AR Platforms and Brass

[OnlyDans94]

Hey Guys,

I'm pretty new to reloading, been doing it for almost a year and have gone down the rabbit hole. My components and gear out paces my ability, I've fallen for a lot of marketing schemes by accident but also I just like nice stuff in general. I shoot a bergara B14 HMR in 6.5cm (if you have a premier bolt lemme buy it btw) but also shoot a ton of AR. I love ARs and am passionate about precision when it comes to my ARs. My precision oriented ARs are a DD MK12 (18in), a 6mm ARC build I made based on a craddock precision, and an LMT MARS-H with a craddock barrel that D. Wilson converted.

My question is, what is the optimal brass to use? I know Lapua, Alpha, Peterson, and the likes are the gold standard, but is the AR platform too rough on the brass that it makes using this brass stupid? I know if i take care of my brass i can load it many times, but does using a Lapua in an AR platform make it so that the gains are obsolete and wasteful? Like will i only get 3-4 firings when shooting high quality brass out of my ARs?

If this is the case, what do you guys recommend for a solid balance between precision and reasonable quality when loading to optimize an AR platform. Thanks in advance for the knowledge.

Sincerely,

OnlyDans94

 

[Jerry Snyder]

Lake City is also a good brass for the AR platform. For price, I like Starline brass.

 

[vegas]

I am on my 4th firing of Lake City brass, so 5th total. Everything seems fine so far.

 

[Herzo]

Probably the biggest issue with brass life in AR's is the headspace. You should ensure that you only push the shoulder back 0.002" to 0.003" when resizing. Excessive headspace risks a head separation. An appropriate set of Redding shellholders [0.000" to 0.010"] is the easiest answer.
I have a couple of Grendels the barrels from reputable manufacturers, which came with excessive headspace. I had to go to a type 1 bolt in order to bring them into spec.

 

[Walt Krafft]

I use Starline, Sig, and IMI in my ARs. Lapua never gained me much. Federal and some Hornady brass has been known to be soft. I like to buy brass in quantities of 500 to 1000 pieces so they are all the same manufacturing lot. LC is good to use, but removing the crimp is a pita.

 

[SKWERLZ]

My preferred case in AR is lake city.
Durable
Cheap
Decent if sorted by year.

 

[AWS]

Starline 5.56 brass, works well for me even making 20P from it.

 

[Mark611]

I run a lot of Starline brass in my autoloaders, 6.5GRR 223/5.56 AR's 308win M1A, FAL, M77PAP rifles, I went this route because removing crimps from the primer pockets is far too time consuming for me, I also buy enough brass to try and get all the same case lot, I size my brass with Redding SB body dies, and neck size them with a Lee collet die and use a factory crimp die, this works well for me, YMMV.

 

[LVLAaron]

Starline 5.56 (they have 223 and 5.56 variants, get the 5.56) if you want a reliable way to buy new bagged brass.

LC (Lake City) is great.

The list goes on... If you want to reload several times I'd say run whatever you can find, except Federal.