Your favorite match .308 Brass?

Mean_Man · Thursday at 8:25 PM

Looking to order some match brass for my new .308 rifle, didn't see a lot of discussion on this in one place, thought I'd make a poll. Now I'm not asking what's the hands down best end all be all brass, I'm asking whats YOUR favorite brass, feel free to elaborate as to why, cost is a factor for many people, including myself, however if the improvement is worth it, it's worth it, if it's questionable, eh... That's the way I tend to think anyway but I'm not participating in the poll you are, so what is it and why?

Obviously just in doing my digging it seemed that small rifle primer brass is the way to go for many firings as well as lower extreme spreads so I didn't bother to list a LRP option, if your favorite is a LRP then just select other and post what it is.

Thank you to all who participate.

ETA: The poll will close after 90 days. You may select two options, but you don't have too.

kilizyrag · Thursday at 8:45 PM

Gas or bolt gun?

Mean_Man · Thursday at 8:48 PM

kilizyrag said:
Gas or bolt gun?

I didn't specify in my question, maybe I should have but the question stands as asked and I don't want to influence the results of the poll. Feel free to comment on which you selected and why, I believe I set it so you can select two options.

918v · Thursday at 8:57 PM

918v · Thursday at 8:58 PM

918v · Thursday at 8:59 PM

simonp · Thursday at 9:51 PM

Tagged for interest and information- never even considered SRP for 308 personally - Lapua here

spife7980 · Thursday at 9:58 PM

Yeah, why no large primer?

Mean_Man · Thursday at 10:02 PM

spife7980 said:
Yeah, why no large primer?

From what I have seen it looked from others experience there’s two potential benefits.
#1. Longer case life in reference to the primer pocket not growing.

#2. And of more interest to me personally, lower velocity extreme spreads. That said the people using SRP brass and had much lower ES’s were using a powder that filled the case and or slightly compressed load. But single digit SD’s vs the same everything except LRP brass and LRP obviously. Flash hole size was also a factor… If I recall correctly, larger flash holes with SRP lead to some hang fires for some with some powders.

It’s possible the full case or slightly compressed loads just burned more consistently and that’s where the real ES velocity improvement came from. But I noticed several competition guys use SRP .308brass for those that still use .308win anyway.

straightshooter1 · Thursday at 10:04 PM

Mean_Man said:
Looking to order some match brass for my new .308 rifle, didn't see a lot of discussion on this in one place, thought I'd make a poll. Now I'm not asking what's the hands down best end all be all brass, I'm asking whats YOUR favorite brass, feel free to elaborate as to why, cost is a factor for many people, including myself, however if the improvement is worth it, it's worth it, if it's questionable, eh... That's the way I tend to think anyway but I'm not participating in the poll you are, so what is it and why?

Obviously just in doing my digging it seemed that small rifle primer brass is the way to go for many firings as well as lower extreme spreads so I didn't bother to list a LRP option, if your favorite is a LRP then just select other and post what it is.

Thank you to all who participate.

ETA: The poll will close after 90 days. You may select two options, but you don't have too.

Lapua SRP's have been my favorite for my .308 as they give me very very consistent results over the years with the powders I use in them. Recently tried the Alpha brass and the box of 100 performed fantastically when fired as virgin brass . . . for example: 80 rounds fired and recorded resulted with an SD of 6.2, an ES of 29 and getting an average 5 shot groups of .418 MOA. I don't know how long the life for the Alpha brass will be as I haven't had them long enough. The Lapua brass does very well , like I've got 15 firing on my current batch and still giving me good results (~~fire forming~~ annealing after each firing) and they look like they'll go quite a bit longer.

The only issue I had with Alpha brass was their larger flash holes resulted in a couple pierced primers (using thin skinned CCI 400's). When I switched to CCI-450 (having thicker skins), performance was great. . . no more pierced primers. Never had any hang fires.

Mean_Man · Thursday at 10:07 PM

straightshooter1 said:
Lapua SRP's have been my favorite for my .308 as they give me very very consistent results over the years with the powders I use in them. Recently tried the Alpha brass and the box of 100 performed fantastically when fired as virgin brass . . . for example: 80 rounds fired and recorded resulted with an SD of 6.2, an ES of 29 and getting an average 5 shot groups of .418 MOA. I don't know how long the life for the Alpha brass will be as I haven't had them long enough. The Lapua brass does very well , like I've got 15 firing on my current batch and still giving me good results (fire forming after each firing) and they look like they'll go quite a bit longer.

The way you worded that at the end about fire forming after each firing has me confused. Are you full length sizing the case then re-fire forming it before loading it again for a match load? If so why? It’s been my understanding once the brass is fire formed just bump the shoulder back to spec and check case length encase the neck needs to be trimmed?

straightshooter1 · Thursday at 10:26 PM

Mean_Man said:
The way you worded that at the end about fire forming after each firing has me confused. Are you full length sizing the case then re-fire forming it before loading it again for a match load? If so why? It’s been my understanding once the brass is fire formed just bump the shoulder back to spec and check case length encase the neck needs to be trimmed?

Yeah, that would confuse me too!

I didn't type what I was actually thinking to type . . . it's one of those Senior moments I have when trying to keep my typing in line with my thinking. LOL. I meant to say "annealing" after every firing.

Cr1775 · Thursday at 10:37 PM

Lapua or Peterson lrp for bolt and Starline lrp for gas.

45-90 · Thursday at 10:56 PM

I have both SRP and LRP Lapua brass in both 6.5 CM and 308 Win ...
After many years of each, I now prefer LR primers. So much so, I never plan on buying Lapua SR cases in the future for my use.
But powder choice, and charge weight, plus bullet weight can influence your decision.
For best all-round consistency throughout the bullet/ powder choices one can encounter, for me, the LR primers presents itself as a clear winner.

When putting heavy 230 gr SMK in 308 with slower powders, LR primers were more consistent, lower S/D and 40 fps + faster than SR primers in Lapua cases, with the same charge.
But hybrid cases with LR primers were the best in S/D velocity and group size in one test with heavy 230 gr bullets in 308.

Mean_Man · Friday at 8:06 AM

45-90 said:
I have both SRP and LRP Lapua brass in both 6.5 CM and 308 Win ...
After many years of each, I now prefer LR primers. So much so, I never plan on buying Lapua SR cases in the future for my use.
But powder choice, and charge weight, plus bullet weight can influence your decision.
For best all-round consistency throughout the bullet/ powder choices one can encounter, for me, the LR primers presents itself as a clear winner.

When putting heavy 230 gr SMK in 308 with slower powders, LR primers were more consistent, lower S/D and 40 fps + faster than SR primers in Lapua cases, with the same charge.
But hybrid cases with LR primers were the best in S/D velocity and group size in one test with heavy 230 gr bullets in 308.

May I ask what SRP and powder you were using?

Zebulon · Friday at 5:29 PM

I am using Peterson SRP and varget

Zebulon · Friday at 5:30 PM

45-90 said:
I have both SRP and LRP Lapua brass in both 6.5 CM and 308 Win ...
After many years of each, I now prefer LR primers. So much so, I never plan on buying Lapua SR cases in the future for my use.
But powder choice, and charge weight, plus bullet weight can influence your decision.
For best all-round consistency throughout the bullet/ powder choices one can encounter, for me, the LR primers presents itself as a clear winner.

When putting heavy 230 gr SMK in 308 with slower powders, LR primers were more consistent, lower S/D and 40 fps + faster than SR primers in Lapua cases, with the same charge.
But hybrid cases with LR primers were the best in S/D velocity and group size in one test with heavy 230 gr bullets in 308.

I am doing the same .308 wise

Berger and SMK srp and lrp. Varget etc

Pretty happy with the results

45-90 · Friday at 8:02 PM

Mean_Man said:
May I ask what SRP and powder you were using?

Depends on the case what powder 308 or 6.5 CM and a variety of powders.
Here are 900 new SR 308 Lapua Palma cases along several hundred 6.5 CM SR plus hundreds in service of both types, plus thousands of Lake City military brass and commercial brass.
The Palma brass works good on standard loads like 308 and Varget, with 450, BR4, or Rem 7 1/2.
Not so much with 230 gr SMK and large doses of ball powder, in 9 and 8 twist barrels....and why most of the orginal 1200 stack of Palma brass are still there and LR brass is way down to 3 boxes.
Plus hybrid cases are now heavily employed, in 308 and 6.5 CM both with Large Rifle primers capable of handling 80,000 psi, and cases full of slow burning powders.
Each combination has a purpose, there is a point where SR primers don't cut it.

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Your favorite match .308 Brass?

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