What brass do you use and why?

I realize, by virtue of the vast majority of opinions, that Lapua brass and Norma brasa are at the top. For my specific caliber it is $154 PER 100 in Lapua and close to the same for Norma. But I can purchase Winchester and RP for 1/3 that costs. When I initially purchased brass I purchased the new Nosler brass along with Winchester. Aside from the fact the Nosler is already sized, trimmed, and flash hole deburred...I can't seem to justify that anymore. I can sit and do that and save myself $25 for 50.

So why would I purchase the Lapua and/or Norma brass? Is the brass that much better? Will I get that much more life from the case? Is manufacturing that more consistent? Are the measurements more consistent? How many more reloads will I get? If I can justify the initial costs it might be worth the brass, but if not I won't.

If cost is an issue, then Win brass can be sorted and prepped to be as consistent as Lapua. You may end up with more "rejects" from the Win brass, but you can always shoot those cases as fowlers or sight-in rounds.

Lapua makes excellent brass, and it is pretty luxurious not to have to perform all the case preparation steps you'd need in lesser brass. But once sorted and prepped, the Win brass will probably give you just as good service.

One possible exception might be if you run pressures as high as BR shooters seem to do these days. In this case, the Lapua brass may stand up to the beating better. Using normal, sane pressure I doubt you'll see much difference.

- mike

What is your application?? If you're talking about hunting, there is no way the Lapua/Norma brass can be justified from a cost, and even an accuracy, position. Only from an ego point can the Lapua/Norma be justified.
If you're shooting matches, then the Lapua can be justified because it can be used "right from the box" with little prep. If you bought a domestic brass, by the time you did the prep on the brass to bring it to lapua standards, you would have enough sweat equitity into it to have bought the Lapua. BUT, the other side of the coin is, you can buy about three or more times the brass for the cost of a batch of Lapua. That would allow you a lot of culling. The short version is, if I'm shooting a match, I use Lapua; if I'm shooting Pdogs or hunting, I use domestic brass. There is not THAT much difference.
I've had two experiences with Norma. Neither have been that great so I'll let someone else talk about it.

I use Lapua for several of my factory rifles. For the 100 or so cases I would use over the life of the rifle I don't see the cost increase as an issue. For my 280 based wildcats I use Norma. I've found it very consistant and in a 280 or 06 case it will give you about 3grs more capacity. The trade off is the walls are then a little thinner and I think the Norma is just a touch softer. In pressure testing I found the Norma would start to give some head expansion at around 67,000. Not an issue if you stay within normal pressure limits. A reloader that pushing everything to the limit would view the Norma gives shorter life. I like it in my wildcats where no load data exists. If I start to see expansion then I know where I am and back off accordingly.

mho gave you good advice, I could not have said it any better. I shoot a .338 Lapua and will always use the Lapua brass for it. If I shoot anything that is made in Norma or Winchester I will use them without qualms. Good shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by mho:
If cost is an issue, then Win brass can be sorted and prepped to be as consistent as Lapua. You may end up with more "rejects" from the Win brass, but you can always shoot those cases as fowlers or sight-in rounds.

Lapua makes excellent brass, and it is pretty luxurious not to have to perform all the case preparation steps you'd need in lesser brass. But once sorted and prepped, the Win brass will probably give you just as good service.

One possible exception might be if you run pressures as high as BR shooters seem to do these days. In this case, the Lapua brass may stand up to the beating better. Using normal, sane pressure I doubt you'll see much difference.

- mike

+1 Good advice.

I've switched to Win brass and do the sorting to get good cases. I just can't justify the great price difference between Win and the other two, when considering the accuracy I get with Win brass. I doesn't trade.

Don

I'm with ramrod340. The cost of a few rounds of Lapua is minor considering a few pieces will last the life of a barrel. Brass is a very minor part of our shooting expense. Fuel to the range or to your hunting property is a bigger expense.
Butch

Sometimes there isn't much choice. I've used Winchester brass in my 375 H & H for years, and it works well. Of course, it's not a bench gun. The Win brass produced excellent accuracy, usually under an inch. However, it's no longer available, so I've gone to Norma. It's 5% heavier and has 3% less capacity.

quote:

Originally posted by RenegadeRN:

So why would I purchase the Lapua and/or Norma brass?

Is the brass that much better?

Will I get that much more life from the case?

Is manufacturing that more consistent?

Are the measurements more consistent?

How many more reloads will I get?

If I can justify the initial costs it might be worth the brass, but if not I won't.

You'd best stick with Winchester brand brass and use the difference in price to buy a Hornady annealing kit. Annealing work-hardened brass will lengthen its useful life more than the high initial price of the imported brands.

I have bought WAY too much high priced Lapua brass in my life. Winchester for me where applicable. I just do not see the difference at the target.

I like lapua brass. Its fun , pleasurable to use and "fondle" quality stuff. I use winchester and norma also and like both. Though winchester brass pisses me off sometimes when I get new bags and have case splits and cracks and holes after once fired. Some lots of winchester brass is just junk. I started aneling it new, alot of work preping it.

I wont touch winchester brass with a barge pole, not until they get their quality control together.

The last lot of winchester 223 brass I bought, was simply junk, necks were splitting after 1 or 2 firings.

Their 243 brass was so inconsistant in weight and volume that it was basically unusable and a couple had no primer flash hole or extremely deformed one.

I now use Lapua brass exclusively, 223 and 243.

The 243 Lapua cases that I use in my 7mm-08 are easially giving me double the life of remington 7mm-08 cases.

Same with my 284 win, I now only use Lapua 6.5-284 cases.

Both are excellent quality but I think you are fine sorting WW. I have a 260ai that I make brass from .243Lapua & .260RP. With identical loads the accuracy is slightly better w/ Lapua & they last a few firings more.

You can sort WW brass all you want and it will never have the brass quality or wall thickness uniformity that Lapua brass has. All you will have is WW brass that weighs the same but has inconsistancies elsewhere.
Fortunately in practical terms the differences may not add up to all that much on target unless you have a particularly well tuned rifle, so for most uses WW Brass will work just fine. But it will never be as good as Lapua brass unless they make some real changes...............................DJ

I think it's your rifle that will decide which brass to use.I had some really good results with Winchester brass in 308 caliber and read some where that although it worked for this caliber,it was not the brass of choice for other calibers.Win brass also worked well in my 7mmRem mag.Remington brass was terrible in my 300 Win Mags.When one begins to develop a load for a new rifle and caliber of which he has no prior experience,I think its best to start with one brand of brass for various powder and bullet choices and shoot at 200yds for best velocity and accuracy.If you get groups to your liking you can stop there.If not,you can change brass and check for improvement.I bought a scope today for my 300 RUM and will soon start load testing for this caliber with Remington cases.I got some Nosler cases on order and will check both for best accuracy.I am really looking forward to seeing what works best for this caliber and rifle.