Norma 556 brass

[806guns]

https://ravenrocksprecision.com/new-norma-primed-5-56-brass/

I have been seeing this brass for awhile now. Doesn't seem to be too bad of a deal for some plinking loads or fire forming loads for my 223 AI. Has anyone used this specific brass?

 

[farmerjohn]

https://ravenrocksprecision.com/new-norma-primed-5-56-brass/

I have been seeing this brass for awhile now. Doesn't seem to be too bad of a deal for some plinking loads or fire forming loads for my 223 AI. Has anyone used this specific brass?

Hey Feller, I've been single pass necking it down to .20 cal for a 20 practical and was going to fire form it for prairie dogs. It shoots so well that I'm just going to neck down and use it for the trip as is, plus they are good fokes to deal with... John

 

[5spd]

It's good brass, loaded gobs of it for my coyote, pdogs shooting.

 

[DocBII]

806guns,

I ordered 2k of the primed brass and sorted 1k. Weight variance was good, sorted into 2 major categories (300+) and 2 minor categories (100+) of 1gr. Flash holes could use cleanup, if you're careful. Case length variance was less than 0.007". Neck thickness went from 0.011 to 0.0125 on the couple dozen I measured. Necks seemed tight and could use running a mandrel through them for consistency. Only one fubared case out of 1020 received. For less than $0.18 per primed case, hard to go wrong. I've got some of his 77gr. SMKs to try with it, but haven't gotten around to loading them yet.

HTH,
DocBII

 

[Ned Ludd]

You might find this thread informative:

Norma 223 Brass Cases Compared to Lapua, PPU and Lake City

I couldn’t find any data on Norma brass cases recently entering the USA market as primed cases. So I evaluated the cases compared to Lapua, PPU and Lake City brass that I had on hand. Several of the data graphs from the study are posted below. The full study draft is posted at...

forum.accurateshooter.com

FWIW - there seems to be a few different kinds of "Norma" .223 Rem/5.56 NATO brass currently being sold. Obviously there is unprimed .223 Rem brass, and that seems to come from either Sweden or Hungary. Raven Rocks currently has Norma .223 Rem (unprimed) and .223 TRem that is nickel-plated and primed. They also have primed 5.56 NATO, which is the specific type I believe the OP was referring to. As discussed in the linked thread, there are clearly significant differences in parameters such as case weight/thickness between all these different types of Norma brass. So even though it's all Norma, it may not all behave exactly the same and replies from someone with the same exact type of brass will be the most meaningful.

I recently bought some of the unprimed .223 Rem from Raven Rocks Precision, although I have not loaded/fired any of it yet. The price was excellent and I believe it to be Swedish. I have previously purchased bulk .223 Rem brass from Midsouth Shooter Supply that I also believe was Swedish. It was noticeably lighter than Lapua and had greater internal volume, whereas the Hungarian version seems to be much heavier with lesser internal volume. I would guess that the 5.56 brass might be heavier with less volume, but I don't know that with any certainty. The lighter .223 Rem brass (probably Swedish) shoots very, very well in terms of attainable precision in tuned loads. I also purchased some primed Norma from Powder Valley that is likely to be the Hungarian sub-type. I haven't loaded any of that yet, either.

If you decide to try some of the primed 5.56 NATO, please let us know how it shoots for you. It would be useful to know whether the primer pockets hold up any better than the lighter Swedish .223 Rem Norma, if the precision is as good, and the average case weight (i.e. is it heavy or light). I'm trying to keep a running tally of the various characteristics of the different Norma sub-types. The various forms of Norma .223/5.56 brass seem to be catching on due to the price and availability, so knowing the characteristics of each will likely be useful to a large number of shooters.

 

[C.E.Smith043]

Tag

 

[806guns]

Bought 1k primed 556 brass. $259 shipped. Will try to keep you all updated

 

[806guns]

 

[Ned Ludd]

View attachment 1483227

Thanks for posting that info. It appears the situation with Norma brass is even more complex as there seem to be multiple sites of production even within Sweden. It will be interesting to hear what kind of case weights your are getting from this Lot of brass. So far, my Lots of "Swedish" .223 Rem Norma brass all seem to be of the lighter variety, maybe 92-94 gr case weight, whereas the heavier varieties seem to be well in excess of 100 gr case weight.

It may be that the site of manufacture doesn't matter as much as the case weight, as a difference of over 10 gr equates to a pretty significant change in usable case volume. Those using the heavier forms probably want to reduce their starting loads a bit more than usual for reasons of safety. Depending on where the "extra" metal resides within the case, it could also mean a noticeable difference in primer pocket life. The incidentals with regard to fit and finish probably also differ between sites of manufacture, but those are things that are much harder to quantify, and can usually be brought up to a satisfactory standard with a little effort at home anyhow.

 

[SSchnd]

Nedd I have been running RUAG brass in high power XTC for some time now. Got it from a friend who was the local LEO armorer who had collected it from the PD range after quals. Gave me about 80 lbs.
It is on about the 5-6th firing.
Very high quality cases. currently weights are about 103 gr. Cannot recall the H20 capacity. We found I was running hot and thus can back off of a 8208 load or H4985 charge by .5-1.0 grain and still run the same velocity as my buddy running matching service rifle upper and his LC brass load 23.2 8208 and 23.4 H4985.

The flash holes look machined not punched, so I never have uniformed flash holes on this brass. Have not needed to do a primer pocket uniform either. Very consistent brass weights. Has held up well. I hand prime so when priming if a random pocket feels a touch soft seating a primer I relinquish that case to the recycle bin.

Neck tension has been consistent but I have annealed once also using a Giraud gas annealer.

I did use loaded ammo from November 2022 for my 600 yd line to shoot a F T/R match this weekend.
Worked good for a FNG trying that for the first time at a Midrange match.

I would buy RUAG with confidence.