Remington or Winchester ?

[RayinNH]

I need to get brass for my new Brazilian Mauser, 7x57mm. I've used brass from both companies with no troubles. Is one really better or is it just personal preference? The Remington is a bit less spendy. The reloading dies, boolit mold, gas checks, sizer die, nose punch and brass are going to cost almost as much as the rifle. I'd like to at least save a couple bucks on brass.:roll:...Ray

[6pt-sika]

I need to get brass for my new Brazilian Mauser, 7x57mm. I've used brass from both companies with no troubles. Is one really better or is it just personal preference? The Remington is a bit less spendy. The reloading dies, boolit mold, gas checks, sizer die, nose punch and brass are going to cost almost as much as the rifle. I'd like to at least save a couple bucks on brass.:roll:...Ray



To each his own , but I use Winchester whenever I can . However any factory brass is better then no brass. I like the headstamp to be correct for the cartridge. I have a 219 Zipper and the cases are made from 30-30 brass , that kinda bothers me . Also have a 25-36 Marlin that I fireform 25-35 brass in . Might have to get some Quality Cartridge Brass for the 219 and 25-36 as they make it with the correct headstamp.[smilie=1:

[Buckshot]

.................Winchester/Remington, Ford/Chevy? So far as I'm concerned that's about it. Early on it seemed all the brass I had was R-P so that's the bulk of what I have now, but the last 8x57 and 357 mag I bought was W-W. It's all pretty good stuff seems to me.

................Buckshot

[C1PNR]

I, and some of my friends, have had enough trouble over the years to just prefer Winchester brass.

Not too long ago I experienced a 2%+ failure rate on brand new, bulk purchase, Remington in 7mm Rem Mag.

However, some of my friends like and use Remington. So, there it is. A lot of personal preference.:coffee:

Have you tried Starline? Or do they even make 7 Mauser?[smilie=1:

[StarMetal]

C1PNR,

Where was that 2 percent failure rate at on that 7mag brass? Was it starting to show head separation right ahead of the belt?

Joe

[Dutch4122]

Graff's had some 7x57 brass listed that was made with their headstamp. The stuff was cheaper than Winchester or Remington. I just checked the Graff's site and it appears they don't list it anymore. You might check with them to see if any more 7x57 brass is on order.

Hope this helps,

[Bucks Owin]

When John Linebaugh cooks up some of his full tilt .45 Colt loads he will use Federal or Winchester cases. Never Remington.....

Tells me something about Win vs Rem....[smilie=1:

Dennis

[redneckdan]

I've had case length problems with .357 mag RP cases.

[felix]

I have noticed that true cartridge brass is not really brand dependent, but surely seems so more often than not. A literal case in point: Not long ago a gracious fellow sent me some 45 colt cases having the Hornady brand. They were intentionally cut down 454 Casull cases. 5 new ones, and 5 used ones. After only one firing on my part, two of the new ones exhibited micro cracks, looking like a snail path along the base at an angle of sorts, and none of the older ones had any hint of any kind of a squiggly. The older ones were obviously work hardened enough to withstand the 25 grain RL7, 300 grainer boolit, load made up for the Winnie lever gun. I currently have mucho UMC and Remington cases back from the 60's which appear to be just as "strong" as the new Casull cases. Probably even more so. Why? They have been recycled at least 20 times shooting loads not more than 15-20K cup. Was the initial brass composition the same? Who knows. Norma is about the only brand that intentionally deviates from the norm as far as I know. ... felix

[StarMetal]

Felix,

So you say breaking in certain brass with alot of low pressure load work hardens them to where they are stronger for the hotter loads? What about what we say work hardening is usually what causes neck splits and we should anneal them? I had bought like 500 Winchester cases new and unprimed for the 45 LC back in the early 70's and I still have alot of that left. I really haven't loss that many cases and to be honest I lost more from ripping the rim off in the shell holder then neck splits. They started off as low pressure loads as you mentioned.

Joe

[felix]

Age hardening and/or gentle sizing just might have the effects of making the micro-crystals more desirable in terms of cartridge strength. The work hardening you are speaking of requires some kind of annealing to bring back the metal to a useable state. I have a cylinder on a model 27 that has these same microcracks I am talking about. Those sqiggly cracks have been on that gun from day one, and the guys at Smith have seen it on my particular gun without concern. This is the first time I have seen it on cartridge brass. ... felix

[versifier]

I just buy what's available, hopefully when it's on sale. I use a lot of range brass, too. Sometimes I get a bad batch, usually from foreign companies, but have encountered Win, Rem, and Fed brass on occasion that was overly brittle, had off center or missing flash holes (they were WW's, and six out of the hundred weren't drilled). I have had generally good experiences with American made mil brass, and occasional bad experiences with some kinds of foreign milsurp. I tend to end up with more Winchester brass than anything else, bought or scrounged. I really like the nickel plated Remington rifle brass for hunting loads, but they get shot once, then neck sized and reloaded. I don't use them for practice, and shoot a few at the start of every hunting season to make sure the sights are set properly, so a box of forty or fifty lasts quite a while. As far as practice and target ammo goes, I have batches of handgun and rifle brass from WW, RP, & FC that have been fired in excess of twenty times with no signs of problems. I load for accuracy, not velocity, so I'm not stressing the cases much that way, and I'm careful to work the necks the minimum possible amount. If I were a serious competitor or benchrester, liked to push the pressure/velocity envelope, or shot belted magnums, I would likely be very particular about my brass, but I'm not and I don't. I pay attention to POI shift between different brands, but that can vary from batch to batch and with different lots from the same manufacturer as much as it can from different brands. Someone, I think it was Felix, mentioned that the name on the headstamp doesn't necessarily tell you who made it, only who marketed it. This makes sense based on my experiences over the years.
Basically, it doesn't matter to me which brand I buy, it has to be checked over and tested anyway as there is never any certainty of consistancy.

[Frank46]

I use rem brass in my 700 vs in 308, rem 40x in 7.62nato, rem in my 1093a3, rem in my yugo 8mm, winchester in both the 94 and 94big Bore in 375 win. In some of my other rifles I have used lapua in the 300 savage (cut and reformed the cases)
SELLIER& BELLOT in 303 british, 8mm mauser, M1 carbine, 357mag in my colt trooper. In my sako 75 use federal 30-06. The greek HXP mil surp ammo fired cases also in 303 british. Here we are in the year shooting powders made in finland, in german cases, with american bullets out of a swedish 98 FN actioned mauser. I really don't place too musc attachment on getting certain cases for certain firearms. And I too do also use range pickup brass and shoot with it. Frank