by Rod_outbak » 21 Jan 2019, 5:06 pm
My opinion:-
Kesley, are you planning to shooting targets with them, or hunting?
Lapua brass is some of the best you can buy; nicely finished and VERY consistent.
Very rare you need to do much (if anything) to Lapua brass to be ready to load it.
[AND: you get a really handy box with every 100 rounds!]
Norma brass seems to be much the same as far as quality as the Lapua(Though often harder to find at times).
[And they just come in a plastic bag...]
ADI/OSA brass seems to be not too far behind; consistent and well-finished.
Mightnt be quite as finished as Lapua, but pretty darn close, and usually available.
When I'm weighing completed/reloaded OSA/ADI .223 brass cartridges, they rarely vary in total weight by more than a few grains.
[Which I find freaking astounding, considering the variances in powder, projectiles, etc]
Winchester, Hornady(##), Remington(**) and Federal(!!) brass are all decent enough, but require a lot more prep work to remove sharp edges, trim to the same length, etc etc.. After a bit more initial prep work, these cases seem to come up fairly consistently (Plenty good enough for hunting), but I find they have a higher failure rate, and you never seem to get them quite as finished as the Lapua brass.
As others have touched upon; I found Remington brass to be quick to tarnish, and not anywhere near as finished, even in the factory cartridges. I bought about 200 150Gn Express cartridges for the .308 about 6 years ago, and I've bought about 200 factory 80Gn SP cartridges for the .243, and they dont seem to finish the cases as well as other manufacturers. I'm currently working through a tin of .243 OSA 87Gn V-Max cartridges, and that brass is much better finished than the loaded Remingtons.
(##) The Hornady 165(?)gn match ammo that I bought early on for the first .308 (~2012) all had crimped primers. Bit of a bugger getting them out. The brass prepped up fine once I got the old primers out, and tidied up the primer pockets. Factory ammo that is expected to go into a gas gun like an AR, will often have crimped primers.
(!!) The Federal 55gn SP .223 ammo I bought July 2018 had crimped primers as well; likely for a gas gun. Once the primer pockets were reamed and prepped, the cases seem to have come up fine, but I am yet to load them.
(**) - I had 100 new Remington 7mm-08 brass that prepped up perfectly, and failed after 2nd loading, as about 30% had primer pockets that couldnt hold a primer any more (drop out). I had ~300 Federal and Winchester brass that I was running in the 7mm-08 that is onto it's 6th loading, and failures are still below 5%. That Federal brass had a reputation for being prone to splitting cases, and whilst I've had the odd one, I havent lost 5% in 6 reloadings.
And FINALLY: The Highland brass. This stuff has needed the most of my case prep on the first reload; I found the cases to be all over the shop in length, needed the primer pockets uniformed, and there were quite a few that I simply wasnt happy with, and binned. However, given I started with a couple of hundred, I think I ended up with about 180 cases that have been reloaded about 7 times in the .308 so far, and have proven to be really reliable brass. I do note that of all of my .308 brass, this stuff varies the most in loaded weight. I'm yet to have one fail from old age(case separation etc), though, whereas some of the younger Federal brass has failed after the 5th loading. And it retains it's luster a LOT longer than the Remington brass.
Thats my experience to date.
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