Preferred brass

[charlie b]

Pistol, I don't care.

For my .223 it is exclusively Lapua, simply because every other brand has 'given up' after less than 5 reloads (primer pocket expansion).

The .308 I use Winchester and Hornady for cast, Lapua for jacketed (simply because of consistent internal volume). The Hornady I get for free by being at the range when the LEO's do their rifle training. Winchester I buy, when necessary. Both are sorted by weight and the extremes tossed in the trash. Flash holes drilled out with #38.

The Garand isn't fired much so I still have some LC brass for it.

[fredj338]

You didn't specify rifle or pistol. On 9mm, I have found Speer and Federal to produce less pressure and last longer.

On rifle, Winchester or Federal has it all over Remington on consistent thickness. This kind of varies dependent on caliber. Basing my experiences on .223 and .30/06./beagle

IMO, Federal rifle brass is crap, too thin & soft. I have had cases lose primer pockets in 2-3 firings. This includes their GMM brass.

[fredj338]

In 9mm I use Federal or Blazer with cast because it seems to have thinner walls, swaging bullets less. With 115 or 125 gr. jacketed anything will do; I don't load anything heavier than 124 gr. so case bulges are not a problem. S&B and Norma are the only foreign brass I scrap. Some S&B cases have primer pockets that are on the tight side and some seem a bit shallow and some of the Norma have a too-small flash holes. It's been my experience that Remington .45 acp has thinner walls than most.

In 9mm, CBC is another total failure with anything heavier/longer than 125gr. I just got tired of pulling bullets so now I sort 9mm brass.

[gunfan2]

In Stock, I prefer In Stock brass. Been looking for 350L for over 2 months. Winchester. Hornady and Starline all out of stock everywhere except some once fired at new brass prices. The once fired I got is Winchester and case mouths run .010-.012". I understand the web is thicker on those but 6 of the cartridges had a Bubba Belt below where the sizer reached.

Midsouth shooter's supply has once fired 350L in stock!

[gc45]

Starline for me in revolvers, Winch in rifles...Have loaded litterly 1000's and 1000's of win 223 for varmint ammo never having an issue. These cases last and last through lots of reloads but then I don't hot rod them either, just neck size them and never crimp..Of course I am using them in bolt rifle, not an auto...

[lightman]

If I'm buying new brass its Lapua, Norma or Starline. I sort range brass by caliber and separate Federal, Remington, Winchester, Norma and Hornady. Then all other commercial brass is labeled odd commercial and all military brass except LC is labeled odd military.

Federal seems soft and the primer pockets expand sooner than most. Hornady seems to do the same. Both have decent specs. Remington and Winchester can be hit or miss. Sometimes the specs are close and other times can be all over the place. Case life on either beat Federal. New Winchester is pretty bad, with a lot of damaged cases per 100. As you can guess, Lapua and Norma have very consistent specs.

After all of that sorting I still may load a large batch of mixed stuff, depending on the intended use.

[farmbif]

back to op's original post
what do you mean swage cast bullet less?
are you expanding case mouth before seating boolits?
this should not be a problem.
the most evident that ive noticed is when loading 375 win, with both winchester and Starline brass I can visually see how the brass is expanded by the seated bullet.
no swaging of bullet takes place. in fact seeing the brass sometimes expanded around the bullet off center ive gone to great length trying different brands of seating dies to try and keep them centered in brass. the sliding stem of the Hornady die gives good results in centering.

[Mal Paso]

Midsouth shooter's supply has once fired 350L in stock!

That's where I got mine. The lot was one short and 6 were bulged at the base so an actual 93 for $60 taxed and shipped but I was glad to get them. On the plus side the mixed headstamp was all Winchester which has a thicker web.

I have a list of web addresses for 35L brass and hit it regularly so I saw the once fired when it came in.

[goryshaw]

Depends on purpose usually its all starline for handguns although i do have several 100 45 acp and 38 spc,rifle is hxp for garand or smle or fc for ar

[Rich/WIS]

For my 45 ACP don't care much, shoot mixed brass. For full power hunting loads like Rem for the 243, LC NM for the 06, and Graf for the 30/40. For cast like FC in the 243 and 30/06, and Win for the 30/40. Haven't had any problems with FC but none of my cast rifle loads exceed @ 1600 fps.

[txbirdman]

Don’t much care what I shoot in handgun. For rifle I like Lapua, Norma, Lake City, and Winchester in that order. My least favorite is Federal.

[Eddie Southgate]

Between the two I would prefer the Winchester . Had a lot of neck splits with New Remington brass in my 340 Savage in .22 Hornet. When I can get it I try to buy 500 rounds of Lapua for the calibers I shoot . Only problem with Lapua is they don't usually offer a lot of the cartridges I shoot .

[ANick57]

Today i would prefer to have some. Well, that's wrong. I have brass for a fair number of calibers. However, this last weekend I spotted the .45-70 version of the rifle I had on order in .40-65. Said rifle looked lonely and I thought I might be able to console it while waiting for the other rifle to eventually get through production.

You know how it is, one must try to ease the suffering where one can, right?! So, yes. Some keystrokes later and the order confirmation was in the Inbox. Good. A phone call Monday to check some details, during which I found out that my .40 is in production currently, which is much sooner than I expected, but welcome news. So, all is well!!

One reason for the .40-65 of course was a matter of brass availability. Not that headstamped .40-65 is a common thing, but as long as there is the popular and available .45-70, life is good. So.

Yeah. About that.

I did not see that coming. Didn't expect it. Didn't anticipate it.. watch for it.. just walked straight into the wall on that one.

Other than a scam site offering, the only .45-70 brass I found for sale was a loaded collector's piece for $16 or so. A single round from the 1880's, or some such.

So, yes. My preference would be anywhere from a small heap to decent pile ... or even a practically embarassing quantity while I'm dreaming.. of .45-70.

And let's add a drool-worthy quantity of large rifle primers while we're at it?!

Nick

[tazman]

I have experience with only a limited number of brands of brass. For my 30-06 match rifle, I use Remington. I get superb results with it.
For 308 and 223, I get my best results with Hornady brass/
For my 38 Special match loads, I use Remington wadcutter brass. For the rest, I am not very picky.
There are so many differences in brass brands. They each provide very different results.
I don't load max charges any more. I go for accuracy rather than power. Some of those brands of rifle brass will give much higher pressures than others, even when using less than max charges.
If I use my match 30-06 load in Privi Partizan brass, I will get very flat and occasionally punctured primers. That NEVER happens with the Remington brass.
That is not saying the PP bras is bad. With the appropriate powder charge, it is just as accurate as the Remington brass. It just requires a different load.
I never paid much attention to brass until I began loading for my match rifles. Best practice is to get a large quantity of a single headstamp and work up your load for that brass. Brand doesn't matter a lot except for longevity. Some do last longer than others.

[kevin c]

Like Higgins I use Federal and Blazer for my 9mm reloads.

My Glock OEM barrels seem to like my 147 grain slugs sized to 0.357”. Lathesmith turned me a M-type case expander to avoid swaging down the slugs, but I still prefer thinner walled brass so the finished rounds aren’t too wasp waisted.

[farmbif]

I guess maybe the days of coming home from public range with a bucket or 2 of brass are pretty much over. in those times it pretty much didn't matter what brand as long as it all resized, trimmed out and wasn't cracked. in common calibers it was a windfall. and for me anyway. im not a competative high power or benchers shooter and whatever brand of 243 brass I used my loads could still hit within 1 inch at 100 yard if I did my part holding gun and squeezing trigger properly. for handgun calibers it didn't seem to matter the brand. sure I would read in wonderment about shooters like dick maretzo and others and how they put together world record winning ammo. but for my purposes any brass that came along would be good for me.

[oley55]

In 9mm, CBC is another total failure with anything heavier/longer than 125gr. I just got tired of pulling bullets so now I sort 9mm brass.

There may be other brands as well, but I have had chambering issues with CBC 9MM brass (too thick walls) and cast bullets. My eyes are aging faster than my other parts and hate the effort of eye balling every case head to cull them out, but it is what it is. CBC 9mm brass is purposely designed for my brass trash bin.

[santareg]

Starline, now if they would just have 45 Auto Rim in stock so I could buy it! Oh well same could be said for LP primers!