of Winchester in ordinary hunting rifles. It's pretty good stuff for the money, but you can't lean on it like Norma and expect to have primer pockets long.
Remington can be anywhere from very good to horrendous.
 
I've gotten Federal to work very accurately in my .308 with lots of weighing and sorting and prep. I've gotten better results with Lapua straight out of the box.
 
22to45 said:
Perhaps it is just greed, but I pick for trading stock....I tumble it and sort it. I am not at the range that much, but I could buy a 270 or a 308 and shoot for quite a while on the brass I have. Plus there may be a 6.5/06 in the future for me, 270 brass will come in handy...
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Yes, I do that too. I pick up the .270 and .300 WSM for him and trade it for the calibers I have.
 
I've always preferred Winchester over Remigton,with Federal last.That being said,the last 3 bags of Winchester 25-06 brass I've bought have been horrifically undersized(5 thou short and 5 thou narrow across the base.The other dimensions are off too).This is a pain,because I'm trying to fireform it to .25-06AI.I may have to try some Remington brass,or hopefully find another lot of WW thats up to spec. Mur
 
My first choice for my .243 is Remington, with Winchester second.

I had two boxes of Hornady brass, with different lot numbers, and had extraction failures time after time after time. It seems that there is an ever-so-slight size difference such that my extractor was failing to latch on to it. That's the only brass that's ever happened with, be it reloads or factory ammo.
 
Lapua for the F-class .308, and Winchester for the .303 and 9mm. Imperial is great when you can find it.
 
Lapua for .308. How long does it last? Not sure, I am only on the 3rd barrel for this rifle. Number 4 to be fitted this winter and the brass is still going strong. No split necks, no loose primer pockets. All weight sorted in 1 gr batches from 170 gr to 174 gr with the majority at 172 gr.
 
kevguy said:
When I buy new commercial brass, it is either Winchester or Remington. I find that they are about the same in terms of reliability and quality. I'm sure that they are not as good as Hornady or Lapua brass. I also scavenge brass from the range. With that you get a mixed bag of stuff.
Click to expand...
Me too. I have a heep of 30-06 brass. Some of the older foreign military 30-06 is the least well made. The off centre flash-holes,more common with them, eventually take a toll on the decapping pins.
So much so this year, I'm trying to cull all the cheaper quality brass away from the Remington/Winchester brands. As I inspect post-tumble, I watch for badly bashed up rims or unusual bulging near the case head, then discard them. Of course neck splitting too.
I do have some 308 Lapua brass, but I use this for rifle matches only. ($$$)
 
With Imperial or IVI bass, one should always remember that fiasco back about 1980. There is a chunk of time there when their brass was terrible. I still have a bagful from back then and it was horrid, simply put. The screaming went (literally) from Montreal to Grand Falls (Nfld) and back again. In the end, IVI started inspecting their stuff and it turned back into decent brass, although I still don't use it 'just in case'. Likely they still hate me, too (I wrote the newspaper article) so we're even on that count.

That said, for .303 brass, the absolute tops that I have found is WW2-production Defence Industries: that stuff with the DI headstamp that people like to throw away! Measure up a bunch: you will NOT find more consistent .303 brass anywhere and the rims are ALL max, right where you need it.
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