brass

[Vepr62]

Question for you, seasoned reloaders. If you got .223 brass from Winchester, Remington, Federal, and Lake City, which one would you chose for your personal use, and why? Don't tell me about Lapua or other custom brass, just those four. Thanks a lot.
Vasiliy

[phish]

For plinking rounds, you can't beat LC, seems to last forever with normal powder charges. Winchester is the best commercially available brass, the alloy they use is stiffer than Remington or Federal.

I've got a butt-ton of LC harvested from other shooters who don't reload.

[Vepr62]

Thanks, phish...
Vasiliy

[ocabj]

It's a toss up between LC or Winchester. Sort your LC by year. There will be a difference in thickness. Newer LC brass is thinner than previous years. I think anything from the 2000s is going to be thinner than stuff from the 90s and older.

But how many reloads do you plan on getting out of them? I think 5-6 reloads out of an autoloader is plenty enough.

After that, you're pretty much going to be on the limits of this:

http://www.ocabj.net/gallery/albums/handloads_misc/IMG_4846.sized.jpg

I still use LC for most of my .223 since once-fired LC is still cheaper than commercial Winchester. If they were the same price or very close, then I'd just get Winchester.

Lapua for the mid to long range.

[tteng]

ocabj...
Did you see a stretch-ring before this case failure? Or, what symptom(s) do you look for before failures (web, case, shoulder, neck)?

How often do you reload 06 case for Garand?
How ofter do you reload 06/308 cases for bolt-guns?

[ocabj]

ocabj...
Did you see a stretch-ring before this case failure? Or, what symptom(s) do you look for before failures (web, case, shoulder, neck)?

How often do you reload 06 case for Garand?
How ofter do you reload 06/308 cases for bolt-guns?

I don't really check for stretching. I usually toss brass after a certain amount of reloads. It just so happens that this batch of brass was reloading about 7 times (at least) and I was just going to chuck it in the scrap bucket after it was shot. The head separation was simply reasserting the reason to junk it.

I'd go about 6 reloads with a Garand with FL sizing.

Bolt guns? I don't know. I'm still rotating a few boxes of Lapua in .308 right now. One has been reloaded 5 times. I use neck sizing with shoulder bumping with a Hornady neck die, so I'll probably toss the brass when I see accuracy diminish.

[Pthfndr]

I used to use LC for the short line and Win for 600 and beyond. Now I'm using LC exclusively (but I also have about 5000 pieces of once fired).

I also beat both those guys ;)