[82nd ABN]

Last week I was surfing around and bought the last 500 pieces of LC LR brass from brasmanbrass. I asked when and if they were getting anymore in and they took delivery on 20,000 pieces last tuesday. They only set the price on it today and I ordered a little more. The price, for whatever reason has gone up from $113 per 500 to $130 per 500. 1000 pieces is $250. What I got last week is all LC LR brass with the majority of it being from 2005 some 04-06 and 07.
Here is the link
http://store.brassmanbrass.com/servlet/StoreFront

Being the total newbie to reloading that I am, when loading mexican match do I need to separate the brass according to year or is all LC LR brass LC LR brass?

Oh the prices they quote are shipped prices. In addition, the brass I received last week had no corrosion and cleaned up very nice.

This brass at the time of the post is not listed on the website. Ask for Ryan or John

 

[BLACKTAIL 8541]

Easy way to see if you need to separate the brass is to weigh 10 pieces of each year and see if they meet your batch requirements.

 

[JAILDOG]

Warren, dont get confused. Mexican Match is Military usually M118 with the GI pill pulled and a 168-175 SMK put in its place.

 

[Bolt2bounce]

That price is way too high for brass.. unless it it toatly prepped and ready to load.. even at that $80 for 500 is more like the price to pay.. B2B

 

[82nd ABN]

That price is way too high for brass.. unless it it toatly prepped and ready to load.. even at that $80 for 500 is more like the price to pay.. B2B

Even if it is the M118LR Brass BTB? If thats the case I got hosed but its the only place on I came up with that had the LC LR available. I know you can get the belted stuff and the XM80 ball stuff cheaper, I was under the impression the LR or LC cost a little more. Like I said I am a total newbie to reloading. I am basing my purchase on the fact that I plan on making mexican match and my own preference is to use the LR brass because its been fired out of bolt rifles.
I got in a little hot water with a member lest week, I think he was under the impression I was misleading my fellow forum members. I am not saying buy the brass I am just letting those that like to use it that it is available, I personally find the LR hard to find. I see a 100 pieces here and there on different forums and it a PITA to have to join a forum just to attempt to buy some brass that is sold by the time you register. Happened to me on the 6.8 something or other forum. Kind of glad I joined that one I may have a 6.8 AR upper somewhere in the back of my head for another future project. WIll it ever end? I may even thin the herd of some of the 14's I have two of soon to fund a bolt action and some scope buys. Who knows.
Thanks for the heads up BTB but its too late for me I already committed, I bought 500 last week and 1k this week that averaged out to 23 cents a round. Considering the new winchester brass is selling at midway for 50 cents a round I feel like I am a head of the game by 27 cents each.
To be honest I wish I could buy more but I don't want to go any deeper on the plastic for the month. With this purchase it puts my 308 brass count up to 3500, 1500 LC LR and 2000 of the Black Hills match Winchester brass.

That leads me to a question if anyone gets this far in my long winded post.
Is the BH winy brass actually match grade brass? I was under the impression winchester did not make match brass. Which leads me to another question what is the difference if any between match brass and regular brass. The entire brass thing has me a little puzzled.

Again BTB thanks for the heads up.

 

[82nd ABN]

Warren, dont get confused. Mexican Match is Military usually M118 with the GI pill pulled and a 168-175 SMK put in its place.

Bob are you around? I need to talk to you and get set straight on some things. I will try calling now

By the way I also know where to get some of the pulled down M118 LC LC brass

 

[panther308]

That leads me to a question if anyone gets this far in my long winded post.
Is the BH winy brass actually match grade brass? I was under the impression winchester did not make match brass. Which leads me to another question what is the difference if any between match brass and regular brass. The entire brass thing has me a little puzzled.

I called BH a very long time ago and was told that Winchester made the brass for them to their specs. I had shot BH Match for several years as it outperformed FGGM in grouping from my Savage 10 then I got into reloading and had all the BH brass that I had saved and the brass is very well made and the weight variance is minimal, over the years all I did after the inital FL resizing and trim was to neck size with the occasional shoulder bump after 4-5 firings and never had issue with the brass, after about 15 or 16 reloads the pockets started getting loose but never had blowby so I loaded them up one final time and have them put back for a rainny day DI2

In regard to you question about match brass I was told by Lapua (my current match brass) that what makes there match brass is exacting consistent standards in wall thickness, primer pockets are drilled not punched and weight from case to case are held to very close tolerances so you as the reloader can put the same charge and bullet in each case and get the exact same results from round to round.

 

[BLACKTAIL 8541]

Warren, I wish I could answer your question about the BHA brass. I have used it and like it very much. However I do not know if their is anything about it that makes it any better than say, straight Winchester.

 

[dprice3844444]

http://shop.gsscompetition.com/1000...y-to-load-1000-Rnds-processed-Rifle-Brass.htm

 

[82nd ABN]

http://shop.gsscompetition.com/1000...y-to-load-1000-Rnds-processed-Rifle-Brass.htm

Understand but I hope you don't think I am a snob, I wanted the LR brass. Also wanted it unprocessed so I can fit the stuff to my individual chambers. If I understand correctly, the redding competition shell holders I plan on buying next month allow you to bump the shoulder back to achieve a case hs close to the chamber hs. After reading Art Luppino's thread about case HS and that it should be .005 shorter than your chamber HS I have to do some figuring before I buy them. My chambers vary from 1.630-1.633 so even at sami minimums which I assume the full lenght re sizer die is set up for, I will be good to go with a standard shell holder which i already have. I figure 1.628 case length across the board and I will be good to go. Still in the figuring stuff out stage. I would like to taylor my cases for each rifle chamber but if I have to start moving the die each time to set up the bump it will drive me bananas. I plan on calling redding to see if these comp shell holders would actually be beneficial and how considering the small chambers I have

 

[Ken W]

I too am a snob I guess.... I love M118 LR brass. I have about 5k of 2005 and use only it for reloading. I have sold all my other brass to make life easier. The M118 LR is hard to find but it is worth the hunt. It is also much easier to reload the first time as there is no crimp on the primer.

I have more than one M1a... as we all should USNA ... I seperate the reloaded ammo depending on which rifle it is spec'ed to. A little hastle but worth the effort for really long range shooting.

Have fun-
Ken

 

[82nd ABN]

I too am a snob I guess.... I love M118 LR brass. I have about 5k of 2005 and use only it for reloading. I have sold all my other brass to make life easier. The M118 LR is hard to find but it is worth the hunt. It is also much easier to reload the first time as there is no crimp on the primer.

I have more than one M1a... as we all should USNA ... I seperate the reloaded ammo depending on which rifle it is spec'ed to. A little hastle but worth the effort for really long range shooting.

Have fun-
Ken

Boy Ken you make me want to order another 1k pieces lol. I will keep my eye out down the road. Have to burn through the BH winny brass first. That will give me a couple of years to seek out more LR. On the other hand if I won the lottery tonight I am cleaning them out tomorrow.

 

[Al Mack]

And my friends think I have a problem. The headspace thing is what gives me head achs. Ever one has three guns, don't they?

 

[jameydan]

82nd,

I'll throw a few things in here for you.

AFAIK, there is not any Winchester "Match" 308 brass. However, it is great brass and is used frequently by Palma shooters (In other words, if it is good enough for Palma team shooters, it is a great brass). They often use it as the Winchester cases are able to hold enough Varget to get their 155grn bullets going 2950-3050fps, which they need to achieve.

The Winchester brass can be found for a better deal than what midwayusa sells. I only by from them if something is on sale. You are better off ordering from powdervalleyinc.com or grafs.com

I use Winchester brass for my 600-1000yd loads. I get 4-5 loadings out of it and I toss it to the scrap pile after that. I have shot 195/200 and 147/150 at 1000yds with the Winchester brass out of my M1A.

Now, I realize that you got some LR brass to use, but just keep in mind that the winchester brass is GTG too. I think oyu will find the LR brass is pretty good too.

Make sure you either get a Mo's guage (Mo Defina) or a RCBS precision mic to set your case headspace sizing. Maybe you already have one. They allow you to set your case sizing to a predetermined amount under your chamber headspace. Art, you note, recommends .005" under your chamber size. I go with .003 under. It helps lengthen the life of the brass, and still is safe and functions fine in my rifle.

I fire a few rounds with the gas system either off or disabled and then manually extract the cases. I then measure the size of the case which gets me close to the chamber size. I then use the precision mic to help size my brass to .003" under my fired size.

I do not recommend measuring your fired brass that has been extracted in the normal fashion with the oprod/gas system functioning. The primary extraction is strong enough to stretch the brass while pulling it out of the chamber before it has fully released from the chamber walls. This results in the measured headspace being artificially long.

I hope that all made sense. There are a few other techniques to optimally size your brass, but the above is a fairly easy and safe way to do it.

One last thing:

New Winchester brass at 38 cents each divided by firings:

• 4 firings = 9.5 cents per firing
• 5 firings = 7.6 cents per firing

Once fired LR brass at 23 cents each:

• 3 firings in addition to the initial first time = 7.6 cents per firing
• 4 firings (5 total) = 5.8 cents per firing.

Adjust the numbers as needed to help you make your decision.

Best,

JW

 

[Bolt2bounce]

82nd I don't think you got hosed..too bad, the LR is more expensive brass, I have a little bit loaded for the Rem 700 bolt gun.. but I usually don't use match brass in a semi-auto's.. a bolt gun is one thing.. but the M1A tears up the brass and I usually stick to standard LC or Military once fires brass.. I've found it for about $75 bucks per 500 rds free shipped .. http://www.evergladesammo.com/308-military-brass-500-pieces.html
buy a hundred rounds of standard brass and load them up then load up a 100 LR cases.. with the same load have a friend load your magazines so you don't know which ones are which, shoot them for groups @100 yards and see if your match brass make the group smaller.. that is the only real way to tell the difference..the real difference in my opinion is spending more time behind the trigger, practice time...and with cheaper brass you can spend more time shooting for less $$.. that is just my view on the subject.. I loaded all kinds of match brass when I was shooting DCM back in the day.. but I of the opinion it really didn't make my shooting better... cleaning primer pockets neck turning flash hole deburing it's for bench rest shooting... B2B