Nosler brass questions

Divernhunter

Handloader
Apr 1, 2009
812
171
I have the "fully prepped" Nosler brass in several cartridges.
My questions are:
A) It says nothing about the primer pockets. Have they been uniformed or not?
B) It also says nothing about being trimmed to same length. Have they been trimmed before they were chamfered?

I ask because I am headed to Africa and want my brass/ammo as uniform as possible. The last time we went I used Win brass and did a lot of prep work and it paid off with tiny groups and all one shot kills.

I have no problem doing it again but this trip is on short notice and anything I can skip, without hurting quality, I will be glad to do.

Thanks in advance for any help
 
I have never bought new first quality brass from Nosler and only seconds but do have some first brass I got with a rifle purchase and treat it the same as any other.
I would still fire form the cases to my rifle chamber and then prep the brass like any other. I even resize it before I load it just to make sure the necks are straight and not dented before I load it the first time.
 
Nosler is my favorite 30-06 brass. I took some new nosler brass primed them without any case prep and loaded my hunting load. They shot just as well as once fired brass that had been resized. I found WLR primers work well with nosler 30-06 brass.
Billy
 
I have purchased Nosler brass in three forms: factory firsts, factory over-runs, and factory seconds.
The only thing I have done is run the factory seconds over the expander ball in my due to remove any dings in the neck, because they're shipped in plastic bags.
They all are just primed, loaded and shot. No measurable difference in accuracy.
I'd say load it and shoot it!


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It's really no different than buying Nosler factory ammo. I doubt that they resize their factory brass before loading it.


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If your load was worked up with Winchester brass, you may want to do a quick load work up with the Nosler brass, just to confirm changing brass doesn't change accuracy. I've not used much Nosler brass, but the factory seconds brass I have used was good brass and easy to work with.
 
Has Nosler changed their 280AI brass in the last couple of years? I have noted in the past that, even at very low charges, primer pockets loosened on the first firing.
 
A while back of friend gave me a couple boxes of 280 AI Nosler ammo to check the run out on and to fix on my tru tool if it needed it. I hate to say it but it had awful run out..... and it was probably the softest brass I've ever worked with as far as fixing it goes.... just the slightest pressure moved the neck immediately. Out of 40 rounds I left 10 that were pretty decent untouched....and I repaired 20 more..... and left 10 bad so he would have a smorgasbord to shoot and see if it made any difference one way or another. I don't know if he's done any shooting this spring but I should check back with him pretty soon and find out.... on the good side he had some 26 Nosler and 28 Nosler for me to check and they were stellarly excellent.
 
I just wasted 65 bucks on some 338 win brass, it weighs 20g less than my win brass and holds 5.9g more water. This is fine as I only had to add 1g of powder to get the same velocity, but after one shot the primer pockets are getting loose and the belt will barely fit into my Lee primer tool. It looks like it must be very weak in the web area. I will stick with Winchester brass.
 
Nosler brass is ready to load right out of the box...in my experience (280 AI, 270 Win., 7mm-08)

There MIGHT be an occasional squashed/out of round mouth, but they are rare. The primer pockets are ready to go. If it weren't ready to load, it wouldn't be worth the price, no offense to Nosler, but it wouldn't be.

I use Nosler brass in all the rifles there at home...mine, my wifes, and my sons....expensive, but it saves time.

More on primer pockets...I've pushed the 280 Ackley well up to what I'm quite sure was around 70,000 psi...primer pockets will loosen some at this level, they have no choice...but the brass will still hold together for 3 firings before the primer pockets get loose enough to worry me.

At 63-65,000 psi...5 firings...and thats all I'll re-use brass for anyway, bolt faces are too expensive to repair.
 
69gto":1044cy3r said:
I just wasted 65 bucks on some 338 win brass, it weighs 20g less than my win brass and holds 5.9g more water. This is fine as I only had to add 1g of powder to get the same velocity, but after one shot the primer pockets are getting loose and the belt will barely fit into my Lee primer tool. It looks like it must be very weak in the web area. I will stick with Winchester brass.
How about some real time weight difference between WW and Nosler brass.
I'm using Nosler SPS blem brass in my .338Wm and thought I've been told my H2O cap was high (91.5grs H2O) I have had no real time problems with it in my Redding dies. The belt is under size in the virgin brass but expands to Saami specs after firing and has held Sammi tolerances with multiple loadings which have been less than Saami max pressure.
I have also used it to make 35 Whelen/AI cases and have gotten 15 loadings out of some before they gave up the ghost. I do anneal the necks after 3 loadings.
 
New win brass weight-234.5g, 82.6g of water to top of neck, Nosler 210g brass, 88.6g of water. WIN 82.9g of RL17 to top of neck, Nosler 86.8g to top of neck. Belt diameter is the same on both new brass.
 
Thanks, Hmmm mine has more H2O cap by 3grs. May have to get some Norma just to try and measure. Could be why my velocities are slower than they should be.
 
I have heard mixed reviews on Nosler brass with different calibers. I was running well under 60,000 psi with my 280 ai and could only achieve 1- firing before primers were falling out. I had it happen with multiple lots. I used Remington and Norma brass and was able to run my charges up significantly -- 70,000 psi with no primer issues whatsoever. This is a problem.
 
I like Nosler Brass and all I do is run it through ball expander to check the necks are straight and load.
Just FYI the same load in my .264 Win Mag just changing the Brass my groups tighten up 1/2 inch at 300 yards. I have yet to load it twice so I can't speak to its durbility yet.
 
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