Federal Brass, try weight sorting this stuff!!!!!!

jtoews80

Handloader
May 19, 2007
916
13
Recently, my dad asked me to load up a lot of 100 rounds for him. We started with about 140 rnds of fedral brass, so I sized it, went on to trim it, then tried to weight sort it. I managed to get about 20 rounds of brass @ 174 grns, 20 @ 175 and on up to about 179 grns weight per case. The left overs that didn't fit into a lot of one weight spanned between 162- 182 grns per case. I wonder if this affects accuracy :lol: Mostly likely, it is for the better to just throw that stuff out. I usually use Federal GM brass out of my 308, but always sort that for +/- 0.5 grn per lot. I was VERY shocked at how bad this stuff(federal classic & fusion brass) showed up at the scale. Anybody else have this result?? I've had far better results with Weatherby(Norma)brass, even Winchester Wal-Mart stuff was better on a per lot basis, although almost as bad if you mixed boxes of brass.
 
Federal is fairly soft and inconsistant. I believe it is probably on par with Remington. I use winchester brass for my 30-06, 22-250, 300 wsm, 325 wsm reloads. Not nearly as good a lapua or even Nosler, but it does seem pretty good.
 
funny ya'll should mention brass.. I was working on some 35 Whelen loads Saturday and my buddy was doing the trimming on them while I was working on something else. the Remington brass was so soft, the trimmer cutter kept getting hung up on the case mouths. Very strange.
after we fooled around for awhile, we got them all done, but they looked like poop. He shoots a 338-06 and uses Weatherby brass for it so he handed me one and said to run it in the sizing die. I did and holy moly, now that's what I'm talking about! I have a 7 Weatherby, so I know how the brass works, but for this Whelen, that 338-06 brass made one heck of a good looking 35 Whelen. I went yesterday and got 4 new boxes of that, and can't wait to get them all punched out to 35. They look awesome. If you've got an '06 or something off that case, give the Norma or Weatherby cases a try, you won't be sorry, except when you pay for them...
 
Nosler brass is awesome I bought some for the 30-06 amazingly consistant and very high quality.

I was curious why some calibers are through the roof while some are reasonable. Like the 30-06 isn't out of control but the .260 and .280AI are rediculously high. Although they still may be worth it.

I assume nosler makes their own brass or do they contract it out? Probably a question for JD?
 
Last time I used Fed brass was in 1999. That brass was great.
 
I could be mistaken but thought Starline made most of Federal's brass..
I know for their revolver and pistol cartridges that is the case...just thought that was also the case with rifle brass too...maybe not...
but am anxious to try Nosler's brass...
 
I was just poking around and came across this old post.

Yesterday my son and I loaded up 243 ammo. He shot up a couple of boxes of Federal Prem w/ 70 NBT that was OLD. I had a couple of empty Federal cases also. Anyway cleaned up the mouths (they were square) and we loaded 50 up with 90gn Scirrocos and he set one on the scale and I asked him what he was doing, he said he wanted to see the difference in wt. I told him any diff will be in the brass.
Here is the amazing part.... we set about 20 on the scale and no more than 1 gn difference. Most were about 0.2 - 0.4 gns difference. I was amazed for loaded ammo.
I grabbed a box of Rem factory w/ same bullet and in the first five rounds they were as much as 2 - 3 gns diff. We have shot rounds from that box and very accurate.

I'm just suprised at the constancy in wt of the loaded rounds with Federal brass we just made. We are going to shoot them tomorrow. (Labor Day)
 
Whenever I need to buy factory ammo I try to make it Federal just becasue of the brass quality...suspect Nosler would be the same...just can;t beat their brass....
 
I know on a reloading forum this is akin to sacralige, but there is an article in a recent issue of "Guns" magazine that alledges among other things that the single biggest facotrs in making accurate ammo are neck thickness and run out. According to the author case volume ,i.e. weight, didnt not have much affect on accuracy. One mans opinion....If hes right, I hope you sold that "inferior" brass, and got some money out of it. :) CL
 
I just loaded up 20 rounds of .30-06 ammo in Federal Brass that a couple different guys gave me. I never weighed the brass before I loaded the ammo so instead weighed the loaded rounds.

Here are the weights I obtained:

415.1
417.6
418.9
416.7
417
417.4
417.4
417.8
416.7
417.2
412.3
416.9
417
412.5
417.2
416.9
416.6
417.8
416.5
419.1

I guess I have used Federal Brass for years that guys that don't handload have given me. Never seemed to have any issues so far.

Larry
 
Nosler specifies their brass with a non disclosed source and is company confidential information. I can tell you that is is some pretty good stuff!

Whenever possible, I try to use W-W brass. It is harder than R-P brass and last a long time.

JD338
 
A couple of years ago, I purchased two boxes of Nosler factory ammunition for my 35 Whelen. Headstamp was Remington.
 
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