Best brands of rifle cases

[mbcajun]

I have been visiting The Firing Line handloading forum for a long time, I have enjoyed reading and have picked up some very useful tips and information.I have just joined the forum and this is my first thread.I have been realoading for 20+ years and the older I get the more addicted I get,you know what I mean.I have always wondered why in a 3 or 5 shot group you would get fliers,so I have started playing with weighting my bullets and casings, checking runout ect.I have been using Win. and Fed. brass but the weight difference is always more than 2.0 graines diff. in a lot of 100, with only a small % weighing the same.My question is if the more expensive brass like Norma or Nosler is any closer tol. and worth the extra money.I am playing with my Rem.700 -270 Rem.hunting rifle. It will shoot a 1/2" group,but everything has to be weighed an be the same.I dont mind spending the money for higher priced brass if it is worth it. Thanks in advance for your help

[howlnmad]

Any that are free . Just kidding. You're going to get several different answers on that one. For that caliber I like to use Win brass but that's just me.

[Jimro]

You won't know until you try. However if you are already weighing and sorting your brass I doubt you'll see a benefit from Nosler, Norma, or Lapua brass, at not in a hunting rifle.

Jimro

[mbcajun]

I know I want get any better acuracy, I'm just wanting to know if I will get more pieces that weight the same out of 100 pieces of the higher priced brass

[Jimro]

Yes, you will get a smaller standard deviation and extreme spread with premium brass.

Jimro

[Unclenick]

Mbcajun,

Welcome to the forum.

You often still may want to sort cases by weight. Below are the weights of sample of .308 Lapua. It's pretty clear from the clustering that they came off two sets of tools. Below that is how some Winchester .308 cases lined up by weight. There it's pretty clear four sets of tooling were involved. If you sort by tooling, you may well get better consistency.





That said, two grains of weight difference, assuming identical outside dimensions, is only going to have the equivalent effect on pressure of about 0.13 grains of powder charge error. I think you'll find other factors in the brass are more important. Lapua has much more consistent and uniform neck wall thickness than Winchester and no flash hole burrs and very consistent primer pocket depth, etc.

Nick

[mrawesome22]

I don't know about Lapua, but Norma I've bought has always had an extreme spread of weight less than 1 grain per 100.

That is why they cost so much. All 100 are virually identical.

They are also within .001" in length. Flashholes CNC drilled. Chamfered. Deburred. Beautiful stuff.

Amazing qc.

[Unclenick]

I had that experience with the 6.5-284 Norma brass I bought. Like Lapua, there was never enough runout to matter, trimmed and chamfered and deburred. Norma also boasted of lathe-turning their extractor grooves to avoid distortion from rolling them in. I don't know if Lapua does that. The only reason I think Lapua has gotten a slightly better reputation is based on slightly higher durability, but I've not proved that side-by-side, so it may be purely hearsay.

[mbcajun]

I think i'm going to order 100 Norma cases and try them. I don't think Lapua makes brass for 270 Win. Sounds like they are more consistant, but if not, what better way can I spend my money than on reloading and shooting.

[higgite]

Nick, I'm still a rookie at this, but I'm surprised at the 10% weight difference between the 2 brands of brass. Should I not be surprised? Is the Lapua military brass or something? Thanks.

[larzb93]

i have lapua brass. used to shoot rem and win brass. cant beat the lapua brass

[Unclenick]

Higgite,

Military brass is even heavier. You'll find Lapua, Norma, Remington, and Federal are fairly close. The LC brass I have is mostly closer to 180 grains and the IMI brass I have is about 186 grains.

Winchester used to be about the weight of the other commercial cases, but around 1989 they signed on to develop brass for the 1992 Palma match, for which they wanted extra powder capacity, and wound up going to a semi-balloon head design that got some of the brass out. It proved popular, so later they switched over to that design for all their .308 brass. It saves them some raw material cost, so why not?

The result has been the .308 has more difference in capacity by brand (running from almost 55 to 59 grains water overflow capacity) than any other cartridge I am aware of except .300 Winchester Magnum. Nobody even makes military .300 WM brass, but it varies from about 88 to 96 grains water capacity, with Remington being heaviest and Norma being lightest, according to the QuickLOAD database.

When you get to .223 Rem/5.56 NATO and .30-06 brass, commercial and military cases currently have much less comparative volume difference except for some lots of Winchester being about 5% lighter in .30-06 than Lake City (but not all lots). Remington and Lake City are often the same. In .223, the military brass is often as light or lighter than many commercial cases, but the difference is small.