Brass...............

[Model70]

What is everyones stance on brass? Which brand etc. Im talking hunting/varmint and all of my brass is winchester, which I have no dramas with except when I bought new win. cases I thought they were a bit on the rough side. My 22-250 cases are on their last firing just about and will be replaced shortly. Any suggestions? Im thinking rem brass.

[Rinso]

MODEL70,

I rate brass roughly in this order
Target Quality
Lapua
RWS / Norma
Federal

Target/Varmit
Remmington

Cant find anything else
Winchester

Wont touch it
PMC

I prefer Lapua and will use RWS or Norma happily if I can get it.
Federal is good with a little work.
Remmington is good with a little work
Winchester I avoid
I wont use PMC for any reason

These are only my opinions others will be different.

cheers
Rinso

[Kenny]

Pretty much ditto with Rinso's reply.....'cept I use PMC for hunting loads.

I have some old Sako .222 stuff that is 'nice' too, dunno if it is available these days or not, it was way back before Lapua became available and I reckon would be on par with it........

KY

[Ned Kelly]

G'Day M70,
Rinso has nailed it, it really depends on what you are shooting if you need minute of goat/pig/deer the quality of brass wont really matter that much. If you are after pin point accuracy for varminting or target shooting then it does.

I personally use Lapua for all my target stuff 6ppc, and .223 rem. Lapua has tough brass and very consistent wall thickness in each case, which is crucial to bullet alignment with the centreline of the bore. They also drill the flash-holes for the cases unlike Win who punch them. Drilling leaves very little if any burr on the inside and they are more likely to be centred with the primer cup. Punched flash-holes usually leaves a large burr on one side of the hole and it can be off centred. This leads to erractic ignition of the powder column, bad for accuracy.

I have used remington brass years ago in a Tikka M55 .222 with no case preparation and it would easily shoot 1/2moa. After I found out about BR methods I prepped the primer pockets and flash holes, and I put 7 shots off a bipod into .3 at 100yds. So I liked this stuff, lasted a long time and seemed to be very good.

Norma brass I've had little of but they seemed to be very well made but I thought the brass was soft when I necked turned some norma ppc cases.

Winchester needs a great deal of work to bring it up to spec. I measured win .223 brass and the neck walls varied by 2.5thou over 50 cases. Some cases had the full 2.5 thou variation from one side to the other!

Lapua 223 brass measured less than .5thou variation or less for 50 cases. So the lapua cases were 5 times more consistent than Win cases. So the bullet will align 5 times better with your barrels centre line all else being equal!

So for the little bit extra in cost for lapua brass, you'll know you are getting premium brass that gives you almost BR quality for reloading and generally without having to do any reworking of necks, flash-holes or primer pockets.

Cheerio Ned

[Model70]

Thanks fellas, as it is a hunting rifle and im not shooting for gold ill go with the rem. brass i think. The rifle shoots beautifully, ive even had range officers have a go and comment on it, as youll see from the photo ive kept this target for ages as this is a result of my first ever reloading attempt. The group on the left WAS at .482" till I got the two strays below it! and the larger group was just shooting away 30 rounds while i waited for a target change to collect my target, this was off a bipod but since then ive been getting .4 MOA consistently off a rest. Im babbling again, think ill crack another beer,
Thanks again fellas, your info was most helpful.

[trevort]

Shane has some Nosler custom brass in 22/250. i bought 100 for my 6/250. I dont have the correct tools to measure case thickness variations but the flash holes are centred and very little burrs if any. not a lot of brass came out when I uniformed the pockets.

Just bought norma for the next 204 but rem worked very well on the factory 204. never missed anything that you could blame on the rifle or ammo, just the dodgy operator!

PS guys where do you get Lapua 223 at a reasonable price?

And here comes a highjack, Ned and any other 223 owners, my CZ liked 26gns of 2206 and the 50 BK. Since 2206 is to be discontinued I will try something else when I get some Lapua cases. What powder do you guys use

[Ned Kelly]

G'Day Trevort,
I get lapua brass from the Vic Rifle Assoc (VRA) see links below for goodies but the other stats have them as well. I think prices are subsidised for members........
http://www.vra.asn.au/shop.shtml
http://www.nswra.org.au/mailorder/Price ... b%2007.pdf
http://www.riflesa.asn.au/store.htm
http://www.qldrifle.com/QRAshop.htm

There is a newer version of AR2206 called AR2206H, also BM1 and BM2 are great powders or maybe AR2219 (H322). See ADI link for data and pdf file download of their reloading manual.

http://www.adi-limited.com/handloaders-guide/index.asp

I use AR2208 in a fast twist for 75-80gn bullets but I reckon BM2 would be a good alternative that fills the case, if you can't get enough BM2 in use BM1 which is a bit faster than BM2. The BM powders are a smaller granule size and meter through a powder measure beautifully.

Cheerio Ned

[Rinso]

trevort,

I am purchasing a shiny new Remington XR 100 in 223, I intend to run 50 grainers and I agree with Ned I will be using BM2 in the 1st instance I may tamper with a bit of AR219 as well

cheers
Rinso

[trevort]

I use 2206h in the 204. Its great. A lot of the septics on the 204um are using it and some use RE10. I bought some re 10 but it wont be open till the new 204 turns up as 2206h works so well in the current one.

2206h did ok in the 223 with the heavier 55gn NBT but I want a faster powder closer to 2206. I will try the BM 1 or 2

[Rinso]

trevort,

Good powder that RE just very temperature senisitive. I used to take ammo based on it to the range in an esky an keep it there until I was shooting it in summer.

cheers
Rinso