I am in the process of getting amod 11 trophy hunter in 204. My initial purchases will be loaded ammo to shoot till I build an inventory of brass. Then I will get dies, etc. for reloading in the future. Comparing ammo prices, 2 that stand out as low are Fiocchi and Hornady. I would like feedback on accuracy and quality brass of those brands. I have heard some negatives about Hornady brass and nothing about Fiocchi. Am I better off paying a higher prices for Winchester or Nosler for example to have higher quality brass after shooting? Thanks for your input.
I bought Hornady loaded ammo for my 204R 5 years ago. I have heard the complaints about the brass from some, but have not had any issues myself. The primer pockets are still tight after 5X loadings. I have culled less than 10 cases out of 800 rounds, most of those were crushed by my powder measure when it gets balky.
FYI - I have had best accuracy with the 39 gr Sierra BlitzKings in my reloads.
I too started off with 32gr Hornady V-Max ammo for an AR-15 Shilen barreled 204R during barrel break-in. I was seeing between .600" and .400" 100 yd. groups. I did load some of the brass and didn't have any problems when annealing after 2 firings. I eventually went with Norma brass for my reloading.
26gr Barnes and 35gr Bergers are my go to bullets for the 204R.
I have shot Fiocchi 223 Rem with 40gn V-Max in the past and now trying some 204 Ruger ammo. So far, accuracy looks better than my reloads. I was able to try it last week and with a flyer, I had 1 ¼” group at 200 yds. Eliminate the flyer, it was close to 1” at 200 yds. This is with my Savage with a Criterion barrel.
As far as reloading Fiocchi brass, the jury is still out with me since we had problems with the 223 Rem ammo. My brothers SIL joined our dog hunting group about 4-5 years ago, acquired a Remington 700 and had good accuracy with the Fiocchi 223 Rem ammo. We both tried it in our Savage rifles and did not have any success with accurate groups that were better than our reloads. We had the same problem with reloading the Fiocchi brass also. When cleaning the primer pockets, I noticed that the flash holes were inconsistent. Very few were directly centered in the pocked. Most were off to the side, some smaller in size, and some were punched in a triangle shape. We used a #47 drill to bring the small flash holes to SAAMI specs. At this time, we have not tried reloads for our Varmint rifles. I have loaded some up for my AR and they do seem to shoot OK. We had a thought that maybe Fiocchi knew they had a problem and the ammo was substantially discounted. I haven’t tried any of the 40gn 223Rem ammo since then so I don’t know if the problem still exists.
As far as the 204 Ruger brass, all flash holes look centered and uniform. I have enough once fired brass to do some test loads and see how it compares to my current loads. If I do have good reloads, I plan on getting more ammo since I have 400 rounds that have been reloaded 6 times and I don’t know how much longer they will last.
Once thing we did notice was that the 223Rem and 204Ruger brass all weighed 4-5gn more than Winchester brass.
Lago
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