SmallCaliberCentral

I know this has been asked many times before but I am looking for some brass for my new Cooper .204. We only have one small shop in town and he specializes in shotguns, trap, etc. He has brass on order but has not seen any for months. I have also driven to every gun shop I know of within 100 miles and found nothing. Even tried Cabelas, Bass Pro, Midsouth, Graff, MidwayUSA, Nosler, Sinclair, R W Hart & Bruno. No luck. Does anyone know where I can mail order some brass?

Thank you, Tom

I got some Hornady brass from Midway last week. Not my favorite brass but I'll take what I can get.

Thanks for the reply. I took your advice and bought a box of Hornady brass. The dealer received them this morning. I heard that Hornady brass was not very good so I hesitated to buy it. I checked the length and all were within .002. The necks measured .010 all around, thinner than Federal, Remington and Winchester, but perfect for my .222 bushing die. I primed them with 7 1/2's and did not feel that they were excessively tight like the box of factory loads I had. I haven't loaded them yet but think I will buy another box.

I wonder if Hornady changed their specs?

Tom

I don't know if they changed specs. I've found that Hornady brass seems to be harder than Win or Remington and the necks tend to split much sooner than the other two.

Yeah, the hornady brass that I had was not real good, but it was from their ammo, and not boxed brass, so perhaps that was a variable?. I always wondered if perhaps I cought some product that "got through" QA by accident or something.. kinda like going to a great reseraunt and getting the waitress on her one really, really bad day, lol!!

Sounds like you may have some decent stuff!!

bow shot wrote:Yeah, the hornady brass that I had was not real good, but it was from their ammo, and not boxed brass, so perhaps that was a variable?.

That's an interesting observation Bow. All of my crappy Hornady brass was also from factory ammo. This will be the first time I've used their boxed brass. I wonder if they sell the best brass to reloaders and use the lesser quality for factory loads.

Please don't tell me Hornady brass is junk! I just bought my first 204 and placed an order for Hornady brass not 10 min ago through Brownells.

Awesome website you guys have here by the way!

It's not necessarily junk, just more difficult to work with and more prone to split necks than other brands in my experience.

So does anyone have any non-Hornady 204 brass I could have ?
I'm stuck here using the same 13 pc of Hornady as they split their necks.

My Hornady brass from the 50 round boxes is still going strong. It is not the best and don't even attempt to uniform the primer pockets. That is a lost cause. However, it shoots pretty well for the most part and I have upwards of 5 reloads on some. No split necks yet and it still chambers well even after neck sizing all this time. My Cooper has shot in the .3s using it. That is plenty good enough for me.

The Hornady brass I have is from factory loaded ammo and the primer pockets are to deep. I won't use Hornady brass again. I have no problem with the Rem. or Win. brass that I have.

kingofcoins wrote:So does anyone have any non-Hornady 204 brass I could have ?
I'm stuck here using the same 13 pc of Hornady as they split their necks.

Heck, I'll give you a few Remmy and F-P once-fired cases. pm me an address.
Hate to see a fellow .204er in need.

Thanks Rowdy.
In fairness to the Hornady brass its was annealed after 10 firings, the length was at 1.859" . The
annealing and my lower pressure loads definitely reduced the losses. The other trouble is inconsistent
primer pocket sizes in the brass, so I'm using winch WSR's to help any loose/leakages. I'm shooting
a 14" bbl Contender and the extreme muzzle blast has me loading back. But still I do get the 32 gr V-Max
bullet otd at 3435 fps, giving me a good 300 yard trajectory for chucks. Group-wise my 2-7x handgun has
done less that 1.5" at that distance...so maybe the Hornadys, and me, are alright in retrospect.

I just returned from a trip to Wyoming. I checked many sporting goods stores for 204 brass. I found one bag of 100 Winchesters and a box of 25 Norma.
I also found a second box of Norma but did not buy it because it was $26.95. Rifles were in short supply too.

Tom

I got quoted $46 for 50 brass for my 204 the other day and it was only federal stuff. The only 204 brass my gunstore can get at the moment. I was pretty annoyed about the excessive cost then I met a guy on a forum who lived near my deer hunting area's and doesn't reload. Just gave me 10 boxes of once fires remington and hornady rounds. I'm set for a while