Worst brass?

RL338 said:
I wont use Federal brass for 2 reason.
One it is way to soft , I’ve seen their factory ammo brass that wont hold a primer after one firing.
Two , over the years their weight changed drastically.
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" I’ve seen their factory ammo brass that wont hold a primer after one firing."

I noticed that when I tried reusing their brass from the factory loads for my .270 WSM.
While I've never tried it, there's a YouTube video covering how to fix loose primer pockets.
 
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The worst in my opinion is Federal at least the newer stuff made in last 5 years or so.

The best I've used is a 3 way tie in Lapua, Alpha, and Peterson. All of these are top notch.

I've had good luck with Starline, Jageman, Hornady, R-P, and Privi Partizan as well

I bought some (from Midway) Nosler 280AckImp that I found to be super inconsistent in weight, length, and needed everything done to it to make it ready to load which I found to be a tough pill to swallow since Nosler claims it ready to load right from the box.
 
The worst I've ever seen, didn't use though, was Hornady .300 Win Mag. cases. The burr inside the case from the primer hole extrusion was nearly impossible to remove. And it was high and rough. There were a few other things that I no longer remember. They made such an impression on me that I haven't even checked the .308 Hornady brass I've got.
The best has to be Winchester. Shortly after purchasing my .300 win. I bought several 100 count bags that I used to work up loads and do lots of practicing with. I can't recall any of them being bad. And I handled every one of them during brass prep. And a good many were shot at maximum load also. After a few shots I annealed each one. I do a lot of things by feel and when I'd feel case necks getting harder to size I would anneal a bunch of them at the same time. I want the case necks to release the bullet as near the same pressure as possible. Makes for tighter groups. I haven't bought any in a few years so I don't know the present state of Winchester brass, but when I need some I will try another bag or so.
 
RL338 said:
Without a doubt this ⬆️
The worst from Winchester was a red and black bag of 7mm Rem Mag my son bought , it had multiple style headstamps in the same bag.
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I'd like to see that...

Would you be able to shoot some pictures
 
Heavy Barrel said:
After getting a hold of some 308 Win that the case mouths were quite crooked, if at all possible, I avoid them like the plague. Luckly...the Winchester cases I have for my .270 didn't need much prep work.

Still sitting on some nickel-plated Remington from my early years of reloading, that was before they stopped selling reloading components. Though the prep work on those can be quite daunting. Every time I've had to use some, I ended up having to replace the cutter on my case trimmer.

Now it's either Nosler or Nammo/Laupa for the most part. Had great results so far with Hornady for my Creedmoor.
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Those are for shooting around corners ;)
 
RL338 said:
These are on their 3rd go around. I use to like Winchester brass when it was in the blue bag. A little case prep and you were on your way. The red /black bagged stuff is just junk.
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I'm fear that I'm on the same page as you.
 
RL338 said:
These are on their 3rd go around. I use to like Winchester brass when it was in the blue bag. A little case prep and you were on your way. The red /black bagged stuff is just junk.
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Did you contact Olin about that?
I'm sure they've heard of the problem but maybe they didn't.?.
I'd be willing to bet they'd like to correct the issue if it's an ongoing, unaware problem.

We can debate the "how didn't they know" until the sun goes down but sometimes things happen in mfg...all mfg's have err'd at some time or other.
 
Last batches of Winchester and Remington brass I bought were from a large box in bulk form. allof wach brand having the same lot numbers. I bought the entire box fulls, a little over 500 Winchester and 400 Remingtons as I recall. I treat all brass the same, be they range pickups or factory new. I trip though the resizing die, trimmed to the trim too length and ream flash holes and uniform primer pockets. Both brands have been more than satisfactory, but IIRC, I bought them about 10 or so years ago. I haven't tried any of the red bag stuff and based on what people have said, I probably never will.
RL338 said, "I wont use Federal brass for 2 reason.
One it is way to soft , I’ve seen their factory ammo brass that wont hold a primer after one firing.
Two , over the years their weight changed drastically."

I dunno about the weight change but a friendly Border patrol guy gave me 1,100 rounds of once fired Federal Gold Medal Match brass. Primer pockets were too loose for safe reloading, at least for full power loads. Might work for a one time plinker load. I'll probably just dump them in the scrap bucket and cash them in.

Average life on that Winchester brass has been 8 to 10 reloads before primer pocket got to loose. Remington brass came quite close with average life about 7 to 9 full power reloads. I'm loading them by working up 7-08 data in a Winchester M70 Featherweight and Ruger #1A. I also have a custom commercial FN Mauser but it has a bad receiver. Rifle was a J.C. Higgins M50 in .270 Win. that showed signs of trouble. I stuck it in the back of the safe and forgot about it until I wanted the custom 7x57 made up. Shoots OK with factory but balks on anything much stronger. I now remember how erratic it was in that respect when it was a .270. IIRC, I got it in a trade back around 1972 or 3. I hate like hell to strip one of my J.C. Higgins that's in good shape for the receiver. I won't take it to a gun show and stick somebody with a known lemon either.
PJ
 
I use Norma brass in my 9.3x62, 416 Taylor, and 416 Rem Mag. It’s been excellent for me. In my 6.5 creedmoor target rifle I use Peterson SRP brass. It has been the best brass I’ve ever used honestly, I have over 25 reloads on two separate lot #’s and have yet to scrap a single piece. The primer pockets still require quite a bit of force to seat them. Had pretty good luck with PPU before in 9.3x62. Had good luck with Hornady too, primer pockets seem to get loose in them pretty quick though
 
The worst Remington, Winchester and Hornady. I'm not real enamored with Nosler Brass.
The best Lapua, Peterson, Alpha. I will not have a chamber where Lapua or Peterson is not available, particularly for match rifles. Calibers like 45-70 and 30-30 [lever guns] and revolvers, it's what's avaliable.
 
Worst was Remington 35 Whelen brass I reloaded from a couple of boxes of 200 grain core lokt ammo I bought. That stuff stuck even with low end start loads. I use Hornady and Nosler only now. I’ve found them to have very similar capacity, weight, longevity and overall performance.
 
Brinky72 said:
Worst was Remington 35 Whelen brass I reloaded from a couple of boxes of 200 grain core lokt ammo I bought. That stuff stuck even with low end start loads. I use Hornady and Nosler only now. I’ve found them to have very similar capacity, weight, longevity and overall performance.
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I've used RP factory load brass in my 35 Whelen without any problems. Also necked up some RP 30-06 into 35 Whelen, no problems so far. Maybe just the difference in our chambers. Dan.
 
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