A friend gave me a box of 20 empty cases from some Hornady Custom Ammo he had for 22-250. My rifle and I really like the Frontier brass, does anybody know were I can find it without purchasing the loaded cartridges?

Hornady does not list the .22-250 for empty brass on it's website.
If it is Frontier brass that you want, you will have to buy factory loads and then save the brass after you shoot them.
Have you tried any other brand of cases? I have had good luck with Remington cases.

Thanks Dave, unfortanantly that was the answer I was afraid of (bummer).

Yes I have tried Win. and others but for some odd reason I get tighter groups with the 20 Frontier cases that were givin to me.

This is the first time I have seen a particular brand of case make a real difference and would sure like to try some more but hate to buy factory loaded ammo mainly for the cases.

I've seen hornady brass marketed somewhere but the calibers were limitted. I also think I saw that remington and winchester both made the brass for hornady depending on the caliber. All that aside I was at a gun shop and there sat a box of empty 30-06 hornadys that were clean as a whistle for $2.00. I bought em and took em home & all the fired rounds chambered in my tikka (which has a tight chamber) so I necksized them and they are waiting for reload.
I WAS IMPRESSED after spending a little time with those cases. They resized to near perfect runnout and just for fun weighed them on my e-scale. The consistancy of weight was almost unbelievable. AFter this experience I have to think whoever made them, there was some excellent quality control!! If you can find someone that's agressive with hornady products you might get some new brass!! Good luck d kraky

I think Olin makes the brass for Hornady. The headstamp look very similar to Winchester brass, as well as other details. The difference probably lies in the degree of sorting and uniformity standards that Hornady insists on when buying the brass, as opposed to Winchester factory fodder.

RSY

I thought I'd mention that if your load is "case sensitive" so to speak, you may want to continue load development, and perhaps find a more resilient load.

I have noticed that some load recipes seem to be more tolerant of different cases than others are. Of course different brands of cases (and even different lots of the same brand) have slightly different interior dimensions, and this does effect ballistics.

However, if your powder charge is truly optimized, you'll be able to shoot to virtually the same POI with charge variations as great as .3 grains above *and* below the mean charge.

As a test, load some rounds with .3 grains above and below your normal charge weight. Then shoot twice with the normal charge weight, and two more times with the lower charge, all in one group.

Do this again, on another target, using two more normal rounds, and two more with the high charge.

Chances are, one of these groups of four shots will be closer together than the other. By deciding which group of four is the tightest, you'll know which direction to go to get into the "accuracy groove."

Believe it or not, the accuracy groove is determined primarily by the cartridge/bullet/powder combination you're using, and only secondarily by the rifle itself.

If you find, for example that the two normally charged shots are pretty close with the +.3 grain charge, you may want to move up to the +.3 charge, and try the above again. In the second test, your old normal charge will become the -.3 grain charge.

When you find a charge weight that will tolerate the total of .6 grains of powder difference without deviating much outside 1 to 1.5 MOA, you'll have your target charge, which will be the average of both ends.

After finding this "optimal charge," you will want to fine tune by adjusting OAL. There is nothing whatsoever sacred about distance to the lands. Primer considerations should come last.

You may also notice that when you have an OCW (optimal charge weight) that even primer differences don't effect you as much as you may have thought.

And certainly, to bring this ramble back to the thread's point, brass case differences won't effect your groups *as much* as they did before. Of course you can try different cases as additional fine tuning, after all of the above has been accomplished.

If you're shooting a smaller cased cartridge, such as the .223 Remington, I would use + or - .2 grain charges instead of the .3 difference.

And oh yeah... I agree, those Frontier cases are some of the best.

green 788

Graf & Son markets Frontier brass. Don't have their catalog handy now but they used to state the manufacturer of the brass. They had it made by both both WW and Rem, depending on caliber. You might also try calling Hornady direct. All these manufacturers sell things they don't list in catalogs or websites.