Any difference in brass quality ??

[wjwlawz]

For calibers where used brass is hard to find, I often purchase new brass. While I am tempted by the great marketing claims that some manufacturers are better than others (and, regretfully, believe you get what you pay for) I usually end up going with the best price. I have not noticed any difference to date, but given my limited volume and shooting skills, that doesn't rule out that there may be a difference. Does anyone have any FACTUAL BASIS to believe that one brand is superior to others??

P.S. Most of the time I end up with Starline

 

[JimKirk]

Absolutely there is a difference between brass as far as quality goes ... it does not always follow the brand name either ... it even shifts within the same brand name ...

I doubt that you will find any scientific papers to prove it, but there could be ...

You will find that "experience" with different brass over the years prove that some is better than others ... and that changes occur ....

My Fifty years of experience has taught me so .... and many others as well ...

 

[Drail]

The "best" brands I have found over the years are Federal, Winchester and Starline. Remington is the the worst. Starline is VERY high quality. One of the most important things to look at is how Brand "X" primers fit into Brand "Y" cases. Some combinations will not work as well as others. Most of my guns are set up for competition with very light trigger pulls and pretty light hammer springs. Because Federal primers are very sensitive they are all I use. And a Federal primer in a Federal case is a very good fit. That's just one factor - you will find more as you go.

 

[hdbiker]

I find Rem .45 acp pistol brass to be thinner than the other brands,rifle brass not so.Win. rifle brass seems harder and corrodes and stains more than other brass. hdbiker

 

[BSA1]

I agree that Starline is very high quality brass. It is at the top of my best list.

The poorest quality brass is terms of number of times being able to be reloaded is SPEER.

For my range loads I use mixed brass, both by manufacturer and number of times it has been reloaded. To be honest I can not say I have seen that big of difference in life of the brass.

 

[trentcwwilson]

I'm kinda on the fence here. I've inherited my father's 38/357 brass and I know they're well into their 20th reload, all mix brass. I have strayed away from nickel plated. But looking into new calibers, it's gonna be starline for pistol plinking/hunting/competition and Lapua for rifle. Pricey, but it's worth the money.

 

[CB900F]

Wjwlawz;

Are you primarily interested in rifle or pistol brass? I've found that for the casual user/reloader that with pistol brass it doesn't make much difference. The operative word being casual. If you're looking for max velocity & high pressure or pin-point accuracy, then we're out of the casual category. For something like self defense practice & plinking ( say a .40 load using a 180 grain bullet at 1000 fps) it's not going to make any practical difference. Do a normal brass inspection and cleaning & go.

Rifle brass tends to be a different story. There, I've found that for me Winchester consistently offers the best quality/price ratio in the stuff that I reload for. Weighing the cases gives you a pretty good indicator of the repeatability of the manufacturing process, and I find Winchester to be very good in that regard. I've also found that I'll get a good number of reloads from any of their brass using known reloading manual data.

900F