Best brass?

[bronzdragon]

Any comments on factory ammo that has the best brass to use for reloading? I had heard comments that some was thinner then others and this lead me to believe that perhaps it wouldn't last for as many reloads or it would distort a lot easier...

~rc~

 

[Praesul Presul]

In general I prefer Winchester to Remington or Federal but load all of them.

Prefer Lake City 5.56 to most others

Starline is usually the preferred brass in hot handgun loads especially revolver rounds.

Silver State Armory is the preferred brass in 6.8 SPC.

Lapua is preferred for precision rifle loading usually followed by Norma and Nosler.

In all of this you will see people loading everything even steel cased "brass" so it's up to you.

 

[Leadslugga]

I only load for handguns, and I haven't really noticed a performance difference in any brand of brass. Some is easier to work with. The primer pockets on some brands are notably tighter or shallower, and this can make it a little more of a pain to seat primers, but this isn't really a big deal. I've been told that winchester brass holds up a long time, but that being said I rarely have a case split, especially in an autoloader, since you end up losing the brass before you've loaded it that many times in most instances.

I've got a set of 100 .357 Starline cases that I've loaded hot 10 times now, and none of them have failed yet.

 

[Max's Choice]

I use starline brass and find it a over all good brass and the price is always better. I have not have any split or blown out cases and have loaded most at around 8 times so far. I loose most of it after that. Hope this helps.

 

[bronzdragon]

Thanks for the help guys. I've started to collect brass.

~rc~

 

[nickatnite]

I use starline brass and find it a over all good brass and the price is always better. I have not have any split or blown out cases and have loaded most at around 8 times so far. I loose most of it after that. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the help guys. I've started to collect brass.

~rc~

Starline is great...

Just ONE helpful tip about "COLLECTING" brass if you go to one of the local matches.

If you pick up some brass and you see markings on the bottom of the casing, i.e. stripes of different colors; that belongs to someone who "hopes" to get it back at the end of a match. Pretty common for everyone to do this, extremely common for people shooting 38 super and such.

Just ask Max, las month at CAS, out of the whole match, I think he got back 12 pieces of 38 super. There was a new guy picking up everything possible until someone "explained" what to do.

 

[dzelenka]

I would recommend against Federal brass for rifle reloading. It does not hold up.

 

[bronzdragon]

It's a policy of mine to pick up only what I brought...unless the range needs swept up and noone else is there.

~rc~

 

[Leadslugga]

I pick up more than I bring usually, for a few reasons: 1, it is almost impossible to determine what was mine if I'm shooting an automatic, and 2, no one else is using it. That being said, in the interest of fair play, I don't clean out the whole range when I go (I don't need that much brass anyway). When shooting in an indoor range, I just pick up everything that falls at my feet, because I'm not about to pick through it all to figure out what was "mine."

Unless I see something rare-ish like .44 mag or .45 colt just lying around discarded. I'll look around for any of those that might be in there, because it is worth so much more to a handloader than the scrap value.

 

[Bam Bam]

I would recommend against Federal brass for rifle reloading. It does not hold up.

Really? Darn, I've bought some of the Wally world 100 rd value packs and shoot it with good results. Now it's mixed up with my other brass. I have plenty of A/E and Lake city brass saved though.


Bam Bam

 

[70116]

... Just ONE helpful tip about "COLLECTING" brass if you go to one of the local matches.

If you pick up some brass and you see markings on the bottom of the casing, i.e. stripes of different colors; that belongs to someone who "hopes" to get it back at the end of a match. Pretty common for everyone to do this, extremely common for people shooting 38 super and such ...

Also be careful of marked 9mm brass if no one takes it. I shoot 9 Major, which means that the round, using a 124 gr bullet is loaded to provide a 1400 fps velocity vs. a factory load of the same weight bullet at about 1150 fps. Most people don't want to reload brass that has been loaded to Major levels, so I mark mine with a red stripe on the bottom of the case, and I don't bother to pick it up.