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Brass quality

Jcalder

Jcalder

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All brass is high and if you need it, and it's available, you better jump on it. That said, is Peterson, Lapua, norma, nosler worth the premium price? I'm not talking gouging prices, just their normal difference over Remington, Winchester and even the overrated Hornady brass.
 
Jcalder said:
All brass is high and if you need it, and it's available, you better jump on it. That said, is Peterson, Lapua, norma, nosler worth the premium price? I'm not talking gouging prices, just their normal difference over Remington, Winchester and even the overrated Hornady brass.
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It all depends on what you plan to do with it. If you are just loading ammo for hunting and don't plan on shooting each case more than a couple of times you will probably never see a difference. If you are going to shoot long distance and also plan on getting more firings from each case the premium brass like Lapua and Peterson are worth it. I don't hold Nosler and Norma brass in the same group as the other two. ADG is another high quality brass. If I were to go for a "factory" brass, my first choice would be Winchester, followed by Federal and Remington. I have found the Remington brass to be a bit brittle on occasion. Now, start annealing and you might stretch more firings out of some of the others.
 
Treated properly and used for multiple firings, brass is probably one of the cheapest components especially now that primers are so high. Buy the good stuff!
 
What's y'all opinion on starline brass? I've got a little bit of it in a couple calibers, but haven't shot it enough to get a feel for it's longevity.
 
Starline is not any better than hornady, in my opinion. Last starline I bought new, all had to be resized. Had several pieces with dented case mouths. Many pieces were shorter than my book trim length, and they varied more than hornady.

Cannot speak to the longevity of the brass, have only reloaded a couple times on 308 and 6.5.
 
I'm just finishing up fire forming some starline brass for my 6.5 Creedmoor. I did size it all before I began loading it, but I would do that with any new brass cases to have a good baseline. And it was indeed all shorter than OAL SAAMI specs. I'm getting ready to start loading it and weighing cases to sort for accuracy now.
 
MUP said:
I'm just finishing up fire forming some starline brass for my 6.5 Creedmoor. I did size it all before I began loading it, but I would do that with any new brass cases to have a good baseline. And it was indeed all shorter than OAL SAAMI specs. I'm getting ready to start loading it and weighing cases to sort for accuracy now.
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You need to get on the Lapua train for that CM.
 
backyardtndeer said:
Starline is not any better than hornady, in my opinion. Last starline I bought new, all had to be resized. Had several pieces with dented case mouths. Many pieces were shorter than my book trim length, and they varied more than hornady.

Cannot speak to the longevity of the brass, have only reloaded a couple times on 308 and 6.5.
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Starline may not be nothing to brag about, but I resize all my new brass and any can be dented.
 
KPH said:
Starline may not be nothing to brag about, but I resize all my new brass and any can be dented.
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You are right, any case can be dented. Sure package handling can cause issues.

Starline is the only new brass I have bought that was out of saami specs on length.

I check my new brass to make sure it matches specs in my manual. I have loaded plenty of new hornady brass that I did not resize first, those were mostly barrel break in loads or target loads. But no issues at all.

I am sure you have a lot more experience than I do, I have only been reloading since about 2009, and am self taught but always looking to learn more. I guess my question would be, if new cases are in spec, what would be gained in resizing them?
 
backyardtndeer said:
You are right, any case can be dented. Sure package handling can cause issues.

Starline is the only new brass I have bought that was out of saami specs on length.

I check my new brass to make sure it matches specs in my manual. I have loaded plenty of new hornady brass that I did not resize first, those were mostly barrel break in loads or target loads. But no issues at all.

I am sure you have a lot more experience than I do, I have only been reloading since about 2009, and am self taught but always looking to learn more. I guess my question would be, if new cases are in spec, what would be gained in resizing them?
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The starline I got was fine and within spec. All manufacturers that I'm aware recommend sizing new brass. If the length was long, I personally would be fine with that. I'm probably gonna uniform it all anyway before I get started. The dig at Hornady brass is their brass in no better than Winchester or Remington, but they want considerably more for it. I've had good luck with all of them, but federals primer pockets open up before the others do. FWIW, I ordered 250 7-08 brass from starline for $114. No this wasn't recent, probably 3 years ago. For the brass, that was hard to beat.
 
I recently purchased 100pcs of Starline 450 Bushmaster brass from Midway with a birthday discount. Made it about 70¢ each. By far the best deal I could find right now.
 

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