Thread: Hornady vs Nosler vs Norma brass.

From a reloading perspective, would you recommend one over the other?

Funny you bring this up. I was watching a Nathan Foster thing on yt last night about rifle accuracy. They were sorting out an accuracy problem with a rifle, It turned out it was the fancy arsed brass and when they tried some lowly Hornady brass it shot great. I guess the target tells the real story. Me I just use whatever got hornady ppu s&b remington winchester I do have some norma but that would be the only one I haven't done hand loads in

I like the Norma in 223.

Personally I think Norma isn't all its cracked up to be. It's really soft and I don't think it takes high pressure well.
It's probably very consistent in thickness etc but I stand by my original statement.
If you don't anneal and don't hot load yay! It's golden, but it's not for me.
Nosler is expensive but I have never used it.
Hornady is a little inconsistent around the neck...you can change that by neck turning. It's a somewhat cheap and cheerful option... if you loose 5 out of 10 cases its probably a good option.
Everyone has a different end game and that's the deciding factor.
Lapua would be my first choice but not on your list.

Norma make Nosler brass


Hornady uses a harder alloy for their brass


When you understand internal ballistics, your a long way to correctly prepping brass to suit your application

You can then log external ballistics to ensure your planned terminal ballistics unfold as planned

Im abit the same as John normas meh . In saying that I used that and hornady in my rem mag for years . I like winchester brass in the 08 cases I load for as its cheap and availble but does get very fragile with out annealing lots of split necks in my LRM I use adg and in the saum also adg and just picked up 50 rem brass which is ment to be great. As 7Saum has said noslers made by Norma but pricey out of your list id got Norma first then Hornady

Norma used to make Nosler brass, apparently they have been making their own for a year or two now, or someone other than Norma is

The reason I have chosen those three is that I am going to buy some factory ammo for a new (to me) cartridge and reload from there. Those 3 offer the what I want in a factory load. I am leaning towards the Nosler but no nothing about their brass.

If you are going to reload, why not just get the brand of brass you know will suit . Or do you need components that you don't yet have.
What's your new caliber?

Hornady isn't the best.
4 mild loads in my 300PRC before primer pockets became loose, I don't feel the need to run hot loads for a few extra fps.
Big Norma fan, 12 reloads on my 6XC and 10 on my 7mm08.
Nosler I've just started using in my 7mm creed and it's seem like decent brass with consistent neck thickness.

As long as the norma or nosler shoot well in your rifle, grab either and fire away

norma seem to be sot to me, adg is where its at. i have gone to new nosler in my 300 saum. yet to await trilaing them. bertrams pretty good, softer than adg. hornady is ok, another problem had with llose primers after a few 300prc reloads.

Originally Posted by johnd

If you are going to reload, why not just get the brand of brass you know will suit . Or do you need components that you don't yet have.
What's your new caliber?

Yeah. Could do but not really sure what would suit anyway.
I have the components I need (except brass) but the price of brass is not a lot less than the factory ammo. Also it will give me a base line for accuracy and velocity I can expect from these rifles. New cartridges are 243win amd possibly 22-250. Both hunting rifles and I won't be pissing around in search of the 'perfect' load. Just something that works.

Sako

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Sako

Haha. I just sold the Sako and the Anschutz. I will surprise you with what I got next time you are back

When I started out I was able to get Norma Re brass. It was good brass.
My most recent experience with Norma was when we went to 284 in F Class. I used Lapua 6.5/284 necked up and had no problems. Mates who used Norma only got 2-3 loadings before primer pockets gave out. Running 180gr at 2820ish and higher.