Brass Question

[WestTN2288]

Not an avid reloader, so I apologize is this is common knowledge. But how much difference does brass make to a certain load. Say you had Winchester and Hornady brass, each once fired through the same gun and the reloaded to then same specs, would you expect any effects to the rounds in different cases?

Thanks in advance

 

[bloodtrailing]

There will be a difference as with any component change. How much has to be tested to determine.

 

[ROVERBOY]

If I was going for best possible accuracy and consistency, I would separate brass. otherwise I wouldn't worry about it much. I load mixed brass all the time.

 

[Urban_Hunter]

Case pressure (and therefore accuracy and consistency) will be affected. A load work up to max will be different between brass manufacturers.

 

[skipperbrown]

Different headstamps have different weights and volumes and this will affect pressures. In turn, point of impact will differ.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Safety can be affected by different brands of brass being interchanged if max or near max loads are used. Accuracy can definitely also be affected

 

[DaveB]

I try very hard to only use a single brand of brass with each caliber I load. Because I started doing this so long ago a lot of my rifles only shoot R-P brass.

If you are using various headstamp brass I would go through my inventory and separate them by headstamp.

As noted above max loads need to be determined for each headstamp.

And just personally I would toss the Hornady brass. Take 30 minutes, set up your scale and start weighing them, breaking them into categories by weight. This is NOT going to be the absolute best measure but it will do for starters. My experience with Hornady brass says you will have a lot of weight variances. And no, No brass is not worse than Hornady brass.

In the reload world consistency really is high on the list of requirements. Ask Mr. B. He weighs everything and his scale is a lot better than mine. Each completed bullet is supposed to be an EXACT copy of every other one.

 

[WestTN2288]

Thank you for all of the input. Exactly what I was looking for

 

[Omega]

Ok, let me start off by saying your best reloads will have identical components. The more you make sure everything matches, the better groups you will get. You can be as anal about it as you want, and you will see some decent results, but...It is not all that important when you get right down to it for hunting purposes. If you do your part, the POI will be good enough for hunting purposes. That does not mean you shouldn't do what you can to make sure everything is as matched as possible, but that is a rabbit hole I will only go down into when I am trying to get sub MOA ammo, or when I am working up a load for a particular rifle, usually a new to me rifle.

 

[dogsled]

For me it depends on what I am doing. 38 target loads are such low pressure I don't bother sorting the thousands of pieces of brass that I have. 44 mag hunting rounds are another story and I do sort those and any rifle brass intended for hunting rounds.

 

[Black Titan]

Like others mentioned, yes it can make a difference from manufacturer to manufacturer.

For me, it depends what I'm loading for. General pistol plinking or shooting steel at the range, I'll use whatever I can scrounge up at the range or what I've previously fired.

For my target loads I stick to one manufacturer and actually try to stay with the same lot number. I weight sort each case before and after trimming, sizing, etc. If I were competing, I would also be checking case volume and sorting this way as well.

BT