Which Brass Is Better

I like Lapua & Norma brass, but that's strictly a personal opinion.
I've watched guys (through my optics) make one hole a little darker & 'fuzzier' with every shot using both and several other brands.

About 25 years ago, you simply couldn't beat Norma & Lapua in a bench rifle, but several companies stepped up and it's much easier to get cases that cooperate with your program.

Unclenick posted this link in another thread, it might help or confuse, you decide...
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/x-ray-spectrometry-of-cartridge-brass/
 
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Assuming your loads adapt to the brass you use, I've done a lot of measurements of brass and Lapua and Norma both have less wall runout and no burrs in their flash holes and their primer pocket depths are more uniform than others. They are chamfered at the factory. That all saves you a lot of brass prep work. The neck walls I've measured on both are all 0.001" TIR or less, so you won't likely have to do any outside neck turning unless you have a special narrow chamber neck cut into your rifle.

The Lapua brass heads are not much softer than Lake City, making it a better choice in self-loaders than the other brands shown in that comparison.

I heard Nosler Custom brass is made by Norma, but have no first hand knowledge of it. Call them and ask and maybe they'll say. Norma makes brass for a lot of different companies.


Jeephammer,

I found the company that makes the X-ray fluorescence analyzer used in that article, but I expect you are looking at tens of thousands for a new instrument. However, I did find a fellow on eBay who will run a sample for you for $29. That's likely to be more justifiable. Ten samples for under $300 might be a big enough matrix for quite some time.

Here's a series of Norma grain structure photos. Why the use different magnifications, I don't know. Most interesting to me is the one of the sidewall showing how drawing orients the grains.
 
I believe my brother used some Nossler brass and the results were not nearly as good (longevity) as Lapua.

Hands down Lapua between those two. My opinion is Hornady and Nossler are vastly over priced for what they offer in brass.

For my mainstreams brass use I like RP and am working with a fair amount of Lapuas and PPU in 30-06, 308 and 7.5 Swiss (PPU exclusively in the Swiss)

The case head on the PPU is hard as hell. Very clean primer pockets, and the seating was more consistent than Lapua on first load (same on second loads)

FC is way too soft, have not been impressed with Winchester of late nor Hornady brass.

I do not believe Normal makes Nossler brass from results.

Best bang for the buck seems to be RP and PPU (that assumes you do minimal shoulder bump back and anneal)

Lapua proably takes the prize if you don't at least anneal.

RP does well if you anneal it, splits in 8 to 10 if you don't.
 
I have been using ADI & HSM IN 308 cal. I reload at the low end of the scale, brass is holding up well. Rem & Win. brass is pretty thin compared to the A & H I've been using . I switch off every week between the two shooting the same bullet & load. Working out fine for me.
 
I believe that Nosler brass is made by Federal, but is hand sorted, selected and prepped.

Over the years I've had great results from Winchester and Remington brass once it has been sufficiently prepped. I get the same results from Norma and Lapua and Nosler without having to prep it. Of those three, Nosler seems softer and has a shorter use life. Norma and Lapua seem about equal in quality, so I buy whichever is cheaper.

I just got tired of prepping brass, so now I use Norma and Lapua.

The above is what I think, based on my experience, which makes it an opinion and not necessarily fact.
 
Federal has a reputation for being soft, so life may not be the best. Nosler has made brass for Remington and Federal in the past. The whole industry exchanges jobs when one company's capacity gets tied up by a contract and needs to be supplemented, so you can't always count on the headstamp telling you the origins of a lot. For that reason I wouldn't be surprised if the origin of Nosler is variable.
 
The whole industry exchanges jobs when one company's capacity gets tied up by a contract and needs to be supplemented, so you can't always count on the headstamp telling you the origins of a lot.
Click to expand...
I interviewed for a job one time at a large brass casting and rolling mill factory. While they were giving me the grand tour I noticed bin after bin of cartridge brass stacked up in a storage area. I asked who they were making it for. They answered that it was common for them to produce brass cases for different manufacturers depending on their current needs. This company didn't even manufacturer cartridges for any significant percentage of their financial base. It was just "misc. business". Unclenick is correct, you never really know what you're getting.
 
Ignoring longevity and without extensive prep work, and not counting mil brass, here is my experience with uniformity

Norma/Lapua
RWS
Nosler
Hornady
Federal/REM/HSM
Win
SB

Including longevity as a variable

Lapua
RWS
REM
Win/HSM
Nosler/Fed/Norma
SB
Hornady

If you do a bunch of sorting, culling, and prep work, and considering longevity

Lapua/RWS
RP/Win/HSM
Nosler/Norma/Fed
SB
Hornady

Hornady is the softest brass I have ever used. In multiple calibers. With much prep work and culling, win and RP becomes very respectable brass.
But Lapua is only rivaled by sorted RWS
 
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