Preferred Brass?

What is your favorite brass to use and why? Multiple choice allowed for obvious reasons.

I prefer Winchester brass for my pistol cartridges and Hornady and hand select surplus brass for my rifles.

The Winchester brass seems to clean up better and out lives most other brass I've used. So far I get my best groups with Hornady brass and LC and some others Mil surp brass that have been worked over to near perfection.

In some cases...whatever I can get my hands on. 7.62x39 comes to mind and my 44 mag cases are a mixed bag of whatever I have.

I know I am going to get beat up on this one pretty hard. I suppose if I shot a lot of Matches I might have a differnet attitude too. SO I am not putting anyone down. At all. But for my purposes what ever I can get my hands on is good brass and shoots just as good as any other. I Only have one gun that could even remotely be considered anywhere near match quality and that would be my Savage MD12 but even it isn't truly match quality. I know that maybe all the anal things we do with brass is supposed to make a huge difference But in my Experience It doesn't at least not one that can be statistically proven. So I do my steps and in a lot I may shoot a Smith & Wesson case a Federal case a WW case a Rem case .. It all goes bang and usually I get at least moa ...LOL your mileage may vary.

I prefer Remington for .223 because Winchester primer pockets seem to loosen up big time after the first firing, and that is with a minimum charge. I have not had this problem with my .308 brass though. Pistol brass, I have been using a lot of Federal and not had any issues.

no beating up anybody over brass choice here...I've done my fair share of mixed brass loadings and will continue to do so.

I've noticed that some brass is just more user friendly...fits not too sloppy or not too tight in the shell holder, the primer pockets are more uniform, less tendency to split,etc...

RemMan700 wrote:I prefer Remington for .223 because Winchester primer pockets seem to loosen up big time after the first firing, and that is with a minimum charge. I have not had this problem with my .308 brass though. Pistol brass, I have been using a lot of Federal and not had any issues.

Excellent response...See ,this is something I or someone else might not EVER notice, since I have never purchased new unfired winchester or remington 223 cases. I can only compare my once fired...

when I buy new lol I buy Remington because normally they are a couple dollars cheaper.

Any brass I can get my hands on. If it is at the range and laying on the ground, free and the caliber I shoot (or not) then it is the perfect brass for the job.

I don't do any match shooting or benchrest shooting. Heck, I am not that good a shot to even worry about brass selection......

Yup, if I can get my hands on it and it is good enough to load, that is what I use. I use a log of Remington and Winchester because, as Reload stated, it is a little cheaper, but I don't buy much brass. If I can't use one because of splits, etc. it gets tossed into a bucket that will eventually be melted down into a paper weight or something.

sure I'd prefer Lapua or Norma but money just doesn't allow for that, so whatever is free leaning towards Winchester.

are you guys telling me there is diff brands. hell all this time i just thought there there was one FREE

Nickle plated Starline is pretty ,I use it when I'm feeding Mabel ( my 45-70) some hand loaded Hornady FTX ... Cases have been trimmed down an extra .010 as per Hornady spec. ... The other brass I use for the flat nose projectile's ... It makes for easy and reliable sorting

question regarding Federal 223 brass:

The general consensus is that Federal 223 brass sucks(so I've been told and read multiple times, but have never used myself). But Lake City brass is really good once you do all the prep work to them. Isn't Federal and Lake City the same company? How can they produce brass that ends up on opposite sides of the spectrum for basically the same caliber? I know there is a difference in commercial and military/nato brass...but is there more to it than that?

I must be missing something....

Can anyone tell me why Federal rifle brass isn't as good as others to reload with?

I have a lot of Federal .223 its crimped just like Lake City.... I swage the crimp out and it shoots just as good as any of the other stuff I have.

i've never had any problem with Federal 223 brass either. only difference i know of is case wall thickness and crimp.

iv shot different kinds in rifle and pistol never could tell the diference so what ever i can get!