The picture of the brass below is in response to some of the pics I've seen of other people's brass with questions about loads and brass quality. I've seen some ugly stuff. Below is 8x fired Hornady brass. On these particular 5 rounds, they were initially fired with 225gr ELD-Ms with a stout Factory load. Each reload has been with 78.5 grains of N565, a 225gr ELD-M, and a Federal 210M primer. After the first loading I had a pretty good trim down to 2.565. After that I barely touched a 1/2 thou off of any one of them maybe once or twice. They simply aren't growing in my Defiance Deviant/Bartlein combo chambered by Greg and Russ at SPR...aka.. Bugholes.
These are uncleaned, unsized. You will see a little powder residue around the necks...and you will see some tiny dimples where it slung out and hit the ground...and you will see some verticle scraping from my tight MDT 300WM CIP mags. You can see where the sizing die stops and doesn't go all the way down to the head. When these are cleaned up...they will be so shiny they look like a brass pole in a strip club.
While I've lost a few to primer pockets failing....that was MY fault. They were pushed with 80+ grains of powder to as much as 3100fps in a 28" barrel. So, while Hornady brass may be 'sub-standard'...it has held up rather well....and given me the opportunity to shoot at distance with an accuracy I never thought I was ever capable of.
Now, in a few days....my journey with ADG brass will begin...and we'll see if I can quantify the difference between the two.
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