Two part question here, 1. In my new quest for brass, finding or buying, is there a specific brass out there more sought after than another? I see you can spend any amount you want or dont want. Does the more expensive brass hold up longer, or is it's length and tolorences more refined? 2. I have cleaned and polished all my brass that I have here and grouped it together in their respective families; Win, Fed,Rem, so on and so forth. Will different brass have an effect on accuracy even if loaded with same powder charge and primer, or can all empty brass be treated equally?

Does depend a bit on caliber...are some calibers that do seem to have a brand that's better than others, but most US made brass is pretty much standardized.

matching your brass by headstamp is a good start; unfortunately Rem. brass (or whatever brand you want to use as an example) from 2007 might not be a great match for rem. brass made in 1996 (or whatever other year you pick). They do change dies now and again, and do change internal dimentions slightly. Best would be brass all from the same production run (lot number).

If you are very careful, can fill selected cases with any substance that pours easily and doesn't pack down...some people use any ball powder, best is water, but i've even used #9 bird shot. Idea is to fill a get an empty weight...sample case filled up dead level and get a full weight. The weight of the fill gives an idea of the volume inside....brands that hold more have larger volumes, those that hold less have smaller.

(If you want to get real technical, can get that fill with water and work out the volume in cc's, but all we really need is a comparative number.)

Better than brand would be to group them into volume....if your Federal and your Winchster cases have the same volume, then there isn't any real reason to keep them seperate.
--------------
In the real world, unless the case is a real odd ball in volume, it will make little difference.

Different lots of the same brass and brass by different makers will have slightly different case capacities. This will effect pressure and grouping some. For most hunting situations it won't make a lot of difference, but if your chasing small groups then it can make a difference.

I usualy buy brass by the 500 or 1000 pieces and I've stopped picking up range brass for the varmint and hunting rifles.

If you have several different makes of brass your on the right track sorting it. You can sort it by weight also. Some lots of the same brass will be different than other lots by the same maker.

I usually buy Remington or Winchester brass simply because it's the least expensive and seems to be both consistant and accurate in my rifles.

For REALLY precise shooting, follow the above suggestions. For plinking, either with rifle or handgun, all cases will shoot about the same (with few exceptions). I segragate my cases by brand and trim them for uniformity. Have no complaints about group size so long as it is smaller than the 10 ring, without fliers, shot off the bench at the prescribed distances. In other words, don't use a 100 yard target to shoot 50 yard groups. In addition to the brands you have mentioned, a lot of handgun shooters like Star-Line brass cases which, when bought in bulk, tend to be less expensive than the well-known brands and perform just as well. IME, much of the accuracy that you can get out of your firearm depends on how much care and testing you put into your reloads so an ordinary case can be made to shoot well if you do your homework whereas an expensive case can shoot terribly if you don't.

I know you already know this and you're just testing us . . . right?;)

Being a conserative sort of shooter and working at a gunrange, I fill out my brass needs with once-fired range pick-ups and segregate by brands. Favorite brand is Federal Gold Medal (I know the shooters that use it and don't reload), but only because I've favored Federal cases for years. Nothing wrong with Remington or Winchester, even Hornady Frontier (which I suspect is Federal). Too cheap to pay for the premium brands such as Nosler, Norma, Lapua, etc.

I've weighed cases, sorted by lots, trimmed to length, deburred flashholes, trued primer pockets, ad infidum and have found that the US brands all run about the same characteristics and will work well if you do the simple trimming and deburring. Gave up annealing because of the abundant supply of once-fired. When they start showing age, they are discarded.

Lots of folks disparage about nickel plated cases, however, I've always had good success with them. Matter of fact, I've still got a box of Remington nickel 7x57mm cases that were necked down and fire-formed into 6.5x257 Robt's AI. They are on their 26th full power reloads and I'm just now having to discard some due to split necks. Did turn the necks though, because of finding small excess lumps of nickel on them. Still have several boxes of new, unprimed cases sitting on the shelf to use when these finally wear out.

It does depend on caliber, as some calibers are only manufactured by a few brass makers. You will find out though.

Winchester makes most Federal and Hornady headstamped brass, I'm not sure who Remington manufactures brass for.

I've had some bad luck with Winchester brass, I believe it is a softer alloy than Remington, PMC, and Starline. I pretty much only use Remington brass anymore...

Thanks guys, and no Marshall, this time I really didnt know.

You have any information on Winchester making Federal and Hornady brass?

Also, always found W-W brass to be equal and sometimes better than Remington.

It sure would be nice if the brass case makers would be more consistant in there products and quality control. From my seat, it looks like they sell what they have for at whatever price shows a profit.
Factory ammunition only needs to shoot once (Why would an ammo maker worry about "reload-ability" of thier product? A hand-loader is competition to thier market. New brass cases are also competition to selling ammunition. Why would they offer the best to a reloader?

All of that said; Hornaday holds the record for longest case life here.
Remington for most accurate in my most accurate rifle.
Winchester is what I have the most of.
Federal is my favorite for rimfire ammo.

All of the above could change due to QC at the manufacturer's level!

Cheezywan

Could be mistaken but have always thought Federal and Hornady made their own brass. Also W-W brass has always been good but now it is hard to find. Likewise WCC brass. Believe the reason being that Western Cartridge has all but disappeared off the dealer's shelves and has been replaced by the Winchester brand. Going to think twice before leaving any of my military WCC '70 .45 ACP brass on the ground.

W-W brass has always been good but now it is hard to find.

It must depend on the caliber?, I bought 300 45-70 shells this weekend in NEW unopened Winchester bags and every single one has the W-W stamp on it.

You have any information on Winchester making Federal and Hornady brass?


Scroll down the page on the following link and you will see just one example, but I've seen and heard of many others. I know you will point to the proprietary cartridge technology, but Hornady and Federal can not keep up with the entire US demand on their own, this is the case with many other industries.

http://www.thehuntingshack.com/specials.htm

Didn't see anything in the referenced link that would cause me to think Winchester is making Federal and Hornady brass.

What did I miss? :confused:

The 223 and 243 WSSM brass cases headstamped Federal were made by Winchester and are selling for $295/1000.

I don't want to hijack this post, but I have a question.

I purchased some Starline brass for my .41Mag Blackhawk.
Until now, I have only used Winchester brass with this gun.
I have never shot Starline brass before, so I was surprised that when at the range, the reloads with Starline, load exactly the same as my Winchester brass, had much more recoil.
I then backed off on the Powder drops with the Starline by 1 full grain, and got very good accuracy with them.
I have checked everything with my caliper, and can't see any difference between the two.
I did noticed that the primer pockets of the Starline was tighter than Winchester.

Can anyone fill me in on this happening with the Starline brass?

Thanks,

Eric

1) Throw out A-Merc brand brass. Has strange thickness profile on the case wall. They must use light bullets that only go into the case a little bit.

2) Throw out Berdan primed brass.

3) I've had trouble seating primers in S&B brass, due to pockets being too small. Others report no problems.

. . . I bought 300 45-70 shells this weekend in NEW unopened Winchester bags and every single one has the W-W stamp on it.
That, I believe, will be some GOOD brass! Most of what I see lately has headstamps marked "WINCHESTER" but from your post, W-W must be still available.

I just bought some .44 Mag brass that is stamped W-W Super, which has been very good brass. Its almost match grade quality, the whole bag only had a weight difference of .3 grains, with zero deformities. I've purchased this brass before and had good results with it.

That, I believe, will be some GOOD brass! Most of what I see lately has headstamps marked "WINCHESTER" but from your post, W-W must be still available.
Maybe I should go get some more? I cleaned out 4 of the local stores, the counter monkey said each store only gets 2 bags?, the 6 bags lightened my wallet by $180!

Maybe I should go get some more? . . .
Don't know about you, but 300 rounds (15 boxes) would last me a long time as my reloads are loaded for accuracy, not maximum power. But then . . . sometimes I tend to "pig out" when the price is right or the item is hard to find. Best wishes :)

I just bought some .44 Mag brass that is stamped W-W Super, which has been very good brass. . .
I hope you guys know that you're making me swollow my words re: W-W brass. GAG . . .GAG :D

for years i swore by winchester brass but the last bag i got the level of polish was not as nice as in the past and i had to throw away 4 pieces because of folds in the neck and shoulder area. i know that demand is high and supplies are low but that is dissapointing. i picked up a bag of remington brass for my 7/08 recently, very nice, no rejects, and 3 extra pieces, gotta like that!!
i did recently buy some laupua brass for my 6.5x55 and i must say wow, that stuff really is awesome!! but seeings as it just went to $65/100 it ought to be real nice. i hope prices don't get much worse on components... wonder what to expect?

It does depend on caliber, as some calibers are only manufactured by a few brass makers. You will find out though.

Winchester makes most Federal and Hornady headstamped brass, I'm not sure who Remington manufactures brass for.



I don't know if all or certain calibers are but that explains why when I didn't get a chance to work up some loads for my 223, I just bought some Hornady factory 55 grn Vmaxs for predator and the brass is stamped Winchester.

Sorry Marshall! I don't know if this is old production stuff, I heard when the auditors went through Olin corp they literally found train car loads of brass and bullets manufactured in a huge lot because the metal was a good price.

Thats kinda strange M1, but I can see it, I bought several bags of Winchester .204 Ruger when it was a good price ($13/100) and one bag had more than ten pieces of brass with no manufacturer stamp, only the caliber. I'll see if I can find a piece and post a photo.

Eric,

your .41 mag. Starline brass maybe telling you what I found in my own for my .45 Colt.

The Starline case walls at the mouth measured .001 inch thicker than my WW brass. Note, my PMC brass measured the same thickness as the Starline.

The thicker brass means less case capacity and more compression. That would raise pressure and recoil in all probability.

I just found that out today.
The only measurement that I didn't take was the thickness.:confused:
You are correct in saying that it is .001" thicker.
I had a brain freeze when I asked that question.:rolleyes:

Boy, I will say one thing though. I am totally impressed with the accuracy of the .41Mag
The recoil is not a problem either.
I am using 20gr of H110 with a 200gr JHP bullet. The groups at 25yds are unbelievable.

Long ago, I owned a .44Mag Super Blackhawk that I hated. This .41Mag is twice the gun as that one was.

Thanks for the info on the thickness. I backs up what I found today.

Eric