Hornady 45-70 brass quality

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MosinFan

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I've heard really good stuff about the Selier and Bellot brass for reloading from a friend, but haven't been able to find anything about the quality of hornady brass. Any info on number of reloads, and overall quality of the brass would be much appreciated. I'm new to reloading and am just starting to reload my 45-70, so any advice is appreciated
 
I'm up to 8 reloads on my hornady brass . I don't load anywhere near hot loads though . I'm guessing if you dont go crazy with your crimps it should last along time
 
I would avoid Hornady brass as it is 4mm shorter than regular 45-70 brass.

I use starline, remington and winchester brass, which is of great quality. My reloads are for target shooting, therefore low pressure, and the brass will last "forever", or close to at least.
 
Hornady component brass is not short, it is standard length. The short brass is only the brass from factory leverevolution bullets.
Hornady 45-70 brass is good quality. It seems to be annealed more than starline. I can get more reloads without work hardening it compared to starline.
If you keep your loads to sane levels, and anneal your brass you would be hard pressed to wear any 45-70 brass out.
 
As others have said, the shorter Hornady brass is completely ok for reloading if you don't mind re-setting your dies between different manufacturers lengths...keep them "batched separately" and it isn't much of an issue.
A comment on the Sellier & Bellot brass that you mentioned tho, I had a bunch of that given to me and every primer pocket was too tight to get any primer brand that I had on hand to seat in them...crunched every primer I tried.
another comment on the "longevity of 45-70 brass", after 30 years of re-loading them, I had the first case mouth crack yesterday that I have ever had. Brass from the very first re-loading cycle I did of that caliber is still in the regular cycle...don't ask how many times they have been loaded because I don't know for sure but would suspect it to be well over 20 times each...and I crimp heavily every round I build.
 
fingers284 said:
A comment on the Sellier & Bellot brass that you mentioned tho, I had a bunch of that given to me and every primer pocket was too tight to get any primer brand that I had on hand to seat in them...crunched every primer I tried.
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FWIW S&B has a straight walled primer pocket with no chamfer. On any S&B brass I have (before I reloaded I bought 500 of each in 38 and 357 factory loaded on sale) I had to chamfer the pocket or else primers got squished/crunched.
 
Any S & B brass that comes my way gets run through a primer pocket swager, prior to reloading. This does help with this brand's lack of chamfered primer pockets. Manually chamfering the primer pockets does work....though the process gets pretty tedious, after a short while.

Though the Lee Loader does work...I've used various ones over the past...... I'd recommend investing in something like a Lee Challenger press. A Lee Reloader Press (C-press). Or even: Lee Hand Press. For more consistent reloads. Also, less time consuming. These presses are easy on the budget and will last a lifetime, when properly cared for.

Hornady does make good brass. Take care of it and it will last a very long time. I do agree with 'ginsingjones' though...you can't go wrong, with Starline brass Quality is outstanding.
 
Paul_T said:
FWIW S&B has a straight walled primer pocket with no chamfer. On any S&B brass I have (before I reloaded I bought 500 of each in 38 and 357 factory loaded on sale) I had to chamfer the pocket or else primers got squished/crunched.
Click to expand...

I think I have 2 or 3 different sets of 45-70 dies in separate 4-hole Lee tool heads and think I use the "Redding" set for the shorter brass...quite a while since I have done any. My most used set of dies are the RCBS "Cowboy" set, I am always playing with different slug dia. and "case tension" spec's for cast slugs and have found them to have the most room for expanded case mouth's...and new "custom" expanders are easily made & threaded
 
Yes the Redding and hornady new dimensions dies will crimp the short brass. When I first started loading the 45-70 I has about 100 short brass. My lee dies wouldn't crimp them so I gave all my brass away to someone and bought 100 starline and 50 hornady. Have since given all the hornady brass away and have stuck with starline.
 
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