Nosler Brass Quality?

[Jaywalker]

I just had a disappointing batch of Winchester brass - neck thicknesses varied tremendously. I measure neck wall thickness at three or four points arount the neck, and set aside any that exceeds 0.0015" from max to min. On the recent batch of 270 Win, I had to discard 19 of 50 cases. (In fact, I had to expand my acceptance criteria to 0.0025", and still discarded 8 cases that were above that.)

What thickness variation can I expect from Nosler brass?

Jaywalker

 

[rick smith]

Unless you are shooting a becch rest quality rifle, you will never see any difference on the target. A hunting rifle will do very well with brass like you describe. If you feel that your brass must be that close, learn to turn the necks. Bulk brass at the price you paid for the Win is not going to be that good.Rick.

 

[Jaywalker]

Thanks, Rick. Personally, I don't care to turn necks; if there's too much neck thickness variation, there'll likely be variation elsewhere in the case as well.

I understand I don't need half-inch groups in a hunting rifle, but I enjoy developing them. I have found that neck thickness variation is a significant factor in total runout, so I want to reduce it. Thus my question about what variation I can expect in Nosler brass...

Jaywalker

 

[Casey]

Jaywalker,

Did you resize the necks before measuring them? I have found that there are often dents in the neck walls that are difficult to see--until I mic them.

Casey

 

[Jaywalker]

Casey,

Usually I just run the expander ball through them. I agree the necks need to be round, though, to be easier to interpret.

Jaywalker

 

[Jon A]

So who all has tried the Nosler brass so far? How are you finding it to be quality-wise (consistency, toughness, etc) compared to Lapua, Norma, Federal, etc.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I heard from another forum that Nosler brass is just Winchester brass already prepped and weight sorted. So your still buying w-w brass, just dont have to do as much work to get top notch accuracy out of it. Maybe nosler could chime in on this???

 

[kraky]

I got some of their brass....2nds in 300 win mag. EXCELLENT!! Even though they advertise that the 2nds aren't wt consistant these were within 1 grain accross the board. They were in perfect "ready to load" condition with the flash holes drilled and primer pockets nice and flat. The inside of the case mouth was already chamfered. The only thing I did was a slight polish with a vld chamferer and loaded. RESULTS....most all loaded ammo had less than .0025 runnout. VERY NICE INDEED AND A GOOD VALUE FOR $22/50. Personally I like the quality and case capacity of win brass...more power to nosler for using them!

 

[cal sibley]

I switched to Lapua and Norma in the calibers I own that they make brass for because I was disgusted with US made brass. It's not just the primer pocket protrussion of metal. Part of the time I can't even get the tool to enter the primer pocket to remove the projection. It's just sloppily made in terms of uniformity. I guess this is why Nosler and Hornady thought it worthwhile to make brass. I'm glad they did. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

 

[Jon A]

Nosler employees, is it true that Winchester makes the brass for you? I haven't heard this first hand but that's what everybody's saying. I'd probably still buy some but I'd like to know one way or the other.

 

[Gator]

I switched to Lapua and Norma in the calibers I own that they make brass for because I was disgusted with US made brass.

Exactly.

 

[Anonymous]

I cannot say who makes our brass (triple top secret around here) :wink: . But I just went to the back and pulled some 300 Win Mag brass and I didn't find any over .0015 variations. We don't measure for neck thickness variations because the added time doing so would increase the cost for our consumers. We do shoot our brass with a test load to make measure it shoots accurately and is safe. And I can vouch that it shoots great.

 

[FredN]

I don't know if this is no topic or not, but is anybody besides me haveing to trim all new brass .005 below the trim to lenght? All brass I buy is too short. I just bought some Hornady .44 Rem Mag cases and the same thing.