As a general rule, I try to stay away from the wide-open public gun forums. There are so many conflicting opinions presented from people I don’t know and can’t vet, that it usually just ends in frustration. Still being relatively new to reloading (started over the summer) I am short on personal knowledge and hungry for education.
Against my better judgement, I went looking on the wild interwebs. As a general theme, Lapua, Nosler, Norma, ADG, and Alpha are touted as best. As expected, however, there were many conflicting opinions with some saying Brand X is great and others saying it is garbage. There is so much variation in price. Just looking at 6.5 Creedmore on Midway presently, you have Starline at $.57 each to Nosler at $1.26 each.
The Backfire community, being narrower group of subscribers who are rifle enthusiasts, I think will be a more trustworthy and reliable source. I’ve learned so much reading the threads and watching Jim’s videos. So my question is what are the better brands of brass and how much does it matter in terms of accuracy and case life?
I am new to hand loading so I can only say that from everything I’ve read/watched, Lapua and Peterson seem to be at the top of the pile. Nosler makes good stuff so I would be surprised if they didn’t also produce quality brass.
Otherwise I’m interested in hearing what everyone else has to say!
In my opinion, there are three categories of brass quality.
The premium category. Lapua, Peterson, ADG, Alpha, etc. I’d buy 100% Lapua if they supported more cartridges, but I also get lots of Peterson. I have less experience with the others, but those I have worked with have been excellent.
The “very good” category of Nosler. It’s not quite Peterson, but it’s very good for a mass manufacturer. Every once in a while, I see some weird stuff from Nosler, but it’s generally good.
The “only if nothing else is available” category. Hornady, Winchester, etc.
Yes, that is a part of the question. To be more specific, what is it about Lapua brass that makes it better than say Winchester AND how much of a difference does it make in terms of accuracy and case life? I am curious about the implications for practical application such as for working up a hunting round with an intended max shot distance of 400 yards, how much of a difference will the better brass make in accuracy? I would also want some volume of this load for practice. Is it worth it in this situation to use the better brass? How about for a target round at ranges of 600-1000 yards? What are the differences in case life? If I can only reload the “cheap” stuff 3 times, but get 10 loads out of the better brass, it changes the cost equation. I mean, in general, of course I would always want to use the better brass, but I’m just trying to figure out the economics of reloading.
Good question about what better brass actually produces.
An example to show the limits of what brass can do for a load. Nosler makes brass that is much better than Hornady. However, I’d take Hornady factory ammo with their brass over a loaded Nosler round any day. So it’s not as if brass is exclusively what makes better ammo.
I suppose I could load 100 rounds of 270 in Lapua brass, and the same in Winchester brass, and see fewer fliers on the Lapua, but probably a similar overall accuracy profile.
In short, what I see from better brass is:
Much longer brass life.
Less work resizing and trimming and such because the thicknesses around the brass are very consistent.
Can’t prove it empirically, but it sure seems like I get fewer fliers. Lower SD’s seem easier to achieve with good brass.
Like many things in accuracy and reloading, good brass is one important part of 100 other factors that control how a bullet flies. So don’t expect it to trump everything else, but do expect to see great results if you take it and many of the other factors into account and just limit your variables one by one.
Late to this thread. Is nickel plated brass better? I think it looks better but I do not know. Does it feed better with I assume the nickel being smoother?
I’ve been curious about nickel plated brass as well. I’ve seen it showing up in a few bullet options, but haven’t tried anything because I just didn’t know how it could affect my gun or do performance wise.
Personally, I prefer to buy brass in the premium category that Jim listed. By using an annealer i get a ton of firings out of a single batch of high quality brass. Personally, I don’t care for Nosler brass. In my experience it is manufactured well, but their brass is pretty soft and gets dinged up really easy, especially around the neck.
Loading for my 6.8 western rifles, I only use nickel plated Browning brass (which is probably Olin/Winchester anyway) and I don’t see any differences. It sure does look prettier though
I agree with what Jim has said, but with one caveat…I suggest starting with the more inexpensive brass when you’re starting out. The reason I say this, is that you are going to make mistakes and destroy some brass. I also think that the more you learn by trimming, chamfering, checking the circumference of the neck, the better handloader you will be. I stress out less when my son (been reloading about 6 months) mangles some $1.00 Hornady brass than some Alpha brass that $3.50.
does nickel plated brass last longer? and can it be annealed? I like the fact that 300 wby brass is $120 for 50. The Nosler is quite a bit less though like $75 per 50. It would be an effort to wear out 300 wby cases.
Mark, if you are talking 6.5 creed, then I would purchase Hornady Match or ELDX hunting ammo, shoot it, and reload it. The first firing forms the case to your rifle, makes it consistent for “you”, and it is already paid for…free chicken from that point forward.
If you are going to try and win on the PRS course, then going to the higher end is what the winners circle uses, but, a lot of those people use the higher end brass because they know that due to its consistency, they can just load and shoot for the most part.
If you are going to hunt mostly, or shoot in competitions as a hobby, I think the Hornady, Winchester, Federal lines of brass will do fine and be cost effective for you.
It is very easy to end up chasing the perfect combo…but a new set of golf clubs doesn’t make a Tiger Woods. Lot of different things go into that type of high end result. Learn to enjoy it first.
Good luck.
