Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

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Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by Stix » 15 Jan 2020, 9:27 am

Im curious to know the order of "best to worst" in all the common brands of brass from factory ammo...from you guys who have experience...actually, from what you have experience with...
And maybe also little comments as to the "why's" that go with it...for example..."i dont like brand X because of huge inconsistincies/or split necks/or too hard...etc etc..

Win
R-P
Federal
ADI
Hornady
Norma
etc
etc
etc

:drinks:
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by SCJ429 » 15 Jan 2020, 10:20 am

I like ADI or OSA 223 brass, with some sorting and prep it shoots well.

I use Norma 243 brass and was given a heap of it for free. It was excellent and needed very little prep. I wish I had not bought a box of Lapua for $150 because the free Norma stuff is just as good.

I did not like Hornady 204 brass because it was all over the place weight wise but I had heaps of it. With a bit of sorting it was shooting with single digit ES and groups under 1/4 MOA.
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2020, 11:54 am

Stix wrote:Im curious to know the order of "best to worst" in all the common brands of brass from factory ammo...from you guys who have experience...actually, from what you have experience with...
And maybe also little comments as to the "why's" that go with it...for example..."i dont like brand X because of huge inconsistincies/or split necks/or too hard...etc etc..

Win
R-P
Federal
ADI
Hornady
Norma
etc
etc
etc

:drinks:


I think it depends to some extent on the cartridges specifically, all cases are not the same throughout a range. They're not turned or machined, they're swaged from flat sheet. If you compared .308 brass from a dozen different manufacturers you could conceivably draw a valid conclusion on which is the best (according to your test criteria). If you compared a dozen different cartridges from a dozen different manufacturers I think you'd struggle to determine that one manufacturer makes the best brass regardless of cartridge.

I have very little brass from factory ammo that I bought, 50 Fed AE.44Mag and 100 S&B .38 Special - I was waiting on .44 brass and couldn't find any .38 brass at all at the time. My brother bought twenty rounds of Federal .243 but he has the brass, and I've been given quite a bit of various factory centrefire ammo that I haven't fired. I bought a few hundred Hornady cases in .204 from a fox shooter which I like, and I bought 450-odd "once-fired" .223Rem mixed, but some of it had been resized and some had been reprimed so I can't really consider it to be "once-fired", although it very likely was all factory ammo originally. I also have a lot of secondhand brass (I've bought or came with rifles) but I have no way of knowing if it was ever factory loaded or not.

I buy new brass whenever I see it on special (even when I don't have a firearm to use it yet) so I have a large variety of brass in many different chamberings - Norma, S&B, Winchester, Remington, Jagermann, Starline, ADI, OSA, Federal, PPU, and more, way too many to list. The only one that I really don't like is the Winchester stuff, but the once-fired Winchester seems to be good, so I think their new stuff leaves a lot to be desired in the annealing. Mil-spec chamberings are a pain due to the crimped primers, but that's cartridge specific rather than manufacturer - .223, .308 and 9mm are the main ones.

I know I bought new Norma brass in .204 and 8x57mm that has been fired, many, many times with no problems. I don't have any specific leanings, other than away from new Winchester, but I particularly like the Norma and Hornady stuff. But I don't like them two or three times as much as I like the cheaper stuff.
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2020, 11:55 am

SCJ429 wrote:I did not like Hornady 204 brass because it was all over the place weight wise but I had heaps of it. With a bit of sorting it was shooting with single digit ES and groups under 1/4 MOA.


Perfect example of why weight-batching brass is a waste of time.
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by Stix » 15 Jan 2020, 12:10 pm

Well funny you say that Blade...

I did a little test with some Hornady 204 brass given to me last year...

I prepped it all then weight sorted.
Did a quick load test over say a grain n a half (.75 of a grain either side of my load in differentbrass).

Got an indication of where ut was at, & then confirmed it (more or less)--good enough for hinting as people would say.

From there, i took that powder charge & loaded the 3 lightest cases & the 3 heaviest cases & shot them at 200m.

Admittadely only the 6 shots, but never the less the results were obvious, with the 3 lightest cases printing a group about .5-.75" above the group from that of the heaviest cases...(mightve been other way around--but one group was notably higher than the other)...

Maybe its coincidence... :unknown:

And sure it wont make a diff shooting roos out to 150,but trying to hit a bunny's head at 300 not knowing whether uts actually 295 or 320 might make a miss or a hit... :unknown:

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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by marksman » 15 Jan 2020, 1:30 pm

this is whats on my table in the shed at the moment Stix

Image

l see a lot of different cases, l think that all brands can be made to work well if you put the effort in
but some are more consistent than others though so you will have to have a heap to get the consistency you want and there is always a fudge factor
l have always gone for once fired win cases because they are thin and more likely to be consistent because of that but you can get a lot of crap as well
l like adi and ppu cases as well but have used other brands when necessary
the brands l am using at the moment are lapua, norma, ppu, winchester and adi

this being micro about your cases and reloading isn't for everyone but it works for me :drinks:
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by Stix » 15 Jan 2020, 1:58 pm

:shock: Far out marksman...i wish i could have a supply chain like that... :thumbsup:

So when you sell the cases do you just bag em randomly spreading the crap out in amogst the good stuff, or do you batch them in any way...?
Or is that pm question... :?
(Sorry if thats a bit forward--dont mean to be rude... :) )

Also, where do federal fit in with peoples experience...?

Some people say they're no good & others say they're ok to good... :unknown:
:drinks:
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by marksman » 15 Jan 2020, 2:16 pm

when l sell them l name brand the cases into lots of say 400 x 308 size, 300 x 30-06 size, 600-700 x 223 size ect, under 5kg
you have to have a very large amount to be able to do this and what you see in the pic is not enough

as far as fed goes l have used it and found it good brass after prep and sorting but it is a bit thicker, no problem there but being a bit softer it may not last as long as some of the other brands, fed is a very clean brass and looks good compared to win which can be a sh!ty looking case

l did not mind it once prepped but in 308 it took 505 cases to make 200 at the standard l wanted, mainly because of weight
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by Jonnie » 13 Aug 2023, 11:29 am

G’day all
If anyone is interested, I have the following once fired brass available
.308 ADI
.308 OSA
.308 GFL
.308 REM
.308 PPU
.300 Blackout WIN
.223 ADI
All .308 is $60 per 100 and can come down for bulk buys, the .300 is $50 per 100 and .223 is $30 per 100.
Located in Adelaide and can post at buyers cost
Last edited by Jonnie on 14 Aug 2023, 8:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by Vince24 » 13 Aug 2023, 8:50 pm

I love that guy:

Very good pricing including postage for his specials in 223-308-30-06, you can pick your brand and the brass comes cleaned, resized, trimmed etc.
40$ for 100x 30-06 or 308 including shipping, nobody does better.
(now I have too many cases in 30-06 lol)

https://refurbishedbrasscases.com/
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Re: Once Fired Brass from Factory Loaded Ammo

Post by Peter988 » 14 Aug 2023, 10:19 pm

I like the ADI for the 223. I found the PPU to be rubbish. Threw them all away.
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