300 win mag brass

[sean91285]

I have just bought a 116 bear hunter in 300 win mag. This is my first in this caliber. I am going to be doing a 60 round barrel break-in for which i have no ammunition. I am a reloader however i am going to buy factory ammo to shoot and build up my stock of brass. My question is what brand of brass should i be using. I can find all sorts of hornady locally which i prefer, or should i source some Winchester from some place else.

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[trentcwwilson]

Depends. If you're going for accuracy when you start loading, Nosler or Lapua. If not, Hornady or Winchester. When it comes to accuracy, Lapua for rifles and Starline for pistols is all I use.

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[jim_k]

Differing opinion: my experience is that R-P and W-W (Remington and Winchester) brass is excellent. I don't do a lot of load work-up on 300 Win Mag, but I use Remington brass, and the last one I did shot 3 5-shot groups at 100 yds., and they were 0.46", 0.59", and 0.75", and I didn't do any further work-up.

[trentcwwilson]

From my years reloading, I've seen Remington brass that just won't withstand the loads as well as others. It's one step above Prvi in the calibers I've loaded with it. It's absolutely terrible in 38 Special. After 3 powder puff loads (2.5 grains of Clays under a cast 105 grain truncated), their primer pockets are shot. Same for the 35 Remington brass I've bought from them.

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[jim_k]

One of my shooting buddies used Remington brass exclusively, and routinely got 15 reloads in .223 Rem, and he shot real good prone scores, up to 200-16x in slow prone of HighPower match. There is something different between the experience of the two of you, that is, trent and my old buddy. I don't know what the difference is, though.

[trentcwwilson]

jim_k, I'm not trying to undermine your comment. YMMV so to speak. I've just yet to find a batch of RP brass that has worked for me consistently. Lapua has built it's name on their brass, and that's why people pay double, if not triple for it. I haven't compared reloading numbers, but I can almost bet that my Lapua brass has outlived any of the other brands I've tried.

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[sean91285]

Lapua no longer makes 300 win mag brass. What characteristics make winchester and hornady brass undesirable?

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[trentcwwilson]

Lapua no longer makes 300 win mag brass. What characteristics make winchester and hornady brass undesirable?

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I didn't say they were undesirable. I enjoy using hornady brass if Lapua isn't available near me. I did have a gentleman bring in a 700 in 270 in which a brand new RP case destroyed his gun. Checked his other loads in our test rifles and had no issues, no excessive pressure. The case we extracted did have a flash hole you could drop a large rifle primer through. Destroyed the bolt, and we instructed him to buy a new gun. It was so spectacular that we bought the gun from him to add to our collection of gun failures. Doesn't beat the 5.7 incidents....

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[Robinhood]

I find older Winchester brass to be fine stuff. Hornady may be better and I do not use Remington so I have no comment.

[trentcwwilson]

I find older Winchester brass to be fine stuff. Hornady may be better and I do not use Remington so I have no comment.
The old winchester is great stuff. The old man still won't give up his.

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[Phranque]

Lapua no longer makes 300 win mag brass. What characteristics make winchester and hornady brass undesirable?

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I don't think Lapua ever made 300 WM brass... They carried it for a while, even had a Lapua headstamp, but if memory serves, I believe it was made for them by Norma. Caused a bit of a stink when it got out...

[trentcwwilson]

That's another company to look into. Norma makes a lot of great brass as well. They really saved me about 6 months ago when it was time to replace my 6.5x284 brass.

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[schnyd112]

I just got 100 pcs of Norma brass for my dad's 300 wm. We had 60 pieces of once fired hornady brass, but it was +-2 grains from the mean so I got new stuff.

[WeldNFool]

I was in the same situation with my Lapua. While I was waiting for the rifle I scoured the internet for the best deals on ammo. I have seven boxes of Nosler and three of Norma now for reloading. In my 308 I've bought up a bunch of Hornady but have some Remy's as well. Not sure why I bought the Remingtons but since I have bought Hornady's only to shoot then reload.

If you have lots of money to throw around, buy the Lapua brass. If you're a guy on a budget and have a wife or kids, especially a wife that will say, "How much?" then Hornady. I bought some one shot brass and it had Remy, Winchester, Hornady, PPU, PMC and a few odd brands. The only ones I just threw in my brass to be melted bucket were the PPU. The PMC's I have not done anything to other than clean them. Still on the fence about those.

[RC20]

My take on Brass (and I do not shoot 300 WM)

FC is nice to work with but its soft, ok for a first shot, but it breaks at the base much sooner (even with minium shoulder bump). Pretty much use 8 rounds and throw away.

RP: This may vary by caliber, the old standbys its been very good in and I like it a lot. Its my main bulk brass (Lapua for when I get an really accurate load)
Weight wise its next down from FC. Seems to be a good mix, not too soft, good to work with. I like it though I think Lapua is better. Sort of an odd situation.


I haven't shot any modern Winchester but it gave my brother a lot of grief in 30-06 and he won't buy it.

Lapua: good stuff. Keep in mind they sell in lots of 100. Hornady, Norma etc sell in lots of 50. So the double price is cut in half. I have seen Lapua that per case is less than Hornady. I need to weigh it and see where it falls.
Oddly it seems a bit hard to me, like PPU. No downside, just a bit harder to trim.

Hornady: Again I never bought any, my brother did and was not impressed.

Its the lightest of the Brass I have weighed (I pick up a case here and there)

Norma: I haven't used that either.

I do have some PPU, good price, seems a bit hard, doesn't resize as easy but ok and trimming is a bit harder but again ok.
I sort of put it with RP, with the jury still out.

[trentcwwilson]

My take on Brass (and I do not shoot 300 WM)

FC is nice to work with but its soft, ok for a first shot, but it breaks at the base much sooner (even with minium shoulder bump). Pretty much use 8 rounds and throw away.

RP: This may vary by caliber, the old standbys its been very good in and I like it a lot. Its my main bulk brass (Lapua for when I get an really accurate load)
Weight wise its next down from FC. Seems to be a good mix, not too soft, good to work with. I like it though I think Lapua is better. Sort of an odd situation.


I haven't shot any modern Winchester but it gave my brother a lot of grief in 30-06 and he won't buy it.

Lapua: good stuff. Keep in mind they sell in lots of 100. Hornady, Norma etc sell in lots of 50. So the double price is cut in half. I have seen Lapua that per case is less than Hornady. I need to weigh it and see where it falls.
Oddly it seems a bit hard to me, like PPU. No downside, just a bit harder to trim.

Hornady: Again I never bought any, my brother did and was not impressed.

Its the lightest of the Brass I have weighed (I pick up a case here and there)

Norma: I haven't used that either.

I do have some PPU, good price, seems a bit hard, doesn't resize as easy but ok and trimming is a bit harder but again ok.
I sort of put it with RP, with the jury still out.
I've found that the PPU brass is soft in the primer pockets(38 special). I get 2 or 3 loads for them then I run into loose pockets.

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[RC20]

I don't shoot pistol that much, the PPU in 308 has been solid primer pocket wise. I have a good 10 cycles on the PPU.

The Lapua actually has some that are on the loose side. Ok and not getting worse, not sure if PPU is just overall tighter and you can tell or Lapua is overall a bit loose and some are a tad loose, some a tad tight and most in the middle.

What I don't know is how it all relates to 300 WM.

So far other than newer calibers for RP, its been good, newer ones the cases are much lighter in comparison, so they could be making it to an old standard and then a new one for new calibers.

PPU may well be the same and difference between pistol and rifle as well.