I recently bought some SSA brass on the advice of a friend of mine, telling me that SSA was recently taken over by Nosler. I have used Nosler Custom brass in the past with excellent results in both .223 and 7mm mag. Their brass has always been extremely consistent in terms of weight and volume, and the cases need absolutely minimum attention prior to loading. I typically just anneal, neck size and load.
This batch of SSA brass was not to the same standards of quality I have experienced before though. Granted, I know that SSA is a "bargain brand" and is not necessarily weight sorted or finished off to the same level as the Nosler brand stuff, especially their custom grade line of offerings.
This SSA brass though, seemed like it came from 2 different batches. The weights ranged from 162.4 to 176.3gr, with 59 cases being in the 162.4-167.2 range. The rest were 172.2-176.3... I know this is acceptable for plinking ammo, which is likely what SSA is really meant for, but me being as anal as I am, I decided that this was not good enough for me, so I called them on Friday.
I spoke to a great guy over there named Mike. He was surprised by the extreme spread of the weight of brass as well, and said that it should have been better controlled than that. He told me that before Nosler took over the Silver State Armory brand, that they were made all over the country and quality control was lacking at best. Since then they have moved the operation in-house and said that the QC is much tighter and rivals their standard Nosler brass brand. This was all good info.
The better info was the fact that he would try to find a batch of brass in one of the weight ranges that I had in my lot, and send them to me for free. This is incredible, especially after reading about how some companies like Lapua and Hornady where people have received a couple pieces of defective brass from them, to basically shine off because they were unwilling to do anything to rectify the issue and send replacement cases. Its nice when a company makes the extra effort to take care of the people that essentially keep them in business.
Nosler has seriously won me over with their continued efforts with their customer service department. I have called over there a couple of times now, though this was the only time I had a complaint, and they have always been totally awesome with their efforts.
Yeah, I guess I can say Im a Nosler fan-boy now.. Thanks Nosler!
This batch of SSA brass was not to the same standards of quality I have experienced before though. Granted, I know that SSA is a "bargain brand" and is not necessarily weight sorted or finished off to the same level as the Nosler brand stuff, especially their custom grade line of offerings.
This SSA brass though, seemed like it came from 2 different batches. The weights ranged from 162.4 to 176.3gr, with 59 cases being in the 162.4-167.2 range. The rest were 172.2-176.3... I know this is acceptable for plinking ammo, which is likely what SSA is really meant for, but me being as anal as I am, I decided that this was not good enough for me, so I called them on Friday.
I spoke to a great guy over there named Mike. He was surprised by the extreme spread of the weight of brass as well, and said that it should have been better controlled than that. He told me that before Nosler took over the Silver State Armory brand, that they were made all over the country and quality control was lacking at best. Since then they have moved the operation in-house and said that the QC is much tighter and rivals their standard Nosler brass brand. This was all good info.
The better info was the fact that he would try to find a batch of brass in one of the weight ranges that I had in my lot, and send them to me for free. This is incredible, especially after reading about how some companies like Lapua and Hornady where people have received a couple pieces of defective brass from them, to basically shine off because they were unwilling to do anything to rectify the issue and send replacement cases. Its nice when a company makes the extra effort to take care of the people that essentially keep them in business.
Nosler has seriously won me over with their continued efforts with their customer service department. I have called over there a couple of times now, though this was the only time I had a complaint, and they have always been totally awesome with their efforts.
Yeah, I guess I can say Im a Nosler fan-boy now.. Thanks Nosler!