Thoughts on Nosler custom brass

[fireroad]

Anone have any experience with Nosler brass? If it's as good as they claim it is it seems like a good compromise, price wise, for those of us not willing to spring for Norma or Lapua. I get good results with Remchester, but a little more accuacy and less prep time would be worth the additional cost.

[LongRangeNoob]

I've used nosler brass for everything from hunting loads to "match type loads" with great success in my .308. I highly recommend them.

[Gunner69]

Just loaded 500rds of .300 WinMag using Nosler brass everything went great.. case necks were already very uniform good uniformity in OAL just fine all around brass only issue I had was 1 case that had a double thick headstamp.

[sourdough44]

I bought some from Sportmans Wharehouse as they were closing down, 22-250. It was much better than the average new brass. I still neck sized, checked length, & champhered some though. It didn't need much. I call it very good brass.

[rn22723]

Got news for you for the most part Lapua brass is CHEAPER then Nosler brass! Way cheaper when compared heads up in some cartridges and not too bad in some. Nosler brass is hard to get at times.
Nosler comes in 50ct boxes vs Lapua 100ct boxes. Lapua has a limited offering for the most part.

[fireroad]

That's interesting you say that you say that because of the four calibers I shoot (243, 260, 280, and 300 WSM) Lapua only makes the 243 and it averages 15 dollars MORE than Nosler and 5 more than Norma per 100 per Midway. To say Lapua's selection is limited is an understatement. I'm sure they make good brass, it's just not practical to only switch one caliber.

To restate my question...how does Nosler brass stack up to Norma?

[impalacustom]

For benchrest shooting it doesn't stack up. For hunting, the animal won't know if it was Remington, Winchester, or military surplus brass. You have to remember 90% or better of the people using Norma and Lapua brass have custom chambers made off of their neck turned and uniformed brass, they will cull out all the ones by weight and that cartridge will only work in their rifle.

Personally I wouldn't spend the extra money unless it was for a benchrest rifle and by looking at the calibers you have they are hunting rifles.

[fireroad]

impalacustom - I would have to politely disagree with a few of your points. The pusuit of the best possable accuracy out of one's rifle is not limited to those who only shoot benchrest. Many short and long range hunters who handload agree that the notion of "good enough accuracy for hunting" is obsurd. If you are an ethical hunter that strives to put down game quickly and humanely in all wind conditions you probably obsess about accuracy as much as comptetive shooters. My hunting buddies and I spend alot of time practicing and working up loads and pride ourselves on our one shot clean kills. We have gotten the majority of our rifles to shoot .5 MOA. Some of us are interestied in trying premium brass as one of our grooup was able to shrink his 300WSM by .4 in down to .3 MOA simply by switching from win to Norma brass.

While I don't shoot traditional benchrest, half the calibers I shoot are indeed benchrest calibers. The 2006 NBRSA 1000yd chsampionship was one by a 243. The 260 is all over the 600 and 1000yd circuit: the 2007 overall 1000yd winner at Butner was a 260. WSM hasn't been fully explored yet, but I have seen a number of results pages from IBS, NBRSA and Williamsport Heavy Guns that listed the 300WSM...and it usually did fairly well.

[impalacustom]

I agree that the 6.5 and 6mm rule the roost at the benchrest but what I meant was you won't see hunting rifles like 243 Winchesters or 260 Remingtons shooting competitively on the line. You will see a bunch of 6mm's though like Dashers, Prancers, 6-6.5 x 47, 6BRX and others and in the 6.5 the 6.5 x 284 is the dominant one there. WSM and WSSM don't have great brass to start with, it is too thick and not easy to work with. Your buddy's group probably dropped because the neck tension on the Norma brass is less than the stuff he was shooting previously, that is where reloading comes in handy. You probably won't see the WSM or WSSM in benchrest as there are other more accurate calibers out there. I have a friend who took a 25WSSM and necked it to 6mm with an AI shoulder, he can't get it to shoot for nothing.

I still stand by my earlier comments. That deer will BFD with all the brass on the market. The bullet makes more of an impact on killing the animal than the brand of brass. One tenth of an inch will not make a bit of difference in killing an animal when your hitting the heart or head.

BTW I hunt and have never had a deer get away from me after using military, Frontier, Winchester or Remington brass. They are all dead with one shot.

[fireroad]

Some good points...but I'm a tinkerer so if I can't squeeze a little more accuracy out of my rifles with a little better brass...I'll probably try it!

I just found out Nosler is not going to make brass available for the WSMs so I guess I'll put some Norma to the test.

[Blue]

I have had good luck with Nosler Brass. I make a few mods to it for my purposes and it is routinely available in my area. It is a good place to start. I don't know if was the brass or not but I do know that it is capable of "one hole" groups. Probably the weapon!

[impalacustom]

Fire if you like to tinker, I say by all means grab the better brass and then uniform your primer pockets, and debur your flash hole. Sinclair sells some of the better tools for this and easy to use, don't get an adjustable primer pocket uniformer, they are a sure way to ruin brass if the set screw moves. Then if you have a chance get some bushing dies for neck sizing and try fooling with your neck tensions. The bullet will leave the cartridge more uniform and help with accuracy. I neck size my benchrest stuff 1-2 thousands smaller. Don't forget to trim your brass to length. Something else you might want to think about is changing to a slower burning powder so your case is close to full or right about 90%.

[A_Gamehog]

One thing I like about their brass is the "Neck Tension" is pretty close on all cases right from the box without any other prep work. When you seat your bullets the pressure exerted for this task feels the same without exception.

[ForneyRider]

Bought Nosler brass in .22-250 and it is excellent. It is fully prepped out of the box, including being weight sorted and flash-hole deburred.

Handloader Journal did a 308 Win article and Nosler was best out of the box brass but wore out the quickest. I think the mag said it was Federal brass that was prepped by Nosler. I don't come across Federal brass very often, usually Remington and Winchester, so I can't compare.

Surprising they don't offer brass in WSM, since they offer their rifles with WSM chambers.

Haven't shot Lapua. I did find one piece on the ground and I ain't giving it up.

[fireroad]

I did call Nosler and ask them why they didn't offer the WSM brass, especially since their custom grade rifle is chambered in 300 WSM and they make the brass for their 300 WSM loaded ammo. They told me they have no plans to make the 300wsm brass available for fear of lawsuit....we have Rick Jamison to thank for that!

The more I search the more Ifind that people have more negative than positive things to say about Nosler brass. Given that Nosler brass seems to be hit or miss (excellent vs too soft) depending on caliber, I think I'll stick to Remiongton brass (and maybe Norma in 300 wsm). I now the Remington is on the bottom of e veryone's list, but I have always had good luck with it (probably because mine is 25 yrs old!).

[mike6567]

I just got in a box of Nosler .300 win brass the other day. I am pretty impressed in the uniformity. If they hold up after a couple of reloads I will definitely buy more of them.

[Horseman]

I was under the impression Nosler has other brass mfg's produce their brass. I believe Norma was named as making most offerings for Nosler.

[ForneyRider]

Norma's brochure has Nosler as one of the headstamps they manufacture.

[Doodlebugger45]

Forgive me for asking what is probably a dumb question here, but I'm still learning about a lot of aspects of reloading. I started out loading various pistol calibers and when I bought new brass, I just took what I could find. But now I'm reloading for a couple rifles as well, a 7 mm mag and a 270 WSM. So far it's been the same thing, I buy whatever new brass I happen to see when I need it. So my question though is what exactly do you mean when you say Brand X is "better" brass than Brand Y? So far, it all seems to work OK whether it's been Remington, Winchester, or Hornady brass. It all comes nice and shiny and the same general shape and goes through the sizer die just fine. After the sizer die it should all be exactly the same right? My main concern is to make it last as many times as possible. Are some brands better about that?

[impalacustom]

That was my point Doodlebug. For hunting, all the brands out there will bring home the bacon so to speak. What seperates Norma and Lapua from the rest are they keep the quality control way higher and have less tolerance's in the brass production.
IE: When they make the primer pocket they are more uniform and require less work to get them perfect. Same with the primer flash hole, there is usually way less "flashing" left after they are punched out. The brass is also more uniform in weight than other brands.

[Doodlebugger45]

Ahhh... I see. I can understand the weight issue. Just for grins I've weighed a few cases before and noticed some variation. Mostly I just wanted to see if a person could weigh loaded rounds to see how much powder was actually in them, but the brass itself varied enough to make it difficult to do much calculation.

I guess I do sort of see the difference between the Hornady brass for my revolver compared to Winchester brass. It does sort of look better but I just thought it was my imagination.

Speaking of brass though, I am wondering if others had noticed this. Up until recently, all the new brass I bought was always for revolvers. Even on new brass I always ran them through my sizing die just to make sure everything was uniform. But on all the brass for my revolvers, regardless of the brand, it just felt like the resizer was hardly even touching the brass, suggesting that the brass was just about perfect from the factory. But last week I bought some brand new Winchester 7 mm mag brass. Even from 3' away you can see that the case mouths were not round on some of them. They were noticeably deformed. The sizer made them good easy enough, but it was a surprise to me. Is that common on rifle brass?

[lgregor]

Phenominal brass, use is my CZ_550 chambered in 308Win. This brass is the BEST and I have used all types to include the best Grade Lapua. While I cannot comment on longevity compared to others like the Lapua the fit, finish, presorted weight & prep were are 100% perfect in the lots I received. Not as much as a single ding or scratch on any of the brass. Pulling it out of the box inspecting under direct light almost made me feel guilty to use it and get it dirty...

Its getting REAL hard to find however at least in 308Win and other real popular calibures. Use this brass, CCI BR2 primers along with Varget & Berger VLD Match bullets have proven the perfect combination reulting in 1/8th & 3/16" groups @ 100meters. Love not having to do anything to the brass right out of the box other than prime & load. Wish it was a little cheaper and a lot easier to find in stock.

[muzzelblast]

Even from 3' away you can see that the case mouths were not round on some of them. They were noticeably deformed. The sizer made them good easy enough, but it was a surprise to me. Is that common on rifle brass?

It's not uncommon for brass to get dinged up a bit in shipping, packing, etc. I see it more often on bottleneck cases. That's why many reloaders run a new case through the sizing die before using it. Necksizing is ususally enough. I don't always size new brass but if I see any in the bag/box that have issues I do that batch for sure. When you have warehouse guys tossing bags of brass to order shippers, things getting pitched onto conveyor belts, dropped on floors etc it is easy to see how new brass can get dinged. Happens to pistol brass too.