Thread: re-loading highland AX ammo (russian 54R and 303brit)

Looking at 54R brass lapua is $172 for 100, or I can get 100 highland AX for $160. Im hard pushed to say geting the lapua brass is cost effective unless the highland isnt much cop to reload with?.....ditto 303brittish $150 for 100 rounds of highland AX. I will be shooting both at at most 300yds and 100yds most of the time seems most likely.

Thoughts?

i have reloaded highland 223, long as it is brass and boxer primed , it should not be a problem

Highland is actually quite good brass for reloading, I was given a heap by a mate who doesn't reload ....308, 303 and .243 so I loaded some for him and tested some for myself just for the hell of it....seems to handle hot loads well

12 cents.Go Lapua.

I've loaded some .223 and .308 brass and found it to be decent, I've never weight sorted it or tested for capacity, but one big plus is almost all cases have the flash hole punched perfectly in the center consistently, unlike other European brass (FN) and most US brass I've inspected (Win, Rem, Fed, LC,Fiocchi). Remington is the worst. FNB can be quite bad too. I get the impression it is quality brass, the guys on shooting AU speak highly of the .303 brass, but the x54 I'd be more inclined to go for Lapua since the cost is so close.

Do you mean the Highland stuff is loaded at that price? For the sort of ranges you are talking I would be buying it loaded and just reloading the used brass as you need more.

If those prices were for unloaded brass I would pay the little extra for the Lapua.

Isnt highland military spec brass. ive loaded it quite hot in my 6.5x55 and it handled it better than federal or hornady brass. Now using some in my 223 aswell and thats going fine after a few reloads

I've used it a fair bit for the 303. I've got pretty bad head space and the brass holds up very well.

Highland is PPU, which seems to be well regarded brass.

Which is good, cos' i have shitloads of their .303 brass to load for my current project rifle

Are you shooting something with enough accuracy potential to notice a difference if you use lapua brass?

If you have a target rifle, and the rest of your reloading components are top notch, then the lapua is worth it. Otherwise stick with highland.

I use highland brass for .303, 8mm, 7x57, and .223, it has proved to be fine for all of them.

Ive loaded highland brass from from fac bought rounds and im currently using lapua brass your pulling hairs i reckon,as long as your doing everything else right with your reloading practices highland will serve you just aswell as lapua but for the price diff id go lapau

NNY and PPU head stamps are very nice brass.

One thing I'd like to know is if their .223 and .308 brass is mil-spec, they do make a ton of military ammo.

PPU virgin brass is 223. Have loaded 10k rd's of it

btw, sorry it doesnt look like i was that clear, the $172 is for lapua brass only, The $160 is for highland AX ammo so its already loaded....hence quite a big jump for the first load as it needs to be fire formed anyway. So the highland is $1.60 each the lapua is going to cost me around $2.40 to load I reckon.

Can you get lapua 303 or 54r ammo in NZ?

regards