Alpha munitions Peterson brass, opinions

[holstil]

Should be some mileage on these cases now. From those that are using it, how do you feel about the new brass offerings?
I understand peterson and Alpha munitions are both good.
Any others now that have same or better quality?
I don't mind paying a little more for quality, however, if there is little difference between these two, ill go with the cheaper cost. Hoping the competition will keep the prices at bay. Besides, need a darn good reason to switch from Lapua.

I need some brass for a 243AI project. Im thinking about trying the Alpha 308 save a little over their 243 offering and less than Peterson.

 

[JLT]

I have not tried Alpha but I'm running Peterson brass in my .260 AI. I have four cycles after fire forming and, in short, Peterson is excellent brass. Consistency measurements (weight, neck thickness and concentricity, length, etc.) are the equal of or better than Lapua and the cases are pretty stout stuff. Primer pocket feel has not changed since new. I skim turned the necks and confirmed the neck thickness and concentricity measurements. I'm pretty sure this batch will last as long as the barrel.

Case capacity is approximately 4% LESS that Lapua - load development specific to this brass is recommended.

I'm waiting for their 6.5-.284, .22-.250 and 6 BR brass. Made in the U.S.A. - I like that. All other things being equal, this would sway me.

 

[holstil]

Yep, I'm shooting Lapua and or have shot Norma, cause I had to.

Peterson and Alpha - making America great again!

 

[1lnbrdg]

I got to talk to the people with Alpha at Phoenix last week. .243 brass "coming" soon.

 

[Toejoe12]

I can only comment on 308 small rifle primer as I have experience with all 3 brands(including Lapua). All 3 are great choices and have tight tolerances. I have weighed, measured and neck turned all 3 brands to prep for competition. I'll first say I would have zero issue shooting any of them in a competition. They are all that good, but there are some subtle differences.

• From a weight variance (weighing straight out of the box.......not water filled) Alpha has the edge with tighter tolerances over the others (.8 gn). Lapua and Peterson were neck and neck with around 1.5 gn spread (weighed on a Sartorius Practum scale) ((lot comparisons number weighed were 500 Lapua, 500 Alpha and 100 Peterson pieces ))
• From a neck thickness uniformity straight out of the box before turning, Alpha also was inside both the other tolerances by a narrow margin. Lapua and Peterson miked .0145 to .0155. Alphas necks are thinner out of the box running .01375 to .01425. I turned Lapua and Peterson down to .014 and Alpha to .01325 (spot check comparison, not all were miked)
• Primer pockets......both Alpha and Peterson are tighter out of the box than Lapua. I had no problem seating either as I seat by hand with either a 21st Century or Sinclair priming tool. I would not recommend either for a progressive press set up where you have a primer station!! Non of the 3 needed PP debured but I do it anyway because I'm OCD Uniforming PP tool would not fit well in either Alpha or Peterson due to tightness of pockets without cutting the bottom edges from the pocket so I didn't do this step on either (this is actually 1 step I do not see a need for with any of these brands)
• On target performance......no measurable difference between the three. As stated above Peterson is a bit heavier than Lapua which translates to capacity therefore less powder to achieve same velocities,. Same to be said with Alpha. I was .2 to .3 gn powder less with these 2. (shooting 200-20X at 2705 fps so these are warm loads)

Now some final comments/facts from my observations. I'll say first I now shoot Alpha brass exclusively because of the above but mainly because I have 50 (half of the original first lot I bought) test pieces I work up loads and test with constantly. I have 28 load cycles through them and PP are still tight. I have been sectioning a piece every 5 firings to see if any signs of separations are apparent. There are no signs. It also didn't hurt that the first 100 I bought from them came with a hand written personal thank you note! That small gesture from an American company gave me a tie breaker if needed.....it wasn't. In fairness to Lapua I have test cases as well I'm at 17 loads with and still going strong, however I rarely use them anymore. Peterson I had some PP give up after a couple of firings running the 200-20X at the 2700 and above speeds so I can't give a longevity comparison as I quit using them for the hotter loads.

Lastly, I can say I know a lot of competitions and National records have been shot with Lapua brass in the gun. Not sure about Peterson, but I do know of 5 F-Class FTR National records and several big competitions won by friends with Alpha in the chamber in the last 2 years so I'll end with the same point I made in the beginning. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these 3. For what it's worth, I tried my best to keep this as a factual review based on observations and results not opinion.

 

[nso123]

I can only comment on 308 small rifle primer as I have experience with all 3 brands(including Lapua). All 3 are great choices and have tight tolerances. I have weighed, measured and neck turned all 3 brands to prep for competition. I'll first say I would have zero issue shooting any of them in a competition. They are all that good, but there are some subtle differences.

• From a weight variance (weighing straight out of the box.......not water filled) Alpha has the edge with tighter tolerances over the others (.8 gn). Lapua and Peterson were neck and neck with around 1.5 gn spread (weighed on a Sartorius Practum scale) ((lot comparisons number weighed were 500 Lapua, 500 Alpha and 100 Peterson pieces ))
• From a neck thickness uniformity straight out of the box before turning, Alpha also was inside both the other tolerances by a narrow margin. Lapua and Peterson miked .0145 to .0155. Alphas necks are thinner out of the box running .01375 to .01425. I turned Lapua and Peterson down to .014 and Alpha to .01325 (spot check comparison, not all were miked)
• Primer pockets......both Alpha and Peterson are tighter out of the box than Lapua. I had no problem seating either as I seat by hand with either a 21st Century or Sinclair priming tool. I would not recommend either for a progressive press set up where you have a primer station!! Non of the 3 needed PP debured but I do it anyway because I'm OCD Uniforming PP tool would not fit well in either Alpha or Peterson due to tightness of pockets without cutting the bottom edges from the pocket so I didn't do this step on either (this is actually 1 step I do not see a need for with any of these brands)
• On target performance......no measurable difference between the three. As stated above Peterson is a bit heavier than Lapua which translates to capacity therefore less powder to achieve same velocities,. Same to be said with Alpha. I was .2 to .3 gn powder less with these 2. (shooting 200-20X at 2705 fps so these are warm loads)

Now some final comments/facts from my observations. I'll say first I now shoot Alpha brass exclusively because of the above but mainly because I have 50 (half of the original first lot I bought) test pieces I work up loads and test with constantly. I have 28 load cycles through them and PP are still tight. I have been sectioning a piece every 5 firings to see if any signs of separations are apparent. There are no signs. It also didn't hurt that the first 100 I bought from them came with a hand written personal thank you note! That small gesture from an American company gave me a tie breaker if needed.....it wasn't. In fairness to Lapua I have test cases as well I'm at 17 loads with and still going strong, however I rarely use them anymore. Peterson I had some PP give up after a couple of firings running the 200-20X at the 2700 and above speeds so I can't give a longevity comparison as I quit using them for the hotter loads.

Lastly, I can say I know a lot of competitions and National records have been shot with Lapua brass in the gun. Not sure about Peterson, but I do know of 5 F-Class FTR National records and several big competitions won by friends with Alpha in the chamber in the last 2 years so I'll end with the same point I made in the beginning. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these 3. For what it's worth, I tried my best to keep this as a factual review based on observations and results not opinion.

How often are you annealing on the Alpha?

 

[holstil]

I got to talk to the people with Alpha at Phoenix last week. .243 brass "coming" soon.

Curious to see how much more the 243 will cost over 308.
I don't have a problem just necking down and turning 308.

Toejoe, thanks for that! That's the kind of feedback I was hoping to get.

 

[JimSC]

I have used the Peterson in .260 Rem with the SRP and the Alpha in 6mm CM with the LRP. I have found both comparable to Lapua in quality in all respects. I have 11 firings on the Peterson and 4 firings on the Alpha. Nether have seen an anneal and I still get SD's in the single digits when testing. I doubt I will go back to Lapua becasue I would rather support an American owned small business and the quality seems to be comparable

 

[Toejoe12]

How often are you annealing on the Alpha?

I anneal all my brass for all my rifles after every firing (I paid for an annealer, might as well use it for it's intended purpose. I also FL size every time as well.

 

[Toejoe12]

Curious to see how much more the 243 will cost over 308.
I don't have a problem just necking down and turning 308.

Toejoe, thanks for that! That's the kind of feedback I was hoping to get.

hostil, go to the Alpha website and in the comments section ask them any question you want. They will get back to you. They are a super group of people. As with others, I met several of the Alpha folks last week at the Southwest Nationals. They plan to always be a small batch provider with their focus on accuracy and consistency needed in the various competitive disciplines.

 

[holstil]

I just ordered a cpl boxes of 308. No big deal, if 243 comes out same price I’ll just snatch a cpl more.

I haven’t seen any brass go down in value.

 

[JLT]

I haven’t seen any brass go down in value.

Well, I've managed to 'fully depreciate' a piece of brass or two in my time. . . .

 

[Yote Hunter]

I can only comment on 308 small rifle primer as I have experience with all 3 brands(including Lapua). All 3 are great choices and have tight tolerances. I have weighed, measured and neck turned all 3 brands to prep for competition. I'll first say I would have zero issue shooting any of them in a competition. They are all that good, but there are some subtle differences.

• From a weight variance (weighing straight out of the box.......not water filled) Alpha has the edge with tighter tolerances over the others (.8 gn). Lapua and Peterson were neck and neck with around 1.5 gn spread (weighed on a Sartorius Practum scale) ((lot comparisons number weighed were 500 Lapua, 500 Alpha and 100 Peterson pieces ))
• From a neck thickness uniformity straight out of the box before turning, Alpha also was inside both the other tolerances by a narrow margin. Lapua and Peterson miked .0145 to .0155. Alphas necks are thinner out of the box running .01375 to .01425. I turned Lapua and Peterson down to .014 and Alpha to .01325 (spot check comparison, not all were miked)
• Primer pockets......both Alpha and Peterson are tighter out of the box than Lapua. I had no problem seating either as I seat by hand with either a 21st Century or Sinclair priming tool. I would not recommend either for a progressive press set up where you have a primer station!! Non of the 3 needed PP debured but I do it anyway because I'm OCD Uniforming PP tool would not fit well in either Alpha or Peterson due to tightness of pockets without cutting the bottom edges from the pocket so I didn't do this step on either (this is actually 1 step I do not see a need for with any of these brands)
• On target performance......no measurable difference between the three. As stated above Peterson is a bit heavier than Lapua which translates to capacity therefore less powder to achieve same velocities,. Same to be said with Alpha. I was .2 to .3 gn powder less with these 2. (shooting 200-20X at 2705 fps so these are warm loads)

Now some final comments/facts from my observations. I'll say first I now shoot Alpha brass exclusively because of the above but mainly because I have 50 (half of the original first lot I bought) test pieces I work up loads and test with constantly. I have 28 load cycles through them and PP are still tight. I have been sectioning a piece every 5 firings to see if any signs of separations are apparent. There are no signs. It also didn't hurt that the first 100 I bought from them came with a hand written personal thank you note! That small gesture from an American company gave me a tie breaker if needed.....it wasn't. In fairness to Lapua I have test cases as well I'm at 17 loads with and still going strong, however I rarely use them anymore. Peterson I had some PP give up after a couple of firings running the 200-20X at the 2700 and above speeds so I can't give a longevity comparison as I quit using them for the hotter loads.

Lastly, I can say I know a lot of competitions and National records have been shot with Lapua brass in the gun. Not sure about Peterson, but I do know of 5 F-Class FTR National records and several big competitions won by friends with Alpha in the chamber in the last 2 years so I'll end with the same point I made in the beginning. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these 3. For what it's worth, I tried my best to keep this as a factual review based on observations and results not opinion.

Excellent and very thorough review! Thanks for the great information.

 

[AP2020]

I have some Peterson 260REM SRP coming for my 260AI....I'll report back on initial findings.

 

[grovey]

I recieved 100 pcs of LRP 6.5 Creedmoor brass directly from Peterson just yesterday. It came in two 50pc ammo boxes, and there was not one bent case mouth to be seen. I weighed it last night , and one 50pc lot had a 1 gr spread, and if I pulled one light case out It would be 7/10's spread. The other 50 pc box had a 8/10's spread. All in all.... I can, and probably will mix it up and end up with two 50 pc lots that the cases weigh within a 1/2 gr of each other.

 

[Fire Dog]

I anneal all my brass for all my rifles after every firing (I paid for an annealer, might as well use it for it's intended purpose. I also FL size every time as well.

Me too.
First a run through the tumbler {wet SS pin} then through the AMP machine once they are dry.
Only Neck Size though, all rounds going back in same chamber and never had any problems so why over work the cases.
I do a very light de-burr of the case mouth @ time as I once had a bit of problem with the SS pins putting a bit of hammering on case mouth {slightly neck turned and bit thinner than stock} and when loaded, causing a slight trumpet mouth and difficulty chambering. I only tumble for a max of 2 hrs. but since the cases are fairly clean aside from the inside and pp that is enough and I pre-soak the cases overnight in hot water, squirt of dish soap, pinch of Lemi-Shine & 5ml of BoreTec Sonic Case Cleaner. I add 10ml of BT, pinch of Lemi-Shine, squirt of dish soap, some burnishing compound {from lapidary supply house} and hot water to drum when tumbling. Pre-soaking reduces tumbling time.
The BoreTec stuff seems to impart tarnish resistance aside from dissolving the primer residue and the burnishing compound brings the brass back to better than new.

 

[Fast14riot]

I use Peterson 260srp in my 260AI. Great stuff. I switched from Lapua after losing primer pockets after 4-5 firings and two are fire forming. I just spun up a new barrel and will be testing my current brass in it, but I did buy 100 new cases as well.

 

[D-4297]

Had the same problem with Peterson SRP and 200.20x's . Only lost 10 cases out of 100 on the fourth firing , due to blown out PP . But in my mind , that's 10 to many . They were really good ...Till they weren't . I'll stay with my Lapua , on their 20+ reloads .

 

[divingin]

Well, I've managed to 'fully depreciate' a piece of brass or two in my time. . . .

Not fully, if you take it in to a scrap metal place for recycling... Someone here on the left coast said he got $2/lb for spent primers. Fired brass was a little less.