Disapointed With Bertram Brass Quality

Llama Bob · Mar 30, 2019

I just sent the following email to Bertram Brass:

Hello,
I'm writing to let you know that I was disappointed with the quality of a batch of your brass I received recently. I purchased 200 .325 WSM cases and upon sorting them and preparing them for loading discovered that their weights varied by over 8gr. That equates to approximately the same level of velocity variance in the resulting load as throwing powder charges +- 0.5 gr.

Some investigation on the internet revealed that this is apparently typical for Bertam brass. I don't believe I received a faulty lot. Had I know this ahead of time I would likely not have purchased your product.

By sorting the brass and rejecting approximately 2/3 of the cases on the high and low ends, I was able to achieve a 1.5gr weight spread, which is analogous to +- 0.1gr of powder charge variation. This is approximately the level I expect to see in quality brass.

I'm not requesting any action on your part as I realize you are simply a distributor and replacement product would be unlikely to resolve the issue. I just wanted to make you aware of the situation, and that if you desire to have a good reputation for your brass among today's accuracy-oriented shooters, you will need to improve the weight spread considerably.

Regards,
<Llama Bob>

It will be interesting to see what their response is.

troy fairweather · Mar 30, 2019

dang i was thinking of getting some 7wsm. i am interested in what they say. what is the normal brass you use for your 325.

Llama Bob · Mar 30, 2019

Their response:

Thank you <Lama Bob> for contacting us.
We are aware and working with the manufacturer to tighten these up and have better qc done. He is working on computers and high speed cameras as well as high speed scales to help with these issues. We are striving to get this fixed and we have re iterated to them that if they do not fix and or work on this there will be no market for them.

That seems reasonable to me.

As far as alternatives for 325 brass, there is Nosler brass which is weight-sorted Norma. That can be good and bad, as you have to make sure if you buy multiple boxes they're from the same lot otherwise they can be sorted to different weights.

There's also Winchester, which I have no experience with but I wouldn't expect much.

For 7mm WSM, there's only Bertram and Hornady in-stock. I've heard mixed things about Hornady. My current plan there is to buy some 300 WSM Nosler, sort, resize, and fireform it but that's dependent on what I see with that brass.

troy fairweather · Mar 30, 2019

Llama Bob said:
Their response:

That seems reasonable to me.

As far as alternatives for 325 brass, there is Nosler brass which is weight-sorted Norma. That can be good and bad, as you have to make sure if you buy multiple boxes they're from the same lot otherwise they can be sorted to different weights.

There's also Winchester, which I have no experience with but I wouldn't expect much.

For 7mm WSM, there's only Bertram and Hornady in-stock. I've heard mixed things about Hornady. My current plan there is to buy some 300 WSM Nosler, sort, resize, and fireform it but that's dependent on what I see with that brass.

i like the win brass most i have used is the nickel stuff, mine are on there 4th or 5th load that's why i was looking at the bertram brass. i have 50 or some 300 wsm's i was going to fireform, if you need brass

LoonWulf · Apr 2, 2019

Llama Bob said:
I've heard mixed things about Hornady

Ive had mixed results with hornady brass, not so much in variations in case weight etc, but in longevity. The brass i weighed was within +/- a 3-4 grs, tho i only checked about a dozen.
Some of the newest 6.5CM brass I have, has split its neck in the first 1 or 2 firings, where as the older brass Im still using on firing 8+.

My .375 Ruger brass is holding up well, but ive not checked for variation in weights. Thing shoots sub MOA so it hasnt been on my list of stuff to check.

Kaldor · Apr 3, 2019

https://www.rccbrass.com/

These guys make everything. However, they are expensive.

Llama Bob · Apr 12, 2019

Thanks for the heads-up on rcc. Crazy expensive but could be a life saver.

ATLDave · Apr 12, 2019

Jeezus, weights being all over the place drive me nuts when it comes to brass. That's ridiculous.

Kaldor · Apr 15, 2019

Llama Bob said:
Thanks for the heads-up on rcc. Crazy expensive but could be a life saver.

Yeah, they are good people too. It is crazy expensive, but if thats the only game it town? I guess another factor is how many firings can you expect from the cases. Even 5 might amortize the cost enough to justify the upfront.

They make 22lr cases that take small pistol primers...
It has me thinking about some projects

salpal48 · Apr 15, 2019

Sounds Like a good Stock answer to me. The plain english translation means. To bad made that the way there made. no one else complained

Disapointed With Bertram Brass Quality

Llama Bob

member

troy fairweather

Member

Llama Bob

member

troy fairweather

Member

LoonWulf

Member

Kaldor

Member

Llama Bob

member

ATLDave

Member

Kaldor

Member

salpal48

Member

Similar threads