Question on components per application

I'll say I've not had federal brass hold up as well as others. I use it for low priority shooting and for when I know the weeds are gonna keep my brass.

Lake city brass tends to do well, starline too. Not lapua good, but good.

I'd use lapua to have a load for when you need to send the best. Maybe lake city and Norma for general mid tier stuff? And the mixed for close range and lower precision work?

Federal probbaly could fit in mid tier. I've had fine acceptable consistency from it, just seems to be softer brass than I'd like.

Keep in mind the varied case capacities.

If it were mine Lapua for precision loads, LC for the SCAR, 150's go into the Federal with a midlevel charge.

Per your request for thoughts, suggestions:

Do you're annealing before the first cleaning.

Don't use brass fired from one barrel in another. . . keep them segregated.

If you're going to use various brass for various applications, be diligent and keep good detailed records as to how they're being loaded and results. It always helps to do that anyway, but even more important when using various components.

Yes, IMHO you should also use a mandrel to get your neck tension you want to help with more uniform interference within the case's necks.

When using various cases as you are, be sure to measure and get some idea of the case volumes (after being fired) as there can be a significant difference that'll affect the performance from a particular load. For example, because Norma brass tends to have a little thinner case walls, the case volume is signfically more than LC brass that tends to have the thicker case walls (like 56.4 grs H2O for Norma vs 54.8 grs H2O for LC). Lapua brass and Federal brass tends to be in the middle of that range. Just within a particular head stamp, there can be a substantial difference in case volume from one lot of brass to the next lot.

As mentioned, use your Lapua cases of when you want the most consistent best results. They're high quality and very consistent within a lot compared to others. The Federal brass tends to have close to the same case volume and I've had excellent results there were as good as I got from Lapua. But the Federal brass tends to not last as long as Lapua brass. I've fired a lot of reloaded Federal brass and not had some of the problems some people claim to have (like with primer pockets getting too loose). I have a batch of Federal .308 brass that's been fired 10 time now and they're performing just fine. Having brass last, has a lot to do with how the brass in being sized and fitted to the particular chamber along with just how hot they're being loaded or not.

Since you have "thousands of bulk cases, like 700 Federal's, you can improve their consistency by weight sorting them into smaller batches as this will provide more uniform case volumes for your loads since there is some correlation between case weights and case volumes.

thedude824 said:

I appreciate the insight. I’d like to make as few mistakes as possible starting out.

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Follow what @Doom said. That's how I'd do it. You may as well copy the FGMM loads with the 168 pills, I use them on my MDR, don't hate on me for the MDR... it sucks

Since @straightshooter1 brought up weight sorting and there is a lot of recommendations and advice about not weight sorting I through this in. If you ar looking a real precision reloading for bench rest or F Class it isn't the most accurate way to sort. BUT when faced with trying to take a large bunch of Federal or really any other brand it is better than not sorting. There is a definite relationship between volume and weight. There is a variance due to the machining of the extractor grove and also the length of the case. There is also the possibility that the grade of brass is different between lots which have different densities.

The info below was obtained about 10 years ago and gives you some idea about the relationship of varying brass weight and volume. It was fired and resized then trimmed to all the same length.

Doom said:

Since @straightshooter1 brought up weight sorting and there is a lot of recommendations and advice about not weight sorting I through this in. If you ar looking a real precision reloading for bench rest or F Class it isn't the most accurate way to sort. BUT when faced with trying to take a large bunch of Federal or really any other brand it is better than not sorting. There is a definite relationship between volume and weight. There is a variance due to the machining of the extractor grove and also the length of the case. There is also the possibility that the grade of brass is different between lots which have different densities.

The info below was obtained about 10 years ago and gives you some idea about the relationship of varying brass weight and volume.

View attachment 8588250

View attachment 8588251

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Just to make a point about differences in case volumes from one lot to another, looking at this chart of various brands, note the difference between "Federal GM" and "Federal (Not GM). Just a few years back I called Federal and asked if there's a difference between their cases labeled "Gold Medal" and those that are not. He advised that they do not have separate production for GM brass or that there no sorting of brass that comes off the production line; they're all the same. Therefore, this chart shows how there can be a difference from lot to lot.

This difference in volume between lots can also be seen in data from Peterson Cartridge company's data: