Buying Quality brass vs Time to prep cheap brass

[Ralph Littlefield]

It would seem to me that if one is willing to spend the time with brass prep on cheaper brass, the results on target will be a good as those with top of the line brass. Am I correct, or am I missing something?

 

[HTSmith]

One thing you can't "prep" into brass is a good strong head and primer pocket. I've had new "cheaper" brass that the primer pockets were loose when brand new. I've got some more expensive brass with 10 loadings and the primer pockets are still in good shape. Of course if you play a game where most of the brass is lost, then the cheap could work out.

 

[quest450]

for benchrest gun I'd buy a quality brass and spend the time to make it a better quality brass

 

[std7mag]

I've bought Norma 284 Win brass, and still had to processes it.
Bought Nosler brass, and even though everything was good, i went through the steps of checking everything anyways.

I don't consider any of it as time wasted.
Take nothing for granted!

 

[Ralph Littlefield]

To rephrase the question, I am an RSO at a shooting range and so I have a good supply of brass (when the range is open).

I also enjoy my time at my reloading bench. What reason would you suggest that I have for buying higher quality brass?

 

[HTSmith]

If the brass is free and you enjoy the prep then have at it.

 

[Ralph Littlefield]

LOL! I'm not asking permission, I'm asking if premium brass offers advantages other than less prep time.

 

[R.Morehouse]

When it comes to new, buy the good stuff & make it better. I believe the inside uniformity is better and weight tolerances as well. The only thing I can think of that I don't tweak into shape are scopes....

Regards
Rick

 

[DirtySteve]

I think it would clear things up a bit if you posted what your intended use of the brass? F-class, PRS or Bench Rest matches..

 

[qwk]

It offers Consistency that you won’t get from range brass. Range brass is fine for plinking around, but if one gets serious about shooting, they are money ahead by going Lapua/Alpha.

 

[Straightshooter1]

It would seem to me that if one is willing to spend the time with brass prep on cheaper brass, the results on target will be a good as those with top of the line brass. Am I correct, or am I missing something?

That's the same question I asked myself when I first started reloading. So I prepped and compared some "top of the line brass" (like Lapua) with various "cheap" range brass I picked up. Generally, I got the same results on paper. However I'd say it took me a little more time in prep work and had to discard more brass that were too far out of spec to expect to keep the loads consistent, higher ES's would occur if not sorted. For example, since case volume is so important, there was a much wider range in the "cheap" brass, so sorting was imperative to get consistent loads where the quality brass might only have a few outliers to be concerned over.

 

[MGYSGT]

I used to work LC for matches and it shot just fine. When I buy the expensive stuff I still have to work it. Is it any better when I am done working it? I don't shoot well enough to be able to tell you. I just go on faith.

 

[dcali]

Unless money is really tight, good brass is the way to go. You will have to toss some of the cheap brass, primer pockets will be less consistent (so some will fail sooner), etc. At the end of the day, it’s a false economy to some degree. Good, well prepped brass will last a long time- it winds up being a relatively small percentage of your overall ammo costs.

That all assumes high accuracy (f class, etc) bolt gun ammo. For a high power gas gun stuff, go as cheap as you want- you’ll lose/trash cases quickly (compared to a bolt gun) no matter what.

 

[dgeesaman]

Physically you can expect more consistent internal dimensions and stronger case head. That can’t be “prepped” afterward.

But if you’re not loading the brass to it’s max and you’re not in a long range discipline where perfect velocity is required, then it won’t matter.

I assume you will sort the brass to ensure the pressures remain safe.

Do you have an annealer? Primer pocket uniformed? Neck turning gear? Flash hole deburrer?

David

 

[BCBRAD]

LOL! I'm not asking permission, I'm asking if premium brass offers advantages other than less prep time.

I normally use Lapua brass, out of 100 pcs. I get ~7 outliers and 3 groups that are +/- 0.5 grains, I skim turn the necks as well. As 300 Win Mag brass is at times hard to get in my area, and Lapua doesn't make it, I get ~40 usable pcs out of 150 Remington brass. Recently I have tried Alpha brass in 6 Dasher, out of 100 there was 5 outliers and two groups that ranged from 0.00 gns to 0.44 gns and 0.44 gns to 0.88 gns variance, the pack of 100 did not vary 1 gn though. The necks were very uniform but I skimmed them ever so slightly. The Alpha brass is much more expensive than the Lapua, but excellent quality in my small sample.

The above is in reference to 1000 yard shooting.

 

[Ralph Littlefield]

For some background:

I have ordered some Lapua brass and am suffering from buyers remorse even before I have received it.

I question whether my skills and shooting habits justify the expense.

If I have made a mistake, perhaps someone else can profit from this thread.

 

[Falfan2017]

For some background:

I have ordered some Lapua brass and am suffering from buyers remorse even before I have received it.

I question whether my skills and shooting habits justify the expense.

If I have made a mistake, perhaps someone else can profit from this thread.

Nice Brass that you can use 15+ times is the cheapest part of this whole endeavor.
You won’t regret it

 

[F Class John]

You can spend all the time you want prepping your Hyundai to race but it’ll never be a McLaren.

Not being crass, just trying to make a visual analogy that hits home...the point being you need to decide if the Hyundai will do what you want versus the McLaren. Only you know what you’re capable of driving and to what success.

 

[dcali]

For some background:

I have ordered some Lapua brass and am suffering from buyers remorse even before I have received it.

I question whether my skills and shooting habits justify the expense.

If I have made a mistake, perhaps someone else can profit from this thread.

Rest easy. Lapua brass is one of the best values in the shooting world. There are a lot of tools that don’t pay their rent in my opinion (concentricity checkers, for example), but good strong brass is one of the few no brainers to me. The difference at the target might be slight, but there are other benefits, as have already been mentioned.

 

[Falfan2017]

There was a guy at our range doing ftr with a 223. He was using lake city brass that he had and prepped it and sorted it every way he could. He was still getting 50+ FPS extreme velocity spreads and pulling his hair out with all kind of vertical that he couldn’t tune out. Changed to lapua brass and the problems went away. Much more consistent internal volume. Just weighing cheap brass isn’t a good indicator of internal volume.