Well, now you’ll have a sample to run comparisons with. Either it will benefit you and you’ll buy more or you’ll never get any more. I’ve had Lapua brass stretch primer pockets in one or two shots, but not very often. One of the best batch of brass I’ve ever used was LC military brass. It took Two hours and over 100 pieces to get ten I was happy with. I like my bench time, but that’s stretching it even for me. If 1” groups off a bench at 100 yd with your hunting rifle is good enough, most anything will do. If you’ve got 5 grand in a gun, pay good money to enter a match, drive hundreds of miles to get there, range brass doesn’t cut it! Keep us posted on how you get along with the Lapua.
Buying Quality brass vs Time to prep cheap brass
- Thread starter Ralph Littlefield
- Start date
Well, now you’ll have a sample to run comparisons with. Either it will benefit you and you’ll buy more or you’ll never get any more. I’ve had Lapua brass stretch primer pockets in one or two shots, but not very often. One of the best batch of brass I’ve ever used was LC military brass. It took Two hours and over 100 pieces to get ten I was happy with. I like my bench time, but that’s stretching it even for me. If 1” groups off a bench at 100 yd with your hunting rifle is good enough, most anything will do. If you’ve got 5 grand in a gun, pay good money to enter a match, drive hundreds of miles to get there, range brass doesn’t cut it! Keep us posted on how you get along with the Lapua.
I am very frugal/cheap and struggled bringing myself to buy Lapua . I found I did the same amount of prep, which is fine because I enjoy the whole process.After using Lapua I felt like I had removed a big variable and moved on to concentrate on other things to make me a better shooter . When you know your loads are good you stop chasing your tail ,confidence is huge part of the game...for me at least. Just have to pick things apart as you go to see where the biggest gains are.
The difference between Lapua and everyone else with an exception for Peterson who has limited supply of great brass is it lasts and very consistent over standard or military brass. In some cases the military is what you need for certain genre's of shooting but so far Lapua is the best and worth every penny.
Lapua brass is still very good on the 10th loading.
Most cheap brass doesn't make it to the 10th loading.
I'm not sure how one can go about "prepping" in a way that offsets variation in case wall thickness, variation in case capacity, oversized primer pockets, or thin necks....
Most of what passes as "prepping" is actually "culling" and "sorting". And if you can't use 1/3rd of your brass, how much money are you really saving?
Yes. The metallurgy of the brass makes a difference.
Earlier in life I pondered this same question, as I had more time than money. My education taught me that "high quality new brass" is a savings, if you are going for true accuracy.
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When you pick it up free off the ground you cant compare. I run good brass in competion and range pickups the rest of the time. It does make a difference but to quantify that is beyond me.
I entirely agree; no amount of sorting will give you consistent metallurgy and the correct hardness.
I used to fiddle around with cheap brass but came to the conclusion that cheaping out on brass made no sense given the amount of money spent in all other areas of shooting. With the correct, minimal sizing, my Lapua lasts forever (well, I stopped counting reloads but it outlasted two 22-250 barrels and then I wanted to change and switched to the 22BR). My last cheap brass, Hornady, was done at 6 reloads using the same techniques and the 6.5 Creedmoor barrel I was using it in wasn't even close to burned out.
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
I agree with almost all comments! 4,5,6k or more in a BR setup two hundred dollars worth of brass that will shoot a barrel out and it’s still performing. Some of my 6brx brass has 30 loadings on it. The prepping is the same on good brass as it is on cheap brass but I prepped 250 pieces of Lapua brass 100 for my heavy gun 100 pieces for my light gun and 50 for my 11lb used it for two seasons and since have used that brass in my groundhog rifle and like I said I’m north of 30 loadings. My primer pockets have loosened up but they still are working you can’t do that with Remington brass. If your shooting a black gun your probably going to be sorry you spent the money if your just shooting steal or plinking but if your trying to shoot little groups and want 5 or 10 perfect pieces for each match you will NOT be sorry!... best of luck with your new brass sir.
Wayne
Wayne
I agree that premium brass is worth the money for competition shooting, if my previous post didn't make that clear.
However, I will also argue that "cheap" and "premium" aren't as strongly correlated with price as you might think. I suspect that that some "cheap" brass can be surprisingly good. For example, in .223 I"ve been using Wolf Gold brass from Taiwan. I buy it brand new and already primed for about 14c each. Definitely cheap. But if I measure the SD and ES of weight, it would fall about #3 on the list of lowest SDs in the "223 cartridge guide" list of case weights and SDs.
Recently, I've been exploring Geco brass made by RUAG/RWS once fired. I used to shoot it before I took up reloading and didn't save many cases. But the two I had on hand were both over 100gr of weight! That's like the old Lapua.
I can buy Geco (pre-COVID) for $17/50 of loaded ammo. Is that a good deal?
I will find out myself because in a few weeks I'll have 500 pieces of Lapua and 500 of Geco and can compare them. I suspect the different in price and the difference in quality will be only loosely correlated.
The upshot: good brass is important, but simply paying more doesn't always guarantee that will end up with excellent brass, and there is brass out there more than adequate that can be had for good prices. (don't get me started on how much I love Starline).
However, I will also argue that "cheap" and "premium" aren't as strongly correlated with price as you might think. I suspect that that some "cheap" brass can be surprisingly good. For example, in .223 I"ve been using Wolf Gold brass from Taiwan. I buy it brand new and already primed for about 14c each. Definitely cheap. But if I measure the SD and ES of weight, it would fall about #3 on the list of lowest SDs in the "223 cartridge guide" list of case weights and SDs.
Recently, I've been exploring Geco brass made by RUAG/RWS once fired. I used to shoot it before I took up reloading and didn't save many cases. But the two I had on hand were both over 100gr of weight! That's like the old Lapua.
I can buy Geco (pre-COVID) for $17/50 of loaded ammo. Is that a good deal?
I will find out myself because in a few weeks I'll have 500 pieces of Lapua and 500 of Geco and can compare them. I suspect the different in price and the difference in quality will be only loosely correlated.
The upshot: good brass is important, but simply paying more doesn't always guarantee that will end up with excellent brass, and there is brass out there more than adequate that can be had for good prices. (don't get me started on how much I love Starline).
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