I would appreciate your opinion rating the overall best quality brass case manufacture for handloaders. I recognize some cartridge brass is not offered by some companies. Also, I request you not take price into consideration only your technical opinion.

Thank You.

Question:
What one company do you believe manufactures the best overall quality brass cases for handloaders? If "Other" please specify.

Choices:
A Square
Federal
Hornady
Lapua
Norma
Nosler Custom
Remington
Winchester
Other

 

Too many variables depends what caliber you're planning to load for example I prefer Starline Brass for SW460mag,454casull,45lc,45-70 ; 300wm: Winchester or Remington and 06: Winchester,Remington or Denver 42 or 43 military brass.

Thank you scr83jp. I am not familiar with Starline or Denver brass. I'll look them up on the net.

Buliwyf

Starline makes excellent pistol brass. Lapua brass is so much higher quality than Remington they shouldn't be on the same page.
RWS also makes excellent quality brass and is available in rare calibers but can be quite expensive.....................DJ

I selected "other" for the now defunct BELL brass.

This is a little bit of a loaded question.
Lapua makes very good brass but not much of it. Their quality does not do you any good if it is not made in a particular caliber you need.

Some of the best and worst brass I have came from Norma. One lot of 243 brass is truly the worst I ever bought new.

I use a lot of Remington, Winchester and Federal and find it about the same for my use. I do much prefer Norma for 6.5X55. I have never loaded any RWS.

If I got to choose I would chose Lapua.

The Hornaday numbers are truly a wonder considering their extremely limited variety of cartridges. No 25-06, no 35 Whelen, no 22 Hornet, no 30-06.... What's up with that?

What about Jamison Brass?

I have heard their brass is of very good quality.

Regards,
Dave

Jamison, in everything I have tried. Very consistent in weight and case neck thickness.
Price is very reasonable as well.

I voted "other".

Rich
DRSS
NRA Life Member

quote:

Originally posted by ireload2:
Lapua makes very good brass but not much of it. Their quality does not do you any good if it is not made in a particular caliber you need.

Excellent point, I to wish Lapua was available in more calibers. Remington isn't near as good quality but that doesn't mean I don't have 30,000 or so rounds of it in my Garage!. It makes good "I don't want to pick it up" brass for my AR-15's..................DJ

I've heard of RWS, Germany I think, and I've heard it's excellent quality. I've never seen any, but will investigate where to buy some.

I've never heard of Jamison, but will try and find them on the net.

Thank you.

B

US RWS source - Huntington's. Good brass, available in many of the European calibers.

I try to use Lapua, RWS or Norma if the caliber I look for is available in those brands. For volume reloading Winchester (and Remington) offers good brass at much lower prices.

- mike

1: Lapua
2: Norma
3: RWS

You can't buy Federal brass anymore. You have to get factory loads and fire them first.

RWS: damned good - damned expensive.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
You can't buy Federal brass anymore. You have to get factory loads and fire them first.

That seems to be the situation with most of the conventional cartridges in the Hornady catagory, too.

quote:

Originally posted by Buliwyf:
I've heard of RWS, Germany I think, and I've heard it's excellent quality. I've never seen any, but will investigate where to buy some.

I've never heard of Jamison, but will try and find them on the net.

Thank you.

B

RWS and Norma are under the same roof, it seems that the brass is just labelled differently.

Norma manufacture brass for almost all the major ammunition companies bith in Europe and US. The difference is in the quality control/finishing.

Mark

Shot a lot of RWS and Hirtenberger when I had 8x68S and a 6,5X68. Sold the 8x68, still have the 6,5x68 and enough brass to last a life time.

Both were expensive and both were strong, very excellent brass.

Used to get the brass from Century Arms. Loved those black and green boxes. I have heard RWS bought out Hirtenberger, but don't quote me on that.

quote:

Originally posted by DUK:
RWS and Norma are under the same roof, it seems that the brass is just labelled differently.

RWS and Norma are owned by the same company - RUAG of Switzerland. So it is hard to say whether brass labelled RWS comes from the Norma manufacturing facility or vice versa. However, as far as I know, there are still separate brass manufacturing plants. So it is probably a premature conclusion that Norma = RWS as far as brass is concerned.

- mike

RWS
Lapua
Winchester
Norma
Horneber

I have not had a chance to use the Jamison brass but the Bell stuff was sometimes good sometimes bad.

I've been a little dissapointed in Horneber lately. Runout and inconsistent neck/case wall thickness. Quality comes and goes with everything it seems.

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
... Remington ...makes good "I don't want to pick it up" brass for my AR-15's...DJ

Nothing like throwing good cases away because you simply don't have an idea of what you are doing. If anyone could follow dj around, there would be an excellent source for Once Fired cases.

I've found over the years that if you take a bit of time to perform a full Match Prep and then segregate the cases by Weight Sorting, they are all about the same.

Doesn't matter who makes it, there will normally be many good Lots and a few occasional bad ones. Some of the "Drilled" cases take a bit less Case Prep, but the initial cost is often so high, that it makes the small effort required for the Case Prep well worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:
[
Nothing like throwing good cases away because you simply don't have an idea of what you are doing. If anyone could follow dj around, there would be an excellent source for Once Fired cases.

Well HC while you are trolling about for something to try and be a jerk about you once again are talking about something you are completely ignorant of.

I bought 13,000+ rounds of once fired Remingtion for less than $20 per thousand. For plinking and general shooting ammo I tumble this stuff and load it on the Dillon 650. It shoots better than you might think for so little effort. If you want to follow behind me and scavenge this TWICE fired brass you are welcome to it.
For Match ammo I prefer to use Lapua brass that I do bother to pick up......................DJ

quote:

Originally posted by mho:
RWS and Norma are owned by the same company - RUAG of Switzerland. So it is hard to say whether brass labelled RWS comes from the Norma manufacturing facility or vice versa. However, as far as I know, there are still separate brass manufacturing plants. So it is probably a premature conclusion that Norma = RWS as far as brass is concerned.

- mike

I woudl wonder if they manufactured the same brass at two different production plants. The 30/06 brass I have from both brands weights exactly the same. Older RWS brass is different.

I routinely use Win, Rem and Horn brass.
All require the exact same brass prep.
Non seem to have any edge over the other. All need:
primer pockets uniformed,
Trim to uniform length - deburr and chamfer
Deburr flash holes,
Weigh

Non seem to have any edge on uniform weights….

I understand that is not the case for Lapua

Oh for crying out loud!!! I was reading the Lapua numbers as if it were the nuimbers for Hornady.... Now it makes sense!!!...

i just couldn't figure out why everyone liked Hornady so damned much!!!

I reload mostly pistol calibers, and Starlines the best.

Thanks for your third post Mike. I could not figure out what the hell you were talking about in your first two. I had to laugh.

Buliwyf

mike
i was doing the same
as far as brass goes its LAPUA LAPUA LAPUA!!
just wish they had a greater range
daniel

I use Winchester for pistol or Israeli Military
Industries (I.M.I}.

Hornady and "good" brass in my mind is an oxymoron. The last two rifles I've worked up were new, and the customer brought me 100 rds of Hornady ammo for each to break in the barrels and use the once fired brass for the load workup.

The 7mm Mag had the worst case OAL variation I've ever experienced, and fully 20% of the cases were shorter than the specified "trim length"--after the first firing. Case mouths were also sloppy-ragged and far from square.

The .270 wasn't that bad for length, but the case mouths were like the 7-mag, ragged and anything but square.

So, I don't recommend Hornady brass, although I like their bullets.

Another vote for IMI - My AR10 seems to really like it.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
You can't buy Federal brass anymore. You have to get factory loads and fire them first.

I Just got a sale flyer from Midsouth and they are offering Federal primed brass for a number of calibers. I ordered my "lifetime supply" of 7mm Rem Mag brass--seems to be the only type my rifle likes.

RWS is hands down the best.

Lapua a semi close second. (Shame on the small number of calibers they make though)

Norma a distant third.

The rest are OK I guess, though not even close to Norma.

Okay then, question..................

What in the h#@@ makes Lapua brass so much better?

I have worked with Norma, Nosler, Winchester, Remington etc. The Norma are all very uniform in neck thickness and hold the most powder and have drilled flash holes. The Nosler custom has very uniform neck thickness, are weight sorted, come with a chamfered case mouth and a deburred flash hole.

How is Lapua noticeably better?

quote:

Originally posted by woods:
...How is Lapua noticeably better?

Two ways:
1. It protects your back from being strained. This due to carrying much less money in your billfold.

2. And it provides many at dj's expense.