SmallCaliberCentral

Hi and thanks for you advice in advance.

I want to start loading for my Savage model 12 LRPV. I have NEVER loaded before.

I have about 150 shells that I have kept from factory Hornady and Federal ammunition.

Can I use this brass from differing manufacturers to work up a single load using 39gn SB's?

Bearing in mind that if accuracy is the key, will using brass from different manufacturers change
either load data or POI?

Or should I just go out and buy some new brass?

Cheers,

Griff.

personally i would stick with one manufacturer especially if you are going for precision accuracy. case volume changes with different manufacturers,neck tensions could be different(IE. brass could be harder and thicker in one brand to another). i use win. brass and have had no problems in my lrpv. if you stick with one brand it makes it easier to work up loads, consistency is the key to accuracy.just my 2cents

Larr is right on. There are differences between brands of brass and sometimes within the same brand. There will be different pressures between brands. I prefer Winchester brass.

Thanks, that is what I thought, nice to have it confirmed though.

Except that one gun writer (was it John Taffin or Mike “Duke” Venturino, or someone else?) did an expose of reloading myths to discover that groups from five different brand cases all mixed together were just as accurate as single brand cases, in fact they shot a bit better! He used the .223 Remington. Also discovered that much of the rigmarole we go through, such as uniforming, weighing cases, etc. was a waste of time. In another article, a test of case life of the .308 Winchester showed that the Winchester brand outlasted Lapua, Norma, Nosler and slightly edged Remington among others.

I just buy Winchester cases in 500 or 1k lots and load away.

"...What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet..." Brass is shiny no matter it's lineage.

So here's a fun experiment: Try the same load in several brands of case, mix 'em up and see how they shoot.

In my 223, I am using any brand of brass I can find. I am using Win, rem, LC, fed, pmc, and some brass that don't have a manufacturer stamp. I have never had a problem with any of it, and with my reloads, I am getting groups of less than .500 at 100 yds.
On the other hand, I believe the 204 is a different breed. Preasures can build rather quickly, and with no supply of brass at the range to pick up, I am only using Remington brass that I have purchased in the last few years. Had some problems with Win brass, when I started reloading the 204, so I sold every last Win case I had on hand, and have never looked back.
A side note; I have never fired a factory load in my 204.

Well, I'm still yet to check the prices of brass here in Australia - maybe in the end it will become a simple case of economics. The problem is I know what I am like and I will want to make sure I have "no excuses".

Thanks.

I started reloading ammo in 1953. Over the years my brass has ben seperated by brand and military brass by the date stamp. Whenever I found them I would read articals about how the bench and long range target shooters prepared their target ammo . Whenever I miss a shot I know its me not my ammo or rifle. Unless a rifle has a target size chamber it may be a wast of time to full size new cases, trim to the same length, deburr the flash hole, ream the primer pocket, taper the in and out side the case mouth and may turn the necks followed by seperating the cases by weight in groups of 20 each but I do it. I get new brass in lots of 100 each for my big game rifles and 200 each for my varmint rifles. The only high quanity of shooting I do is at prairie dogs . I reload for accuracy not velocity so I get good case life and only neck size after the first time reloading them. 200 cases for the 22-250 Rem and 220 Swift will last a long time for the yote rifles, the same is true for 100 each cases for my big game rifles. It takes some time to prep the cases and work up accurate reloads but its a lot more fun to hit the target than a miss.

In my .223s, I can tell a difference in the effect of commercially available brass and military brass, but in my .204s, I can interchange the brass with no noticeable negative effect..

That being said, I still try to keep my brass segregated by brand, just due to my OCD tendency It just seems right to do so...

I have found that the primer pockets in the Hornady brass seem to loosen up faster than Winchester or Remington rounds...Accuracy is also my goal and I've found that one of the most prevalent factors is the difference in the dies used with the .204 that may not show up in some other calibers....My Forster dies seem to produce more consistent rounds than my Lees for Full Length sizing, while my Redding dies seem to produce better neck sizing results for my CZ...

I have experimented a fair amount with cases that were sorted and/or uniformed in one or more ways. Uniform neck thickness, for one, makes a significant difference in my .204. As an example, just this year I sorted out cases (all Rem cases from 1 batch) with less than .001" total difference in neck thickness and compared groups to cases that had from about .0025-.0045" total difference. Groups went from the .2-.3" class to about .7" and worse, with the one difference being the neck variations. I would have prefered that the groups stayed the same or got smaller by mixing inconsistent brass together, since that would make it much easier, but so far I haven't been able to make that work for me. Not saying it hasn't for others though. In my experience rifles are somewhat like people, where as individuals have certain preferences about some things while others don't seem to care much either way.

I can not remember the details, but within the last year I read an article outlining a similar test "proving" accuracy myths. It was amusing to me, the way the author described his test methods and reason for the conclusions reached made me skeptical that they could see any difference between black and white.

I have three diferent 204r,and I seperate brass manufacturer for each gun.That way I can tumple/clean them all together,and sort by head stamp for the gun they shoot in.

"The problem is I know what I am like and I will want to make sure I have "no excuses".

Amen to that! I want to know that any problems are me, and not the gun or the ammo.

I'll have to disagee with some of the brethren here. If your brass has inconsistent volume piece to piece, I believe that it will mirror the effect of inconsistent powder charges, especially in those tiny .204 cases. JMHO, I'm not a super experienced guy, but I went through inconsistent brass heck with my Savage VLP. Switched to nice uniform weight (and therefore, theoreticaly volume) brass and problem gone.

Nosler for me.