Where does Hornady brass fit in?

GRiNGo

GRiNGo

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From what I have read "MOST" people list brass in this order Lapua, Nosler, Winchester and Remington. I have been using only Hornady in my 204 and shot some tiny little groups. So my question is where does the Hornady brass rate on the scale of goodness? Forgot to add.. what about Federal?

Chad
 
I can only speak of their 308 Win. brass, but I have found it to be excellent. It has the largest case capacity I have seen, more than Winchester. This isn't necessarily true for every caliber though.

It is more consistent than Winchester or Remington and lasts a lot longer than Federal or Nosler (both die fairly quickly). I use mostly Lapua brass, and the Hornady stuff doesn't give me groups that are any worse or SDs that are any higher. The Lapua brass does last longer though. Hornady would be my second choice after Lapua.
 
I find the following to be true in my opinion (and from use)

Lapua / Nosler / Norma / Hornady (in my opinion, you would do well with any of these for precision shooting, costs a lot of $, too rich for my blood unless found at the range)

Winchester (best of the affordable brass, hard to find as they have diverted most of what they make to the US military for the war against terrorism, I use this the most when I can find it)

Remington (Upper middle class, not as durable as winchester, but will do in a pinch, much easier to find for sale, seems softer then winchester and i end up tossing more of this during inspections)

Federal (I hate this stuff .. its soft, it stretches, I find I am 'culling' this often when compared to winchester or even remington, only ever used as a last resort for me)

Just my two cents. You may find others who disagree with what I have posted. I load for semi auto rifles and pistols which tends to beat up my brass more then say bolt action reloaders .. thus brass hardness to me is paramount.
 
Lapua Brass is preferred by the BR guys because they have better primer pockets/case heads then Norma. Norma is great brass but after a lower amount of reloads compared to Lapua they tend to loosen up in the primer pocket. I can't speak to Hornady as I don't know who makes their brass, but Nosler is simply weight sorted commercial brass (I believe it is Federal). Winchester brass is in my opinion the best of the big three (Federal, Winchester, Remington) for lifespan but I like how Federal brass is more consistent. I really don't like any of the Remington brass or loaded ammunition at all. Back in the day I used to weight sort brass, uniform pockets, deburr flash holes, etc and I found that Federal was the easiest to do as their brass was pretty darn good, Winchester would be pretty good as well but you could see a lot difference in the case wall thickness with the naked eye, and Remington was the worst. Variations were just terrible with tons of burrs and issues with case wall thickness. I eventually decided that my time was more valuable then spending hours going over brass and switched to Lapua. I now just open the box check the roundness of the necks and load.
 
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