nosler brass consistency

jimbires

Handloader
Aug 16, 2011
3,132
1,796
I've been wanting to give Nosler brass a try so I bought some from my local gun shop . I do have some for another rifle , I haven't used any of it yet , but it looked good . I weighed through the one box of 50 and took the heaviest and the lightest ones and also just a bunch of random ones to give me a few to work with . I first fired them this morning and now I have checked the water capacity . I'm pleased with how well these are matched up from nosler . 0.44 grain spread in water capacity . here is what I have tested . if the primer pockets hold up I'll be a happy shooter . I thought you guys might be interested .

these are not in any certain order .

empty .................. full of water .............................water capacity after first fire
222.62 .....................309.44 ......................................86.82
222.76......................309.64.......................................86.88
222.56......................309.82.......................................87.26
222.70......................309.80.......................................87.10
222.72......................309.88.......................................87.16
222.52......................309.58.......................................87.06
222.80......................309.90.......................................87.10
222.52......................309.74.......................................87.22
222.86......................309.96.......................................87.10
222.58......................309.84.......................................87.24
222.66......................309.90.......................................87.24
222.60......................309.64.......................................87.04
222.76......................309.96.......................................87.20
 
Wow, that is consistency right there. I was off by as much as 2 grains with the Norma brass on my .300 WM. Soon I will be giving Nosler brass a try.
 
I don't know if it's all like this , but I'm very pleased with this box . not much you can do if the case capacity is all over the place , other than buying a bunch of it and sorting into groups .

edit to add ;

there is no problem with the primer pockets , see my post below
 
From my experience, all nosler brass has this degree of uniformity. For example the entire box for my 280 Rem varies by .70gr
Keith
 
that's good to know . I have 3 more boxes of nosler brass . when I start to use it I'll have to give it a good hard look too , just to satisfy my curiosity .
 
I'm posting this so nobody shys away from the nosler brass . I edited my post above too .


I mentioned above I had to cut the primer pockets , it turns out that was not the problem . I'll call it the stacking of tolerances that caused this . I use a RCBS hand primer . I could seat a primer in my WW brass , but the nosler brass would not seat completely . what I've found is the WW brass has a rim thickness that measures around .050" thick + or - about .002" . the nosler brass rim thickness measures around .045" thick + or - about .002" . couple this with a shellholder that has a generous ( sloppy ) groove height and I ended up with primers that would not completely seat in the nosler brass . I also found I was just getting them seated flush in the WW brass . why I thought cutting the pockets was the answer ; I was pushing the primers out with my press , cutting the pocket , then putting the primer back in with my press and everything was ok . just a very dumb mistake on my part . Jim


edit , to try and make more clear .
 
Jim I never use to uniform my primer pockets till Scotty and DrMike suggested doing it when I was loading for my 35 Whelen and using Rem brass.
I do uniform the Nosler brass primer pocket after the first firing as well as trim it to square the case mouths.
 
Not a serious test, I just loaded it in my .264 Win Mag and loaded same primer, powder and grains and bullet Nosler 120gr BT load that I used in my Winchester brass. Groups at 300 yards shrank almost a half inch. Just buy changing brass. Yes I worked up to same powder charge.
I did not weight it just loaded it out of the box. How long will primer pockets last I don't know yet.
Would I buy again yes.
 
Primer pockets have held up well for me in all the Nosler brass I use and I have torture tested it with the 35W/AI and it is still good to go. With the 35W/AI I tend to loose the necks before the primer pockets and I believe this is do to changing the shoulder and neck when fire forming.
Once when first loading Barnes mono bullets I used the same powder charge as I had for the AccuBond in the same weight and experienced heavy bolt lift. After investigation I found that with the Barnes I had a over loaded for the powder type with that bullet and QL estimated pressure at 73Kpsi and the brass held it.
The only primer pocket with Nosler brass that didn't hold up was with the 338Wm and then again it was with a brass jacketed bullet a Swift Scirocco which should have been a safe load.
I seem to have problems loading bullets with brass jackets so I have decided to stay away from them. I don't need them and can do all I want with a copper cup and core bullet.
 
One thing I found with the Nosler brass is that for a given load I have lower speeds.
In my 338win mag there was more than 100FPS difference between Nosler and Hornady brass with Win in between the two.
I got the same or more using Nolser brass compared to Hornady and Weatherby in my 257W.
Also different in my 264win mag comparing Nosler, Rem/Win and Hornady.
Nosler was always the slowest and hornady the fastest over my chrono.

The other more important thing is all 3 brands of brass shot to a different point. Enough to make a big difference and ruin accuracy if shooting mixed brass. Nosler also always(as I remember) gave the lowest SD. The SD for my nosler load in 338win mag was SD2 which is pretty darn good.

By choosing different brass I was able to shoot both 100gr TTSX and 120gr A-Frames to within less than 1" vertical difference with same left/right placement in my 257W for my Africa trip. That was nice.
 
When I first started loading for my 338Wm I was seeing low velocity and erratic groups with Nosler brass. Some of the grouping problem was the stock but the velocity was the brass and Scotty told me I needed to get the pressure up. The brass has more water capacity then other brands which I first noticed in the 35 Whelen brass when comparing Remington brass to Nosler, the Nosler brass took a little more powder to reach the same velocity.
All my loads are over book max to achieve the printed velocities but safe in my rifles when using Nosler brass.
 
nice to see you guys are having good luck with the nosler brass . I'll try more of it .
 
I'm really liking the nosler brass . I got into the other nosler brass I have . I took the lightest weight ones , and the heaviest weight ones , then a bunch of ones that are close in weight . here are the results . the lightest virgin weight in this box of 50 is 168.54 gr , the heaviest is 169.46 gr . after the first fire the water capacities ranged from the smallest of 55.48 to the largest of 55.7 gr . the average of 20 cases is 55.566 .
 

Attachments

  • P7260602.JPG
    P7260602.JPG
    728.2 KB · Views: 1,725
I was wanting to use the nosler brass for the flat spot load work ups . I don't like to use new virgin brass for load work ups , so I did a bunch of testing on this brass while I was getting the first fire on it . I velocity tested the lightest and the heaviest with the same powder charge , just to see what it told me . I ran the powder ladders with virgin and once fired , to see what that told me . I marked the brass so the same powder charge went in to the same case each time . what I learned was , don't use virgin brass doing the flat spot load work up , it will lie to you .


Fellas , you could just dump it out of the box and use this brass , unless your shooting comp or something like that . I'm very impressed with this brass , it's way better than needed for hunting . if the primer pockets stay tight I'll be a happy guy .
 
Jim unless you grossly overload it you won't loose the primer pockets. I have only lost 2 pieces do to loose. One 35W/AI and one 338Win and that was with loading mono brass type bullets.
 
like this ? I've gotta quit blending my own powder . this load twisted my flutes and straightened my rifling . :lol:


being serious now .
I was shooting prone , there was about 3 or 4 pieces of tall grass in front of me . the labradar must have picked up on the grass movement . the 25 yard speed is right in line with the other loads .
 

Attachments

  • P7230598.JPG
    P7230598.JPG
    502.1 KB · Views: 1,695
bringing this zombie thread back up . getting my whitetail ammo ready for Kansas , I had 20 to reload to fill my ammo box . out of this 20 I lost 8 to cracked necks . a few of these were 3 times fired , some were 2 times fired . I anneal every cycle . I cannot remember having a cracked neck since I started to anneal on a regular basis . having 8 cracked out of 20 sure surprised me . out of this same batch I have brass on it's sixth cycle . I have not loosened a primer pocket yet , but cracking this quick isn't acceptable for me .

PB030865.JPG

PB030871.JPG

PB100855.JPG


this flexible flashlight is really handy around guns and reloading . I stick the bulb in the fired case neck and look for light shining through . fast and easy way to find pin holes and cracks.

PB030866.JPG

PB030870.JPG
 
Back
Top