Just placed an order @ Midway for a snap cap (A-Zoom) and a box of Hornady brass for .416 Rigby.

Loaded ammo was more than the 60 bucks "coming soon" we chatted about two years ago, but half the price of the Federals. (They also show Norma loadings.)

BNagel

i got got 2 boxes of hornady 416 rigby brass today from midway... i ordered about a month ago,

looks great.. i'll be forming to 500 AR this weekend, maybe

jeffe

The brass is discolored from neck to past the shoulder -- annealed? Also, when I try to crimp (RCBS die set to crimp on seating stroke with nickel-plated Federal brass from factory load) the shoulder bulges and OAL of brass is significantly shorter. I adjusted so the die won't crimp and will see if the problem continues after fire-forming but this stuff looks way soft!

BNagel

All factory brass is annealed after final forming and all Hornady brass that I've bought didn't have the annealing discoloration polished off.

Also, since nickel plated brass is so damn hard, it takes more to crimp so I'm not suroized that it may have buckeld the shoulder on new unplated brass. Last but not least, the new brass may need trimming and is too long for where you had the die set. I always trim new bulk brass to uniform the length and make sure the mouth is square. Those steps are often not performed on any company's bulk brass.

IIRC, my old 416 Rem was more prone to shoulder-squashing than some other rounds, too. Like my 338-06 AI and 375 AI, the 416 is somewhat of an improved round.

I went to norma brass, noticed it needed no sizing or trimming before loading but still ran it all through the sizer anyway. Don't know yet how it will do in the long run. Hope it lasts well since its only a few dollars less than loaded hornady rounds. No shoulder problems yet, but anytime I change anything I go through all the steps setting up my seating die.

Not ignoring y'all, just coming back from strep throat. It hurts!!

I "belled" the necks slightly to seat bullets from my regular practice load. After I get to the range and fireform, I'll see how much more adjusting I have to do on the die after resizing and so on. Federals were trimmed at 2.885" and the Hornady's hit around 2.890"

The Federals are great but they are 200 bucks to replace nowadays. Yipe! I got mine on clearance for 80 bucks ea. x 2 boxes. Still have the pulled 410-grainers in a box, I believe. Hoping for good things with Hornady. Some brass I had in 6 mm Rem worked fine, but I didn't have to crimp :-)

Had a few NORMA's but I gave 'em to a PH. Thanks for the details on manufacturing. This Rigby (CZ) taught me how to shoot and it seems involvement will continue to educate me -- fun!

Thanks guys

BNagel

the hornady brass is listed as in stock on midway, last night

OAL after fireforming is between 2.870" and 2.885" (11 round sampling). I'll just save the crimping for Federal brass hunting rounds and not crimp the Hornady brass. Looks pretty good, BTW. I was going to use it for practice anyway and I want to see how it stacks up against the NORMA stuff (which also works).