Brass question

[Badger_55]

I have a decent number of once fired brass saved and cleaned as I am getting ready to start reloading for my 300WM. I am slowly acquiring my powder and primers... a question that I have had is my brass varies from Hornady and Remington. I used to get all my ammo from Choice Ammunition and noticed they switched brass last year from Hornady to Remington. All of the fired brass is from my rifle... 90% of them are Hornady brass. Now if I start working up loads while using my once fired hornady brass (because that is what I have the most of), should I continue trying to buy new Hornady brass or can I look for other new brass as well? I know there are variances and I am doing this to stay above factory precision, just wondering what you guys have to say? Petersen brass sounds pretty good, Ive heard good things about Gunwerks but at this point I am all good with finding and buying more Hornady as well (made in USA).
Thank you.

 

[golfer]

I personally like to stick to one brass manufacturer. Some brands may vary with case capactiy between brands, which could affect accuracy. How much? Hard to tell some may hold more powder than others.

 

[MThuntr]

My preference is to not mix brass and don't even mix lots of the same brand. There are plenty of guys that mix brass and I used to do it but OCD and the want/need to control as many variables as possible has made it so. At minimum keep the same headstamp.

Depending on how much brass you have and how much you shoot you may not need to worry about buying new brass for awhile. 100 pieces will last a long time.

Yes Peterson and ADG/Gunwerks brass is tops but if you're not pushing your rifle then Hornady will work just fine. I use Gunwerks and after 3 firings it looks new and I'm hoping for a lot more. I'm buying 300Win Long Peterson for my next brass and should get a lot more life out of it (less brass moving)

 

[cahunter805]

Agree with above. Use one brand of your fired brass. Sounds like you have a lot of hornady so I’d start with that.
If you are going to buy new brass ADG/Gunwerks is great brass for the 300WM.

 

[Badger_55]

There is a pretty good chance I might push my rifle so maybe I will just use the 120rds of once fired hornady for now and start accumulating a more quality brass as the days go by.

 

[Qubo]

Use the non Hornady you have for fouling shots.

 

[44hunter45]

My preference is to not mix brass and don't even mix lots of the same brand. There are plenty of guys that mix brass and I used to do it but OCD and the want/need to control as many variables as possible has made it so. At minimum keep the same headstamp.

Depending on how much brass you have and how much you shoot you may not need to worry about buying new brass for awhile. 100 pieces will last a long time.

Yes Peterson and ADG/Gunwerks brass is tops but if you're not pushing your rifle then Hornady will work just fine. I use Gunwerks and after 3 firings it looks new and I'm hoping for a lot more. I'm buying 300Win Long Peterson for my next brass and should get a lot more life out of it (less brass moving)

This.

I mix brass for range loads.

But for "You bet your life" loads, I go full OCD. This is what it takes to squeeze all the variables out of your loads.

For hunting loads, I use all the same headstamp, and I sort by weight and reject anything outside 80% of the bell curve.

 

[DamascusSteel]

Peterson has a 300 WM brass that is longer to help alleviate the massive stretch that 300 wm brass goes through. I would look at that could probably get more reloads through it.

 

[ImBillT]

The answer to your question depends on a number of factors.

If you’re going to load up to the point at which you get pressure signs and then back off by a certain percentage, then mixing brands, and even mixing lots within the same brand, can lead to issues.

If you’re searching for a very accurate load, then your results will be highly dependent upon your actual muzzle velocity, and again, using multiple brands, and even different lots within a brand will give you poor results. In fact if you mix lots, you may even have difficulty finding a good load. Different case capacities will give you different muzzle velocities, and even using premium brass like Lapua/Norma/Peterson etc. you can find enough difference in capacity when comparing brass from this year to brass from 4-5 years ago that you may have to adjust your load slightly to get the muzzle velocity that was giving you your best results, and mixing those two lots together could give you frustrating results.

On the other hand, if you’re just easing your way up to a load slightly below max in a manual, and just need it to hit deer vitals at 100-200 yards, then you will not likely run into any problems using whatever brass you find.

My recommendation would be to sort your brass by brand, size it, trim it to length, sort it by weight(you will like find 2-3 very distinct weight ranges if your brass came from loaded ammo that was purchased at different times, toss anything that isn’t close to the rest) and work up your load using your largest group of similar brass. Use a chronograph. Once you know the velocity of your chosen load, if you desire to use brass from another brand or a lot that has a substantially different weight, you should be able to load a small batch of ammo(5-10 rounds) with different powder charges in small increments(.2-.4gr) to find which powder charge will give you the same velocity of your preferred load with your different brass.

 

[Don Fischer]

I don't mix brass but then don't really have a favorite I don't think. I find I have mostly Win brass but that's because it's easy to find. Rem brass can be easy at time's also. Have used a bunch of different brands over the years but never mix. Different brass can have different volume which can change pressure. Change brass, work up a new load!

 

[buffybr]

I mix brass for my pistols and my .223s, but I sort all of my other rifle brass.

If I load different weight, make, or design bullets for a certain cartridge, I'll load each type of bullet in a different headstamped brass.