Norma Brass

[AzMandella]

Is Norma brass considered one of the better brass makers . Was wondering as I realized I have 300rnds of Norma 223 that I bought a few years ago .

 

[dhagerty40]

not sure about 223 brass, but the Norma 6BR brass compared well with Lapua brass.

 

[ARW]

I've been using Norma brass in my 221 FB......Good stuff.

 

[HPC]

If low case head wall thickness variation is one of your sorting criteria, it is one of the best, if not the best.

 

[acloco]

Excellent brass.

 

[Fuj]

Picking up 500 pieces of Norma 284 Winchester brass. I use it
mainly for my wild catting. Was planning on trying Peterson
this time around, but a good deal on virgin Norma brass, I will
not pass up.

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

Started using it, in my new, 6 XC and like it, a lot !
Want to find some for, my .270 WSM, next !

 

[Laurie]

It's excellent usually. As a rule, it's often heavy as per Lapua and Peterson. The only downside is that it used to have a reputation for 'soft heads' compared to Lapua in some cartridges, so they and primer pockets expanded faster than same cartridges with Lapua brass limiting life.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I recently started using Norma .223 Rem brass in one of my F-TR rifles with H4895/90 VLDs. The precision of tuned loads is excellent; every bit as good as Lapua. The Norma cases require a bit more effort upfront effort than Lapua with regard to removing some flashing from the inside of the flash-hole, but that is a pretty minimal job. The Lot# of Norma brass I have has about 0.3 gr more internal volume than Lapua (~31.4 vs 31.1 gr). The necks/case walls of the Norma brass are a tick thinner than Lapua, so it is lighter (~91 gr vs ~96 gr). However, the webbing as measured at the bottom of the primer pocket is ~8% thicker than Lapua. Hopefully, that will mean the primer pockets will last as well, or better, but I haven't fired any of it a sufficient number of times to tell as yet. The Norma brass I purchased came in 250 pc. "bulk" bags from Midsouth Shooter's Supply. At $99.99/bag, it is about one-half the price of Lapua, and worth every penny so far, in my estimation.

 

[Laurie]

At $99.99/bag, it is about one-half the price of Lapua, and worth every penny so far, in my estimation.

We're the opposite in the UK - Norma is far more expensive than Lapua. Once fired Norma brass in 223 and 308 from factory ammo has a very good market through the classifieds in our field shooters' Internet forums.

Interesting what you say about Lapua weight / capacity. If you don't recheck this already, I'd suggest you do. Having shot 223 for a long time with these cases and on setting things up for a resumption with a new barrel after a longish gap, I had quite a collection of older brass as well as the 200 new cases I'd just bought. I found that depending on age, weights and capacities vary considerable from around 92 to >96gn and 30.5 to 31.0gn water capacity in fireformed cases. The lightest cases / highest capacity were 'gold box' cases probably getting on for 10 years old. The heaviest / lowest capacity are early 'blue box' and current examples bought a few months ago fall in between but closer to the heavy examples than the light 'gold box' ones. So I now have three sets of 223 brass with different colour ammo box labels, the high-capacity put on one side for when I work match loads up with the 85.5 Berger and 90s.

Incidentally, the early 'blue box' cases although lower capacity were the best of the bunch in consistency with fantastically small neck thickness variations; good weight spread too. These are the best 'out of the box' cases I've ever measured in any cartridge or make of brass, and I wish I had more of them.

 

[Ned Ludd]

We're the opposite in the UK - Norma is far more expensive than Lapua. Once fired Norma brass in 223 and 308 from factory ammo has a very good market through the classifieds in our field shooters' Internet forums.

Interesting what you say about Lapua weight / capacity. If you don't recheck this already, I'd suggest you do. Having shot 223 for a long time with these cases and on setting things up for a resumption with a new barrel after a longish gap, I had quite a collection of older brass as well as the 200 new cases I'd just bought. I found that depending on age, weights and capacities vary considerable from around 92 to >96gn and 30.5 to 31.0gn water capacity in fireformed cases. The lightest cases / highest capacity were 'gold box' cases probably getting on for 10 years old. The heaviest / lowest capacity are early 'blue box' and current examples bought a few months ago fall in between but closer to the heavy examples than the light 'gold box' ones. So I now have three sets of 223 brass with different colour ammo box labels, the high-capacity put on one side for when I work match loads up with the 85.5 Berger and 90s.

Incidentally, the early 'blue box' cases although lower capacity were the best of the bunch in consistency with fantastically small neck thickness variations; good weight spread too. These are the best 'out of the box' cases I've ever measured in any cartridge or make of brass, and I wish I had more of them.

I've determined water volume for Lapua brass routinely over the last 7-8 years. I usually purchased it in a single Lot# of 1000 pcs at a time (all blue box). In my hands, it has proved to be almost monotonously consistent, with an average of ~31.1 gr volume. Lapua .223 case weights range from about 94.6 to 97.7 gr. The last Lot# of Lapua .223 brass I purchased had about one in four or five cases weigh in at the extreme upper end of the weight range. They were sufficiently higher weight (i.e. lower volume) than the average to actually increase velocity by about 20-25 fps. Not sure why that particular Lot# was like that, but it was rather annoying to have so many "heavy" cases that required a slight reduction in charge weight as compared to the others. Nonetheless, it's hard to complain about the precision with Lapua brass, which is excellent. I was happy to find equally good precision with the Norma brass at ~half the price. I've tested a couple other "less expensive" brands of .223 Rem brass where that was not the case and the precision was unacceptable, to me at least.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Few years back when Lapua 6 BR wasn't available, Norma was. More expensive but the quality was on par with Lapua. GOOD STUFF.

 

[AzMandella]

Thanx . I will use the ammo now and use the brass for developing loads .

 

[Sniper338]

Never had a problem with it.

 

[pirate ammo]

Works great in my 220 Swift.