Thread: preferred brass brands

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

From your comments Oli1102 am I to think that some brands actually produce better accuracy than others as well as the better reload life that quality brass has ???

Yeah some brands use harder brass or are manufactured thicker than others. For example Federal because of its softer nature will usually have loose primer pockets with moderate loads within 5 loads or so. Where as Lapua you might be looking at more like 15 or so (limited by cracked necks rather than primer pockets) and can go even longer if annealled.

Some brands are more consistent than others. Internal volume is really the only consistency that matters and you can’t change (some use weight to gauge that consistency, as if outside dimensions are the same and they are heavier then they must be thicker... therefore less internal volume and different pressures). For example Winchester seem to be a good budget brass as far as internal volume consistency. But new out of the packet the case lengths, headspace etc are all over the place and they will likely have burred flash holes (quality control and simplified processes makes it cheaper). But with some work, sizing them all consistently, trimming and deburring flash holes you now have some pretty good and consistent brass... it just takes some work to get there. Norma and Lapua are more consistent out of the box and ready to just load... but you pay for it.