Does anyone have any comments on the new hornady brass that are out? I was going to try them for the 300WM if wall concentricity and thickness is as uniform as they say they are. I know guys have said hornady brass for the 6.5-284 were thicker (less case capacity) than desired, but I have only heard good reports for the .243 and 308 brass from hornady. Any comments? I do not neck turn and I target practice a whole lot more than I hunt. Do I need to go to lapua for consistant wall thickness and concentricity?

Personally, I prefer Lapua for those chamberings for which they make brass. But, that is only because I have 10 years experience with Lapua and only about a year's experience with Hornady. Being a pretty conservative bloke and well pleased with Lapua products, I see no need to change horses in mid-stream.

I AM currently using Hormady brass for both my .405 Winchester and my .376 Steyr, and so far it seems like very good brass indeed. Time will tell, I guess....

AC

Thanks AC. Do you think the hornady brass is softer than the Lapua?

I have used their 405 Win and some 30-06. So far so good. I consider it on par with their competition.

ASS_CLOWN

ASS CLOWN,

Is that frontier headstamp or actual hornady headstamp for the 30-06? Frontier was made by winchester and hornady made by themselves. I ask because I didn't see 30-06 in their own lineup. The wall thickness on hornady headstamped brass isn't suppose to vary more than .002" while the frontier varied as much as .005" (sometimes more in a bad batch) as is the case for remington and winchester brass.

I have some hornady .458 lott brass and it seems to be good. I have only fired 50 of the cases once to date, so longevity is not determined.

Was going to check the hardness of Lapua vs. Hornady on the Brinnell machine at the local Jr. College machine shop, but haven't had a chance to get there since you asked the question.



As of now, I don't know which is harder, if either. As you likely know, most well made brass for high pressure cartridges varies in hardness according to the part of the case being tested.



From what I have seen of the two, Hornady brass is completely adequate for its purpose...thus far seemingly at least as good as the RWS brass I also have for the .376 (RWS makes really good brass, BTW), and the older Winchester brass I also have for the .405.



My suggestion would be to try just one box in your rifle with your loads. If you like it, buy more. If you don't, it isn't much of a loss.



My rule for my own use of any new make of brass is to try it in my rifles with my loads. Even if I use exactly the same loads as another person, pressures, brass life, etc., are not likely to be the same as I am not using exactly the same batches of components, nor firing them through the same rifle at the same altitude, humidity, temp, et. al. So, a brass which someone else likes (or hates) may well be adequate (or not) for my particular application.



AC

Well put AC. Yah, I would like to know the hardness of the two brass along the length. I am a metallurgist but don't have either lapua or hornady brass to test as of yet. I mention hardness because many people say norma is softer than they like, and the only complaint I have heard about hornady in some of the calibers is a soft neck/shoulder region that can colapse if seating certain bullets. Your right though, I need to just spend the $25 for 50 hornady brass and try them. I demand consistancy in my brass so I would like to go with good stuff, whether lapua or hornady. I have had some winchester and remington brass in the past that was not very concentric and don't want to buy more of them unless I convince myself to take the time to sort through them.

shilen30,



You are correct about the -06 brass, my bad. I made and erroneous assumption (assuming my memory would be good, that is).



I agree with AC about RWS too!



By the way, you comments about Norma are right and wrong, in my experience. I have had Norma cases that were butter soft and others that were harder than hell (splitting necks on the first loading, I knew I should have annealed them first but damn do I hate annealing brass).



ASS_CLOWN

I've tried hornady and laupa in my 6.5/284 and the laupa is harder, hornady seem to form easier to the chamber. I'm not into weight case etc since mine is a tight neck I'm alot more concerned with groups and after firing I determine which cases gives the best group. Just for something to do I fire one of each hornady,laupa and win284 and got a 3 shot group in the .2's. As you can tell I'm not big in to the brass thing and that's just me. Well good luck

Thanks Tom. When it comes to norma, I have only heard people comment on the 300WM brass, and they say they are soft. That is good to know they are not all soft since I was considering trying them in my 22-250.

It's probably also worth noting that "hardness" often varies within the different brass offerings from the same manufacturer. That is, "Company A" might make .30-06 brass harder than does "Company B", while with, say, their .270 brass the relative hardnesses might be exactly the reverse.



Brass hardness also varies in the same cartridge from the same manufacturer, both beween lots and within lots. The reasons are many...loose hardness tolerances in the specs, equipment problems during a run, different sheets of brass used for the "coins" during a run, changes in formal specs between runs, etc.



A good example of a formal spec change is the classic change in both thickness and hardness of Norma brass for the 7x61 S&H, resulting in the cases stamped 7x61 Super....

That particular change was well publicized, but often less significant changes aren't announced or publicized at all.



Best wishes,



AC