Best quality brass??

Aloysius · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 1:35 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Vince, in my opinion nny is not czech but from another Eastern-Europe country. Don't they come in yellow/green boxes? I think Prvni Partizan is the manufacturor. And is it "nny" or "huy" ?

And I was following this thread because I expected a word of advice from Suz on good quality bras... or maybe Suz still makes a point (or 2?) not to gather personal experience by using... Smile

slimjim · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:09 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

dhc4ever wrote:

I have some Lapua in .308 with the std large rifle primer that I've been waiting to use once the federal brass in current use starts to need replacement.

Start using your Lapua! Fed is the worst brass I have every used. Multiple problems in .270, .308, 6.8mm. It springs back more after running it through the full-length resizing die and can cause some chamber sticking. It typically has less powder volume. I had a long-range shooting buddy, give me all is Federal brass to start reloading in my .308. Now I know why.

RePete · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:21 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

nny is Yugoslavian and made by Prvi Partizan.

I use Lapua for my .338LM - Hornady brass is crap, too soft.

Norma for .308.

Federal in .308 used to be the best, but for the last 10 - 15 years it's been too soft and the primer pockets enlarged. There .223 brass was, mostly, OK for 1 reload, if shooting out of an AR, 3 maybe 4 from a bolt gun.

SJ:

Reload the Fed brass and then discard for scrap. If you are using a bolt gun.

Suzanne · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:32 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Well Aloysius, since you asked, I use a lot of Privi brass for rifle and Starline for pistol, mostly because of availability/price. I also use Remington if nothing else is available. Remington seems thin to me, never checked it but I've had problems with it not holding up. Other than that, I really don't get too picky. I put more emphasis on bullets and powder. I'm not shooting big volumes of brass with lots of reloads, so I don't have strengths and weaknesses other than that Rem. brass.

Suz

Bushmaster · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:50 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Remington brass is thinner. It just means you get fewer reloadings from it.

The only real problems I have with Remington brass is with .30-30. You definitely want to use Lee's FCD. Standard seating/crimping dies tend to collapse the case just below the neck.

Aloysius · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:20 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Suz, sometimes 1 little "s" makes a big difference Smile

TRBLSHTR · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:12 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

I have always had good luck with remington brass!Now-WW or winchester brass has always been my pet peeve!Multiple case head seperations,splits on the case wall,and neck splits!I reload it once now ,and then to the recycle bin!These failures have happened in rifle and pistol calibers,223-338wm,and 9mm,357,-44mg,45acp.Norma has always been tops in my books!BTW-I have gi brass,circa LC 67-69 that have over 10 reloads on them(223/5.56) that still have no case failures!Good stuff back then!

Bushmaster · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:53 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Then you have me. I love Winchester stamped brass. Both in rifle and handgun. Especially .357 magnum. Have had no (non) problems with splitting in any of the calibers, both rifle and handgun, that I reload.

PaulS · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

I use a lot of Winchester too - along with everything else. I think the splitting is due to technique rather than the brand of brass. Some of my brass has been loaded over 20 times without an issue.

slimjim · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:21 pm Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

PaulS wrote:

Some of my brass has been loaded over 20 times without an issue.

Do you use a collet die like the Redding S-Type? I found that some of the standard dies that shrink the neck down then enlarge it with an expander ball overwork the brass significantly more.

Suzanne · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:02 pm Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Alyosius huh? 1 little 's' ? Whatchoo talkin about?

Suz

Donut Slayer · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:49 pm Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

The only "problem" brass I've had has been winchester in a 300 WSM. Case necks would split on 2nd loading. How I remedied that was to aneal the neck after the first firing and wha-la, no more split necks. I know a gentleman who used to hold several shooting records. He told me that if half the people would pay more attention to bullet pull, their groups would shrink drastically. He anneals after every firing.

slimjim · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:26 pm Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

DSlayer, let me explain more about dies. The Lee Classic Hand loader is Lee's least expensive die. You can usually get them for $20 to $25. They neck size only and only compress the neck a few thousands - just enough for the right neck tension to hold the bullet. Concentricity out of this die is within 0.001". I used my vice and drill press to get the cases in and out of the die instead of a hammer. I think Forester makes dies like this for bench loaders but the neck size can be adjusted with different size buttons/collars.

When I moved up to a RCBS Rockcrusher single-stage press, I tried Redding, RCBS, and Hornady standard dies with expander balls for my .270 (I didn't try the Lee). My groups widened and velocity deviations surged. My shooting buddy told me to check concentricity. Some were as much as 0.010" out of round, few were below 0.005". I removed the expander ball and measured neck diameter. Hornady was compressing the necks 0.015" before the expander ball expanded them back out to be 0.002" less than bullet size. This really work-hardens the brass and shortens case life. This shrinking and expanding the necks also introduced concentricty issues. I shifted to Redding S-Type dies and used a button to size the neck to what was just needed to hold the bullet. This extends case life (like the Lee Classic) and brought my concentricity back down to 0.002" and less. My groups when back to 1" at 250 yards and velocities were consistent again.

I also invested in Reddings competition bullet seater with a micrometer to adjust seating depth. This is a big time saver because I load so many different bullets types. Another tip, don't use the integrated crimp in any bullet seating die. It can cause more problems than it solves. You have to trim your cases all the time and any length variation will vary crimp pressure. If the case is a couple thou long, it can actually bulge the neck/shoulder. If you need to crimp, get the dedicated Lee Collet crimp die. Its the best $13 you will spend. On my .270, it doesn't increse neck tension, it just makes it more consistent reducing std dev by 1/2.

pete4d · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:21 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

Slim,,,, If you need to crimp, get the dedicated Lee Collet crimp die. Its the best $13 you will spend.

Some of the best advice you can give for a good reload and a long case life .

lesterg3 · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:43 am Post subject: Re: Best quality brass??

OK, so I am reading all this with great interest, but since I still consider myself to be a neophyte in reloading I have some questions about just how concentric the projectile needs to be to the cartridge considering all of the other clearances required in the chamber. I use Lee equipment exclusively a Classic Cast Press for rifle and a Lee Load Master for handgun. For a lot of reasons I have spent far more time reloading handgun ammo and have only reloaded rifle ammo for my .270 and my accuracy from a bench is just under 2 inches at 200 yards, good enough for now and maybe the best I can expect from a Savage but if the bullets are not going into the same hole time after time I cannot really be satisfied. Additionally, having been a Tool and Die maker at one point in my life I absolutely love precision and why not strive for it.

So back to the concentricity issue and just how close it needs to be, besides saying that precision is precision and is a worthy goal in itself. There seems to me to be several other factors that effect the projectiles alignment to the rifles bore. Even if you are using twice fired brass and only resizing the neck there still must be clearance between the chamber and the brass to afford getting the cartridge into the chamber, therefore an alignment issue. The projectile does not seat into the rifle bore as all I have read indicate a clearance requirement (I use .070 on my .270), so it seems to me that besides having some level of concentricity in the cartridge that possibly the most critical factor in alignment of the projectile to the bore would be the face of the bolt, which with my limited knowledge of rifle construction seems to be the single item that aligns or squares the cartridge in the chamber. As I think about the cumulative clearances required to insert the cartridge and even assuming that I was able to reload a perfectly concentric cartridge that even a .00025 out of square of the bolt face to the rifle bore would extrapolate to a very significant out of alignment issue between the projectile and the the bore. Please educate me.