Rifle brass: WIN or RP?

Nickel Plated RP

I had a real problem with nickel plated RP being very hard and necks cracked on the first firing. I was advised to switch to Winchester brass which is softer. I have had no problems since switching. I must say however I have only had a problem with the nickel plated RP, the standard brass RP works fine.

I believe quality control is better with Federal and Norma brass which is why it is priced higher than RP and Winchester.

I've been reading Glen Zediker's book. He recommends Winchester. If it works for him, it will be good enough for me.

Sometimes it's what you can find. .218 BEE ? Win,of course!

Doesnt make much difference to me, if I was buying it though, i'd probably by win. You in Tippecanoe county? I live out west now, but Im a Hoosier. Used to deliver pizza's there at Purdue at Mad Mushroom when I was in college. Ah miss them days BOILER UP!

I like Remington brass just fine, but most of mine is Winchester because:
1) they're generally lower priced;
2) Winchester most often has brass in the calibers I reload for, at least from the supplier I like to buy from

I suppose I would buy Lapua or something if I was spending thousands of dollars per year shooting in benchrest competition matches. However, for what I do, that "high-quality" brass wouldn;t make a difference to me.

I load anything I can get cheap, but prefer R.P. and Wichester. Last year a friend gave me a bunch of Federal nickel and it has worked just fine but requires drastic powder charging adjustments, probably due to the case volume being smaller I imagine. I do notice that when the R.P. brass expires it usually happens with the mouth splitting. Just for the record, I neck all my brass if that makes any difference in the point of failure when it expires.

I did not vote in the poll as the answer I would choose was absent. I will reload with what ever I have on hand. It also depends on what works in that caliber. Some times a particular brand of brass will work best with a particular round of ammo. I have no special type of brass that is the BEST. Most often you pay more, you get more, is a good rule. Now EVERYBODY hates AMERC I believe.

I would say for longevity, they both seem about equal.

But I will say that I have noticed the flash holes are much more often not centered and are more prone to have burrs around them on the R-P

I have used both Remngton and Winchester-Western brass for more than 40 yeras and do not see any difference in terms of relaodability. The only time I preferred one brand over the other was in forming 40-65 out of 45-70 - I preffered the R-P brass without cannelure for cosmetic reasons - the W-W brass worked well in forming the 40-65 cases.

Remington, I like that I can see the annealing. Winchester is pretty goot, to, although I have more malformed case mouths (not bent, metal actually overlapped or a deep notch) than with Remington.

I've also had good luck with PRVI and Graf's for (less expensive) new stuff.

Incidentally, the brass I like least happens to be Norma. I just throw them away.

I prefer Winchester over Remington, but use both. I think the necks split on the Rem brass first. I like Hornady and Nosler , but usually wouldn't spend the extra cash. I would love to have Lapua and Norma, but since I am cheap, I don't.

In truth, I will use Remington or Winchester that comes from loaded ammo that I have shot or for my pistols and my ARs. However, when buying for a bot rifle, I want the best. Lapua if they make it and Norma/Nosler if not.The extra money is worth the reduced prep time as far as I am concerned.

Recently Winchester seems to be having quality control problems so I've been using Remington.

I personally find both very useful.

Both are often found discarded in heaps at the range, which appeals to me.

RP Tends to need a little more flash-hole de-burring than most. Winchester primer pockets tend to need a little more...how shall we say...firmer handed uniforming, which I guess makes it 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

I found the Win brass from long ago a little softer, and it was easier to convert some old 32spl of that stamp to .30-30 than the other headstamps FWIW.

Currently I find my Win brass to be consistently lighter per piece than all other headstamps I use.

Hornady makes some good stuff of late, just dont try to pocket uniform it. Fools errand, really.

As Blarby noted, Winchester brass consistently runs lighter than RP brass. (and much lighter than Fed brass) This means slightly higher internal case capacity which translates to slightly lower pressures for equal powder charges. Or slightly higher velocitys with equal pressures.
If its the highest velocity you seek, Win brass is your best choice, assuming you are observing reasonable pressure limits.

Roger

Couldn't answer the question because "Who cares" wasn't an option.

Most of my 223 brass is either milsurp or Remington.
Not because of choice, but because that's what they had in ammo (reloadable brass) or brass.

Almost all of the handgun brass I have is from boxes of ammo I purchased over the years.
I still will buy a box now & then to replenish my brass as is cracks or gets looser pockets.
Fiocchi, Privi Partizan, Winchester, RP, Fed & Starline

Couldn't answer the question because "Who cares" wasn't an option.

Click to expand...

Obviously the OP cares or he wouldn't have asked.

Now I'M confused...

... but mine is probably an isolated problem. My experience with my pet 22-250 load is that Win brass had less case capacity than R-P. I did go check and it is only with that caliber that I have to beat the load into submission to get all of it into a Win case. The R-P takes the charge (IMR4350) and is full, but the Win is more firmly compressed... which is why that Win brass is still sitting there on the bench, patiently waiting its turn.
Sorry, OP, didn't mean to derail the thread.

mike

I mainly use Winchester brass.
For my 45-70 hunting loads I use Starline though, it holds up way better than Remington or Winchester brass.
For my 300 grain .44 loads I use Remington mainly just to quickly know difference when they're face down in the case.
But for everything else, Winchester, always had good luck with them.

I have RP and Win Brass in 30-06 that I bought new. Can't tell a difference to be honest.

I only load .30'06 and mostly Lake City. I do have some WWC 41 I haven't used, yet.

I did not vote because I have no major preference to brass, I mainly use winchester, and remington, but I have used others. I did some testing with the 30-06, all of the components were equal but the brass. Took note of accuracy and pressure signs and worked up in powder charge. The only thing I can tell you is that what was accurate in one brass was not in others, because you are changing the harmonics, via chamber pressure due to differing internal volumes. I ended up using the one that was most accurate with the top charge.

The question is kind of asking which brand of car one prefers. It's going to depend on a lot of factors. Price, appeal, comfort, performance, prestige, peer pressure, family tradition, fancy ads, sexy sales girl at the Dealership, etc.

In the end there are not all that many differences between the various pieces of commercial brass. If one is looking for something to fill with powder and send a bullet down the barrel they all work. The rest is a matter of choice.

All that said I've collected R-P, Win, FC, and they all work fine. Winchester seems to be a little more consistent for my needs with good powder capacity and uniformity of weights (in .308). For the really good stuff I keep a supply of Lapua brass on hand.

I reload several calibers (rifle: .204 Ruger, .308, 30-30 Win, and pistol: .45 ACP, .38/.357) and I'm still trying to figure out why some Winchester calibers are better than others. When firing .204 Ruger the Winchester brass has very soft primers and the empty cases stand at an angle after firing. Winchester nickel plated .204 doesn't do that, nor does RP .204 brass. Overall I will go with what works and is easiest to come by when needed.