I Got A Question

When I first got my Ruger Hawkeye 338Wm I bought a bag of Nosler seconds brass to get started reload for it.
When I got the H20 weight for once fired brass I came up with 91.5grs.
Scotty ran a QL for me but said my H2O cap was high for the 338Wm so I rechecked it and again it came out the same 91.5grs.
I found some new Winchester brass to supplement my Nosler brass and just got around to checking some once fired for H20 cap.
The Winchester brass came out to 88.38grs for a five case average.
That's a little over 3grs difference.
Now for the $64 question.

How much difference will this make in my load development?
Will I have develop a new load for this brass?
Before I came here and learned how to properly reload ammo I wouldn't have known any difference and actually used mix brass to load and hunt with.
But now I'm educated and need to ask my teachers what to do. :roll: :lol: :grin:

truck driver":3j9ocmmf said:

How much difference will this make in my load development?
Will I have to develop a new load for this brass?

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Enough to alter velocity pressure and or accuracy. At least this is what I found.

I tweak my load every time I change lots on brass or powder. Haven't found much difference with primers.

Scott

Not a whole bunch but I’d drop 3-4 grains from your current charge and just come back up to speed. If you run right to the same speed of your known load you should be good.

What happened to the Nosler stuff? Did it crap out on ya or are you just trying out some of WW brass?

SJB358":1acezjez said:

Not a whole bunch but I’d drop 3-4 grains from your current charge and just come back up to speed. If you run right to the same speed of your known load you should be good.

What happened to the Nosler stuff? Did it crap out on ya or are you just trying out some of WW brass?

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I picked this up because I couldn't get Nosler seconds and I refuse to pay $80+ for 50 pieces of brass.
The WW brass was a little more work to prep but then I'm retired and have the time to do it.
The Nosler brass is tuff and all my load work too date has been with the same 25 pieces so when I saw this for less then a buck a piece including shipping I jumped on it.

Fotis and Muleman thanks for the response.

Number one rule in reloading. "If you change ANYTHING in a load back off and work back up." I have never used any Nosler cases but it sounds like they are thinner than Winchester and Winchester has been in my 40+ years of experience of loading one of the thinnest cases meaning they have the most volume. Lesson that I learned a long time ago. If I am planning to keep a rifle I always get 100 new cases of same lot and prep them and start my load work up with a few powders and different bullets just getting a feel of what the rifle might like. This shooting of 100 rounds fire forms all my case and breaks the barrel in and gives me a ball park view of what powder and bullet to get serious about. Then I have 100 cases which will last quite a while. Just some thoughts to pass on.

It DOES make a difference in speed and where the shots print! The Nosler brass has the most internal volume of any brass I tried and with the same amount of powder the slowest speed over my Oehler Chrono. Win/Rem brass was in the middle with speed and printed to a different place. Hornady had the smallest volume and highest speeds. It also printer to a different place.

DO NOT MIX BRASS if you are looking for accuracy. My max book loads were fine in all the different brass makes. I was shooting 225gr Swift A-Frames for my Africa trip. The rifle would shoot very small 5 shot groups but was shooting very large groups until I figured out it was the mixed brass. Once I sorted brass to all same manufacture for the 5 shot groups I got my very small groups I was use to. My load was 5grs over book and I have used it for a long time and many rounds. Others have also used the same load. I had a super low SD3 as I remember.
There is NO NEED to back off loads when using Nosler brass as they will have more volume, lower pressures and lower speeds. I have used and this would this to be true of their 338win mag/264win mag and 257Weatherby brass. Those are the only ones I have used so far.
I have not needed to back off any loads using Hornady brass even though they have the smallest volume and give the highest speeds. I have used Hornady 7-08/265win mag/257Weatherby/338win mag/30-06/308win brass so far.

If you are interested in my data and results(targets) comparing Nosler/Win/Rem/Hornady brass PM me with an email and I will send it. If you want other data also let me know.