Quick Peterson 308 brass observations

Hitzy

Hitzy

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Decided to grab 100 pieces to see if they are all hype or quality reasonably priced match grade brass.
Observations and measurements were to the best of of my abilities with tools at hand, digital scale and digital calipers.
Nice box, anti-tarnish paper and foam in top to keep everything from bouncing around bending necks...that works as the brass is clean and necks are round.
Visible annealing left on cases. Cases are trimmed but not inside/outside chamfered so the burr will need to be removed and that will be required prior to loading. Flash holes are deburred and chamfered inside the case, and inside the primer pocket which is a bit odd, also you can see some chatter marks in the primer pocket flash holes which I don't think is good. The inside deburr and chamfer of the flash holes is inconsistent in depth, some barely touched, some have way too much chamfer for my liking.
Measurements:
Weights were nice when I started, got excited as every one was 177-178gr, then I got into some heavier ones....10 of the 50 I weighed were 180-181gr. So not weight sorted from the factory. Meh.
Trim length was all pretty good varying from 2.007-2.010". I'll load and fire first, then trim to more consistent length.
OD varied slightly from .336-.338, ID was .306-.307 so fairly decent there, you can figure out neck thickness from that, it's not bad.
I'll take 10 of the most consistent ones and do some accuracy tests and update this thread as I fire them off.
My initial thoughts are they should just supply the brass and skip the minimal prep work they do (flash hole deburrs) as I can do that better myself. Spend the time weight sorting and throw in a inside/outside mouth chamfer instead so these can be loaded out of the box.
At $37/50 they are on the cheaper side for brass, but there is probably a reason...








 
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Thanks for the review. It'll be interested to hear your results especially to see if the heavier cases group with the light cases. They check cases by volume so hopefully they will be consistent on paper. How is the head space? Are you able to measure the datum line? Are the brass cases uniform in thickness at the neck?
 
What is the neck thickness variations of your cases as this is a good indication of quality.

Tough Brass — Peterson .308 Win Brass Strong After 32 Firings
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2017/04/tough-brass-peterson-308-win-brass-strong-after-32-firings/

Responses to “Tough Brass — Peterson .308 Win Brass Strong After 32 Firings”

Joseph says:
April 18, 2017 at 8:52 pm

Not sure if I forgot to hit submit but.

I’ve bought Peterson 260 brass and was unimpressed.

While they had some of the tightest primer pockets I’ve seen, that is meaningless if the rest of it was junk.

And the batch I had was not good, when loaded the case neck (with bullet) diameter was over SAAMI spec.

Even after turning to .295″ (for my rifle spec) which on some brass removed .008″ of brass on some sides, some of the neck remained unturned.

Also after seeing something wrong with a shoulder (what appeared to be a pinhole) I cut it in half and saw a big burr on the inside of the flash hole.

It’s unfortunate, but for the price I’ll stick with Lapua or try Alpha, but no one tests these issues it seems.


ELR Researcher says:
April 18, 2017 at 11:21 am

According to AmmoSeek:

Peterson’s price for .308 Win is the same as Lapua.

Peterson’s price for Palma is 14% less than Lapua.

Peterson’s price for .260 Rem is 24.7% lower than Lapua.

Peterson’s price for 6.5 Creedmoor is 36.5% lower than Lapua.

Peterson’s price for .338 LM is 20.4% lower than Lapua.

Those are the only direct comparisons available – where both Lapua and Peterson produce the same cartridge case.

Peterson obviously passed Econ 1, produce for the marketplace. And they’ve shown pity for the beleaguered CT shooter – a real blessing for CT shooters where brass has been a significant problem for years. And their 375 CT pricing is almost the same as HSM “malformed”.

Peterson has been offering brass for at most two years. Lapua for multiples of that. Peterson offers 7 cases, Lapua offers 26 (rifle) cases.

IMO, Petersen is doing a FANTASTIC job of producing an excellent product at a fair price.

Bottom line, I'm a cheap bastard and have been buying once fired Lake City 7.62 cases and sorting by weight and neck thickness. And I'm wondering if I should buy any Peterson .308 cases for my .308 Savage Hog Hunter.

NOTE, the last two bags of bulk Winchester .308 brass I bought had 7 cases rejected for defects and I was not impressed with their quality.
 
For the neck thickness from my initial post ;)
OD varied slightly from .336-.338, ID was .306-.307 so fairly decent there, you can figure out neck thickness from that, it's not bad.
Click to expand...

I don't have any case gauges for data reference unfortunately, I have to limit my anal-ness in the reloading room or it stops being fun and I'd never get anything loaded lol.
I have Lapua & Norma 308 to compare it to, and a pretty accurate rifle. I've also done the match prep work on the cheap 1F IVI and for price/value that is the ####. It's consistent weight, accurate and lasts forever, but requires slightly reduces charges. I tend to keep it for my auto-loaders though since it is sooo tough.
 
I'm going to try to check on your updates. I've recently ordered a somewhat oddball caliber rifle and my brass options are $2 plus for factory ammo (and save the brass) or just go with everything new right off the hop. Peterson's brass is really the only one that makes that economically viable.
 
JEC said:
Just the flash hole inconsistency would be a deal breaker for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wish they didn't do that part, or did it better. I did try my lyman flash hole deburr tool and was able to clean up the really ####ty ones easy enough.
About half were really poorly done with chatter marks.
 
Just got 100 Peterson cases in 6.5CM. Case weights were :
6 cases 169gr.
60 cases 170gr.
34 cases 171gr.
Uniformed primer pockets with a Sinclair uniformer. Seemed to remove more brass shavings than Lapua cases. Weight variance is better than Hornady brass. Lapua is still #1 in my opinion.
 
Just got as well 500 cases. I observed the flash holes as the OP describe and took a really close look at all the cases. IMO the flash are deburred and chamfered uniformly in depth as much as I would if I were to do it myself, the chatter marks are on some flash hole chamfer but still IMO uniform in depth but not a deal breaker for me a very minor detail to me at least there are no burrs. Brass thickness from the few I measured 0.0140-0.0145" on the vernier however I'll be checking the runout and mic it see. My cases weighed one box and one brass case at 175.59 and the reset between 176.55 -177.66. Out of the 500 cases I had only one with a small dent on the case mouth but it will be ironed out once I debur the outside mouth, inside the case mouth has a slight chamfer. Cases measured length is between 2.0045-2.005" pretty uniform. Shoulders measure at the datum is 1.6170-1.6175". There is some prep work to be done but this brass will save me a few steps compared to PRVI, Hornady match brass. With Lapua brass pockets still need to uniformed, nk turn and chamfer flash hole. True test will be on paper and to see how the case volume compare to Lapua or Hornady Match brass. my 2 cents.

Oct 14, 17 - Update: was able to mic a 5 cases and the variance in neck thickness of the cases are less than 0.001"-0.0004" which was a surprise to how fairly uniform thinkness. I know its only five cases but I'll generalize since all the brass share the same lot number. ;)
 
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So I got to try some loads out...
Loaded 10 rounds into the brass out of the box, no prep work other then inside mouth chamfer, these were the 10 heavier (2gr) then average. Results were bad, no grouping at all, patterns.
Loaded 10 that I ran through the FL sizer (only touches the neck on new brass), inside mouth chamfer, cleaned up the ####ty flash holes, and they shot as well as my Lapua/Norma brass case loads.
So I'd say it's decent budget match brass that needs sorting and prepping, not the kind of quality you can just throw a pill in and expect great results...40 were very close in weight, 10 were around 2gr heavier, flash hole deburr they did was really sloppy and needs to be redone.
At $37/50 it's not a whole lot cheaper then Norma/Lapua when you factor in 20% of them get set aside. Definitely better then Federal/Winchester offerings, I like Remington brass so I can't knock it too much. Maybe a good comparison would be PRVI as it is the same price and known to be very durable brass. I've never used it in 308 though for match loads but I have in 6.5x55 and it stacks up well to Norma there.
 
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