Federal 308 brass is not worth buying, if you get it free that's one thing. Some people won't even use it if it's free. It is heavier than other commercial brass, but is very soft. Lapua makes the best .308 brass, but Win is good too, and much cheaper.

Hello:

After a 30 year haitus I have recently returned to rifle reloading. Much pistol reloading in the interim. I wish to wring the most out of an old, old Sako L57 for "paper-punching" at 100 to 300 yards.

I have just bought "Federal Match" once-fired brass via the internet. I intend to weigh and segregate the brass by weight. My questions are...

1) Is there a way to tell, by weight, if Federal Match .308 brass is in fact that or just any FC headstamp purported to be match? Or, perhaps tell by neck wall thickness. I am assuming that Federal brass for their Gold Match loads is dimensionally different than for their standard loads. Tighter tolerances at least.


(I pose this question as my first two e-bay brass purchases were not satisfactory. One in .223 had some with crimped in primers, since corrected. The other .308 Federal Match purchase turned out to be of mixed headstamps, though advertized as "Federal Match". It makes me believe that this problem is systemic to those selling brass on e-bay!)

I will be loading Sierra 175 grain Matchking HPBT bullets with CCI BR-2 primers. Dies/press are Redding Comp. Neck Die set and RCBS Rockchucker. At this stage, I do not intend to neck turn the brass.

Regards-Dave

dynaglide,

I have Federal Match brass in 222 and 6 x 47. It's simply headstamped FC and the caliber. The boxes it came in are marked match, though. But this is old stuff and not 308. I prefer Lapua brass today. It is available in 308 and is of high quality.

knobmtn

Thanks for your response. I did not want to start out with the Lapua or other premium brass until I find out what I can do with more economical supplies. Also, I bought this Sako used eighteen years ago for $200 w/ Weaver K4. It was 98% and hardly ever shot. I've only shot two boxes of factory .308 in it. I'll see what the rifle and I can do working up some loads before taking the next steps. Modify rifle, start over & build Rem. 700 etc...

My thoughts are to compare vertical versus horizontal precision on calm days to try and quantify shooting and reloading precision. No chronograph yet.

Regards-Dave

Don't believe everything you read here sometimes you just got to try it for yourself. I use FEDERAL brass, Winchester Remington and Hornady Brass. And honestly can't tell which one is better. They all work good for me. I consistently shoot .5 Moa regardless of which brass I use.

Be careful that you don't waste hundreds of dollars of powder, bullets and primers by saving 10's of dollars on brass. I think that the smartest money in shooting buys good bullets and good brass. There are economical powders that work great, not much difference in primers cost usually....DJ

Hands down. Lapua is the best 308 brass out there.

I do not dispute the quality of Lapua or Norma brass. I bought Federal Match brass on the internet also. After full length sizing and trimming they weighed within a 2 gr spread. They seem very consistant. I also must admit to having good luck with Win brass.

I use Winchester and Remington brass pretty much exclusively.
Federal and PMC brass are really too soft in my experience.
Many people on this forum trash Remington brass, however I do not think that many out there use it.
Winchester has chaep bagged brass and you really can't go wrong with it.
Remington has announced bagged brass also, but none of my wholesalers have picked it up yet. I do not think Remington is producing it yet.

-Spencer

I use a fair quantity of Federal gold match .308 brass once fired at the range from the tactical (swat) guys. It only has f.c. on it and I never had anything but good to say about it. The Remington and Winchester that I use has also performed well. The only .308 bras I've had nothing but problems with is the CAVIM boxer primed. I've used it also in my wildcats and it is too soft. Always sticky extraction well below max. That's the Velezuelian ammo that was so cheap about 7 or 8 years ago. I find more problems with bullet and powder selection rather than brass. I am not however a bench rest competitor. But I do shoot a lot of paper. roger

If you can get your hands on some Lake City Match brass you wont ever want to use anything else. I have 2 batches that have seen over 10 reloadings and still going strong. It has excellent uniformity in weight also.