Thread: Exprience with modern Hornady Brass?

Am interested in others opinions having reloaded with Hornady Brass.
Weight/ volume consistency?
Life of cases?- reloadability life?
Cost comparisons?
Accuracy?
Thanks in advance.

never had an issue with hornady

Can't say I've weighed my brass for consistency, but they've been consistent and accurate in the .270 with warm loads. Up to 5 reloads with no issues, trimmed once.

I load it for a friend in his 270win and notice no difference in accuracy or poi in comparison to Winchester brass which he also uses.
Personally I use Norma for all my reloads but that's just my choice.
Have certainly not had any negative experiences with the Hornandy stuff.

no issues, cant say I've seen much difference in life of brass vs other brands - with one exception being 7mmRM. This was brass recycled from factory ammo - case neck splitting observed after 1 or 2 reloads. Maybe justa dud batch of brass - this was 3 -4 years back now.
In most cases/calibres I tend to run fairly warm loads and after 5-6 reloads (annealing after 2x) most brands seem to start showing some signs of stress - mostly neck cracking. Figure if i get 5 - 6 reloads they dont owe me anything and bin them.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

no issues, cant say I've seen much difference in life of brass vs other brands - with one exception being 7mmRM. This was brass recycled from factory ammo - case neck splitting observed after 1 or 2 reloads. Maybe justa dud batch of brass - this was 3 -4 years back now.
In most cases/calibres I tend to run fairly warm loads and after 5-6 reloads (annealing after 2x) most brands seem to start showing some signs of stress - mostly neck cracking. Figure if i get 5 - 6 reloads they dont owe me anything and bin them.

My mate has also experienced this, strangely enough with 7 mm rem mag virgin brass 1 to 2 loads max before neck splitting

My least favoured brass. Quality control is awful, some good batches, some absolutely horrendous. If you have to use it do weigh, and keep any eye out for case separation. I’ve had some that was very undersize from factory - made me think I had headspace issues until I measured against norma.

Only experienced it in 223 but found mostly excellent except for one lot which was well below par - cases went in the bin after two loads where i could historically have reloaded at least half a dozen times. Stretching and thinning led to real fear of separation.

Still very happy to use it but keep an eye out for issues.

My only experience was with their factory 22 Hornet which I hoped to end up with good reloadable brass from.
Wrong. Very inconsistant case to case weights. Quite important with the wee Hornet taking such a small powder charge.
Ended up not using it and just continued with my Winchester Super X brass.

I have been using Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass for 2 years. Some of then are on their 7’th reload and I can feel some primer pockets becoming more worn than others, but not to the point where I feel I need to bin them. I can also add that I anneal them at least every second time I reload them and I am not running stupid hot loads.
In the beginning of the season I weight-sort them and out of about 250 pieces of brass the weight differs about 11gr. See pic below for an idea of the amount of difference:




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That's a significant ES.

Today I weighed 157x Lapua 6.5x47L cases and the ES was 0.9 grain. That was after I culled an outlyer which had the ES at 1.2 grains.
That quality isn't much help though as obviously Lapua doesn't cover all catridge types by some margin.

Originally Posted by janleroux

I have been using Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass for 2 years. Some of then are on their 7’th reload and I can feel some primer pockets becoming more worn than others, but not to the point where I feel I need to bin them. I can also add that I anneal them at least every second time I reload them and I am not running stupid hot loads.
In the beginning of the season I weight-sort them and out of about 250 pieces of brass the weight differs about 11gr. See pic below for an idea of the amount of difference:




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That measure really tells the story. Thankyou for the effort.
I use norma brass in four calibres and within each calibre (.308win; 6.5*55 ,
30-06spr and 308NMag I find only 0-3grains variance even using different lots.
I understand Lapua is even better.

found primer pockets need to be champhered as seem to be crimped...and there seems to be morethan one batch of brass out there at any given time,different headstamps if you look carefully.....but saying that Im happy as pig in shit when someone gives me some to use.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

found primer pockets need to be champhered as seem to be crimped...and there seems to be morethan one batch of brass out there at any given time,different headstamps if you look carefully.....but saying that Im happy as pig in shit when someone gives me some to use.

I have heard they outsource quite a bit, which may well explain this.

Get a ball micrometer to accurately check neck thickness. Hornady does vary, and it effects your neck tension. That effects consistent muzzle velocity.

On the big plus side you shouldn't have to ream the flash holes out. It comes already done