Will changing brass change point of impact?

[Sam in Perth]

This may have been covered before but I couldn't find an answer with a search. Please point me to an exiting post if you can.

I have been shooting loads with Hornady brass and have just bought 100 Remington cases. Using the same load with the new brass, should I expect a change in POI? More importantly, is it possible that my load (27.6 gr AR2206H behind a 40 gr Vmax) may be unsafe using different brass? During load development with the hornady brass I got up to 28.5 gr without pressure signs.

Should I back the load off and go through the development process again?

Will the unfired brass give a different POI or group differently than it will once I have fired it once, neck sized and reloaded?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Wrangler John]

I read an article last year in Guns Magazine or was it Rifle(?) where the author tested .223 Remington brass from major manufacturers. He found shooting five groups of five shots, each of the five shots with a different brand of brass, actually shot some of the smallest groups!

I use Winchester and Hornady .204 brass interchangeably and notice no change in point of impact. Groups are the same size within my shooting ability - about .250"-.500".

AR2206H is sold here as Hodgdon's H4895, Hodgdon shows your load of 27.6 grains to be .1 grain under maximum and generating 56,000 psi. There shouldn't be any pressure problem based on case capacity using published data with commercial components, but to ease your mind why not reduce the load by .5 grain and try five to be sure, then load the 27.6 grains. Your 28.5 grain load of AR2206H is over maximum according to Hornady data, I would caution against going that hot. My load is 25.2 grains of RL-10x with a 26 grain Varmint Grenade, a starting load for that bullet, producing 4,085 fps and absolutely devastating to ground squirrels. You don't need to max out on velocity and barrel throats will last longer.

In that article I mentioned the author found his best accuracy in the .223 Remington was with new unfired brass full length sized. In my case, I full length size .204 Ruger for the first firing, and neck size thereafter, but use Savage Precision Target actions and custom barrels that allow me to set headspace exact for each barrel. There is very little difference in group sizes between full or neck sized, first or subsequent firings. My experience is that the .204 Ruger is a phenomenally consistent cartridge in that respect. You will still have to work with your set up in order to know for sure.

[Sam in Perth]

Thanks for your advice John.

Your post sent me scurrying back to my load data and you are dead right. 28.5 gr of AR2206H (or H4895) would be stupidly over maximum. I was looking at my data for the 26 gr Varmint Grenade when I wrote that post. The highest load I have tested with the 40 gr Vmax was 27.8 gr AR2206H.

I have since colour coded my spreadsheet to avoid another mistake. Incidentally I use 27.6 gr of AR2206H for the Varmint Grenades as well. I found it grouped well and it keeps things simpler on the reloading bench.

I totally agree about using max or over max loads. Why burn out your barrel for an extra 50 fps? And why push your luck (and your rifle) with silly loads? I need to be especially careful because during summer in Western Australia it can get real hot, so I have tried to leave a little room to account for that.

Again, thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to post any interesting results.

[Sidewinderwa]

I am not sure who makes the brass for Hornady. Remington brass is thicker than Winchester brass so Remington brass will have more pressure as a result. Smaller combustion chamber. The increase in speed could result in the bullet hitting in a different location.