Need new brass for my 450 3 1/4 been using HDS (Hunnington Die) what are people using and why?? Thnaks

I use either Jamison or Hornady brass.

I'm using Hornady.

I use whatever I can get in my nitro rifles, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can compare with the old BELL brass.
Cal

I use Hornady and shoot & reload a lot. I am very pleased with it.

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
I use whatever I can get in my nitro rifles, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can compare with the old BELL brass.
Cal

Cal

Agree totally. It was and still is superb brass.

Even the BeLL brass wasn't bad.

.

Just looked over about 300 HORNADY 450NE 3-1/4" cases, 20 per box, in preparation for loading. I measured case lengths to determine a possible trim length if needed and any potential (short length) discards. Seven cases length measured short at (much) less than 3.2330" and eleven cases length were at or over 3.2370" (I can trim shorter). Remaining case lengths were rather evenly distributed from 3.2330" to 3.2365" or in other words, 3.5 thousandths of inch spread in case length across about 280 cases. For the center distribution bulk of 187 cases, length ranged from 3.2340" to 3.2355" or a spread of .0015". That is pretty good quality control on outside case length. Not sure of internal variation as is more difficult to quantify with linear measurements. My V-C DR chambers are at 3.265" deep for comparison so Brass will be about 0.025 short of chamber neck end. Some Hornady case necks were out of round if not dented(few) so I ran them all through a 0.456 neck expander to uniform and clean them up in prep for trimming to probably 3.234" or 3.235" to even up the necks for good crimping. Cannot speak to relative hardness nor durability yet as are unfired. I also obtained 80 Jamison cases to test ($49 from Huntingtons, in bags of loose 20 ea.). More denting as not boxed. Not further studied yet for uniformity. Spoke with Jamison factory rep who holds his brass in high regard and states it is on "harder" side than some other makers (unspecified). Is there a SAMI standard for brass hardness? Jamison rep also stated that a major British gun maker (to remain unnamed) just switch from (big name Brand XYZ) ammunition mfg maker to using Jamison brass in their Brit head stamped ammo for QC improvement reasons. Hope this all was a little useful. What we all need is an objective system with which we could quantify our quality comparisons among the brass manufacturers. Lastly, I used NORMA brass in my old 470NE and got 5-8 firings before case head separations reared their head coincident when I switched from Reloader15 to Reloader19. Probably should have stopped at five firings as per Graeme Wright recommendations. Beginning to wonder if my 470 case heads are compressing some at 30,000-40,000 PSI or if I simply have a touch of excess headspace in that rifle (will have to check it)? Lots of things affect brass case life besides mfg quality.

Hornady, although I do have some old Bell in 450 and 500. Jamison? Have some for my 50-95, and definitely don't want any more. It is so thin that even a very light mis step in going into the die will ruin it. Bad. and Expensive. BTW, doubtful that your case heads are compressing. Fire a primer only and see if it backs out. If it does, you have a bit more headspace than rim. Or use some shim stock on a piece of brass. Or use a headspace guage, which no one ever has in .470.

dpcd...good thoughts, rim thickness has not been high on my list when it comes to case inspection and prep...Just had a range session this past week and noticed a few primers that had backed out a mil or two while prepping them for reloading. On the road now but when I get home I think I'll mic a few rims to see what I have...Do you think that rims flatten over the coarse of a cartridge's reloading life??

After further thought my primer problem is more then likely a loosened primer pocket and perhaps an indicator that I need to discard that piece of brass