Brass brands for reloading

[Phauxtoe]

Reloading question
I have been reloading for center fire pistol bullseye and High power service rifle. i found loads i like and want to prepare for next season.
I thought i should start with new brass, are there brands i should stay away from and more importantly are there GO TO BRANDS to buy?
i have been told STARLINE or REMINGTON will be great and not to crazy expensive.

any other impute would be great.

thanks

 

[togmaster]

I will usually go with anything I pick up at the range but if I had a choice I'd use Remington. Also need to mention I never bought new brass for reloading.

 

[JohnD13]

I would agree with both Remington and Starline being good brass. I have had mixed experience with range pick up brass, you have to check it carefully.

 

[Deplorable Me]

When I want to peak out my reloads I stick with US manufactured brass loaded for commercial use (non-military; police okay.) Winchester, Hornady, Speer, Federal, Remington. I find that Remington neck thickness is the thinnest, but still no problems. For my .308 and .223 bolt guns I also use Lake City but have to de-crimp the primer pockets.

If I'm loading general purpose loads (80% maximum) for blasting paper, lead or copper I can hold decent accuracy with just about any brass.

I batch and keep track of the brass. Maybe 10 reloads for pistol calibers, 15 reloads for bolt guns and the absolute rule of thumb for semi-auto gas rifles is never more than 5 reloads. Extraction really beats the crap out of the case head and the necks also get used up too. Rifle brass life for non gas guns will also vary too. Lever guns seem to mildly abuse brass. .30-30 has a thin neck wall and .444 Marlin is a straight case subject to early retirement too. Bolt action and necked cases, live long; shoot often.

Once Fired Handgun & Pistol Reloading Brass for Sale | Diamond K Brass

I've bought a lot of used pistol brass from these folks. Get on their e-mail list and wait for specials. During the great ammo shortage of recent years it was hard to find even used brass. I stocked up well from these folks.

 

[Deplorable Me]

Keep a scrap bucket handy near your reload bench. Cartridge brass (including .22 rimfire) is worth $50 to $90 a 5 gallon bucket depending on the market. Rifle/pistol primers are generally nickle plated copper; same bucket. Aluminum put in a separate bucket. Keep a magnet handy. Shotgun primers contain a steel anvil (junk). Throw the steel AK 7.62x39 cases in your neighbors recycle bin.

 

[JamieZ]

Keyword Search | Brownells

Keyword Search | Brownells

www.brownells.com

Excellent brass, better than Lapua if you can get in the caliber you need

 

[Phauxtoe]

i use Range brass for practice reloads, but for competition i want to have the best i can manage.

 

[Phauxtoe]

great note on the Gas gun Brass!

 

[Carlos Hathcock]

People call Hornady brass garbage but I've reloaded the original 200 6mm Creedmoor rounds I bought probably no less than 7-8 times, probably more. I only toss the ones that drop primers. Also been using Starline. No issues as of yet. Fewer reloads on those. Oh, annealing each cycle.

 

[Acer-m14]

and then along comes @meketrefe LOL .. just had to LOL .. now i gotta go play that song LOL ..

 

[meketrefe]

and then along comes @meketrefe LOL .. just had to LOL .. now i gotta go play that song LOL ..

Whats up? What is that song you refer to?

Regarding the brass it depends what caliber and year/batch. Some plants make brass for 3 or 4 differnt brands so arguing about brands is meaningless.
What calibers do you want to reload?

 

[Phauxtoe]

Whats up? What is that song you refer to?

Regarding the brass it depends what caliber and year/batch. Some plants make brass for 3 or 4 differnt brands so arguing about brands is meaningless.
What calibers do you want to reload?

reloading
38 special (bullseye) and 223(High Power) for sure, and maybe 9mm(bullseye) and 45acp(bullseye)

 

[Mosinitis]

Lake City 223 once-fired from 1990's was great brass, if you can find it. Newer Lake City is not as good, but usable. As was said above commercial brass can vary in quality depending on when it was made.

 

[meketrefe]

reloading
38 special (bullseye) and 223(High Power) for sure, and maybe 9mm(bullseye) and 45acp(bullseye)

hi.

Rifle
For 223 high power is easy. Save your money and collect as much of the once fired Lake City plant brass (NATO only) as you can.
This along with WCC with or w/o NATO stamp not only gives you some of the best starting 'hard brass' but the largest capacity of
any brands. Wash, resize, remove the primer pocket crimp, trim and enjoy.
In terms of new or once fired brass (harder to find) The lapua and hornady is going to be much more consistent specially the lapua
brass that is the most consistent and high quality brass one can buy specially with some of the deals one finds in new bulk brass.
The issue is that Lake City and WCC hold about .5 to .6 grains extra of water capacity and since it is hard brass one can go hotter with
powders that show consistency on the hot side, faster loads and accurate too.

If you go hot any brass will last less reloads so it makes more sense to get cheap military brass of this type that one can buy cheap by the thousands or even find it free at the range recycling bin.

Stay away from Federal like the one is used in American Eagle and other lines of ammo. that is soft brass that is crap.
This doesn't mean all federal is bad like the one that is hard brass from Lake city with the same type of process as the nato
brass (hard brass). you will see in some of the Federal annealed cases just like the nato LC brass.
In this caliber stay away from BlackHills BHA as, unlike other calibers this is made by Winchester that in this round is not the ideal
(not consistent and softer brass) although I suspect blackhills follows a different process and why their loads are also better that
is the actual loading itself. Hard to say as of today because they might change manufacturing plant but with the other options you
have plenty to work with and inexpensively. No Winchester of any kind. No nickel plated of any kind. Those you can skip.

Pistol
Based on your choice of powder I would assume you use cast bullets with bulls-eye.
It is hard to determine what brass is better with this type of reloading because certain cases might work better with certain
cast bullets.
I don't know the 45 but in terms of the 38 and 9mm there is little point in investing in anything other than once fired brass.
The more you buy of the same brand and year/batch the more consistent is going to be so you don't have to spend more
time segregating. In this case Federal and Winchester will do fine. But so they will PMC, starline, etc...
Also try better powders like CFE pistol, or some of the super clean modern clays.
I don't shoot cast(plated or not) because it is not cheaper nor better and it is not allowed indoors for a good reason.
But I have tried multiple brands of brass and powders including bullseye and some cleaner ones mentioned above and I got
great results. But again, I take my time to segregate the brass and have it prepped once.
A expensive new brass will not hurt but I doubt will give significant more life or performance given those considerations
and for this type of reloading.


Summary
Rifle or pistol Lapua will outlast many other brass if one doesn't go hot. I had 308 reloaded up to 30 times to use in the bolt action.
No need to uniform flash holes as they are the best out of the box and just reload and shoot. So in this sense they are
the cheapest brass of all for rifle but once again I got lots of LC brass for free. It comes down to how much money
you want to invest and how much time and patience you have.

Many times so it happens that when you have time you don't have the funds and when you have the funds you don't have
the time because you might be working your ass off.

I hope this helps.

 

[meketrefe]

Lake City 223 once-fired from 1990's was great brass, if you can find it. Newer Lake City is not as good, but usable. As was said above commercial brass can vary in quality depending on when it was made.

True. I have used 04, 06, 07, 10, 13 LC nato and othe years with great success. I have the spreads documented somewhere.
I segregate and prep well the cases and they are favorites for high performance cats like the 6x45, 6tcu, 6.5tcu and AI.
Both because the extra .5 to .6 grains but specially because they are hard brass and can take some heat too.
Again, a bit more time prepping but great value as I got lots cheap or free.

I do have a pretty automated system for cleaning prepping and reloading so that helps.
WCC is another one in the same category. Some batches even better than LC but LC is plentiful.

 

[Acer-m14]

What is that song you refer to?

and then "along came jones" ..

 

[Phauxtoe]

hi.

Rifle
For 223 high power is easy. Save your money and collect as much of the once fired Lake City plant brass (NATO only) as you can.
This along with WCC with or w/o NATO stamp not only gives you some of the best starting 'hard brass' but the largest capacity of
any brands. Wash, resize, remove the primer pocket crimp, trim and enjoy.
In terms of new or once fired brass (harder to find) The lapua and hornady is going to be much more consistent specially the lapua
brass that is the most consistent and high quality brass one can buy specially with some of the deals one finds in new bulk brass.
The issue is that Lake City and WCC hold about .5 to .6 grains extra of water capacity and since it is hard brass one can go hotter with
powders that show consistency on the hot side, faster loads and accurate too.

If you go hot any brass will last less reloads so it makes more sense to get cheap military brass of this type that one can buy cheap by the thousands or even find it free at the range recycling bin.

Stay away from Federal like the one is used in American Eagle and other lines of ammo. that is soft brass that is crap.
This doesn't mean all federal is bad like the one that is hard brass from Lake city with the same type of process as the nato
brass (hard brass). you will see in some of the Federal annealed cases just like the nato LC brass.
In this caliber stay away from BlackHills BHA as, unlike other calibers this is made by Winchester that in this round is not the ideal
(not consistent and softer brass) although I suspect blackhills follows a different process and why their loads are also better that
is the actual loading itself. Hard to say as of today because they might change manufacturing plant but with the other options you
have plenty to work with and inexpensively. No Winchester of any kind. No nickel plated of any kind. Those you can skip.

Pistol
Based on your choice of powder I would assume you use cast bullets with bulls-eye.
It is hard to determine what brass is better with this type of reloading because certain cases might work better with certain
cast bullets.
I don't know the 45 but in terms of the 38 and 9mm there is little point in investing in anything other than once fired brass.
The more you buy of the same brand and year/batch the more consistent is going to be so you don't have to spend more
time segregating. In this case Federal and Winchester will do fine. But so they will PMC, starline, etc...
Also try better powders like CFE pistol, or some of the super clean modern clays.
I don't shoot cast(plated or not) because it is not cheaper nor better and it is not allowed indoors for a good reason.
But I have tried multiple brands of brass and powders including bullseye and some cleaner ones mentioned above and I got
great results. But again, I take my time to segregate the brass and have it prepped once.
A expensive new brass will not hurt but I doubt will give significant more life or performance given those considerations
and for this type of reloading.


Summary
Rifle or pistol Lapua will outlast many other brass if one doesn't go hot. I had 308 reloaded up to 30 times to use in the bolt action.
No need to uniform flash holes as they are the best out of the box and just reload and shoot. So in this sense they are
the cheapest brass of all for rifle but once again I got lots of LC brass for free. It comes down to how much money
you want to invest and how much time and patience you have.

Many times so it happens that when you have time you don't have the funds and when you have the funds you don't have
the time because you might be working your ass off.

I hope this helps.

SHIT THAT WAS AMAZING!
Thank You, so much!!!

 

[Acer-m14]

SHIT THAT WAS AMAZING!
Thank You, so much!!!

see what happens here when you know a song LOL .. I knew Meke had the info

 

[Mosinitis]

Unfortunately this is only a part of the brass story and there are a lot surprises. The quality can vary year to year and lot to lot even with LC brass and Lapua. I would stay way from unfired LC brass. It's factory rejects and often the quality can be crappy. One would be better off with once-fired military LC brass. Unfired rejected brass comes with a big question mark.
BTW, Black Hills brass (BHA) that I have is the longest lasting brass I ever had, 10 plus reloadings. This goes to my point about surprises.