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Best Value 6.5 Creedmore Brass - Go...

BlackFenix

BlackFenix

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 11, 2017
155
22
Central Texas
I have been reloading precision 308 for a while but I have a new 6.5 Creed barrel on the way and would like to get feedback on the BEST VALUE brass for the money. I intend for this to be my entry into club PRS matches. As with many people, if funds were no object then I would just go with Lapua but they are. Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I am probably going down a different route.

Here are the most prevalent brass brands that I thought were worth taking a look at with their general cost per piece:
- Hornady $0.45
- Lapua $1.15
- Alpha $1
- Peterson $0.70
- Starline $0.60

There are other brands out there however, at this point I did not see them bringing anything to table but I can be convinced otherwise.

Biases:
- When starting to reload 308, I had a couple of bad batches of Hornady and just really don’t trust the stuff.
- I prefer the best value over straight cost.
- Currently I am leaning towards Peterson and Starline.
- I have not decided if I am going large or small primer just yet so would like to keep my options open.
- I am not a bench rest shooter and this is my first high quality barrel so I am not sure that I can shot better than 1/2 MOA so the brass doesn’t have to be PRS leaderboard condition.
- Currently, I prep Winchester for 308 and have a Savage 10 shooting 3/4 MOA and I am happy with that.
- I have plenty of time to prep brass if that is what it takes to get good results. I just can’t get to the range as much as I would like.
- I expect to get 10+ firings even with a relative hot load.

Here are some of the Pros & Cons as I have researched them:
- Quality of brass based on SD of weight and volume:
Lapua > Alpha > Peterson > Starline > Hornady
- Graf’s just became the sole distributer for Peterson.
- All brass except Lapua probably needs to be prepped before reloading.
- Starline has larger flash hole which means that I will not have to worry about special decapping pins.

Preferences:
- Brass should be available from multiple suppliers.
- Prefer brass that has Large and Small Primer Options.
- American made.

I would love to hear people’s opinion backed by fore thought and info. Thanks for your time!
 
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I have Alpha 260 brass and did not have to prep it. It is very high quality.

I’m considering buying once fired Prime brass to try in my Creed. Assume it’s good for 8-10 reloads, with proper annealing?
 
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XTREM HTR16 said:
I have Alpha 260 brass and did not have to prep it. It is very high quality.

I’m considering buying once fired Prime brass to try in my Creed. Assume it’s good for 8-10 reloads, with proper annealing?
Click to expand...

I was thinking that I heard that Prime is Norma brass. Do you know if that is the case?
 
hard to beat Lapua, regardless of cost being a factor or not when compared to Alpha and Peterson. old reliable. you're talking 1-3 cents per reload when reaching 10 reloads, but more is possible with better brass from what i've seen here

hard to beat Prime/Norma because you get good quality factory ammo to shoot first, can build reloading setup while still shooting and have good brass at the end

Hornady, only marginally cheaper than Prime for factory ammo, but if it shoot then it shoots and you still have decent enough cases left over

i have cases of 130 Prime and 147 Hornady, with some 140 Hornady too for my new rifles. If the Prime shoots the best then great i can sell the hornady brass and shoot Prime and Prime/Norma brass reloads. If the Hornady shoots the best well then i can sell the Prime brass and the Hornady brass and get Lapua
 
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XTREM HTR16 said:
I have Alpha 260 brass and did not have to prep it. It is very high quality.

I’m considering buying once fired Prime brass to try in my Creed. Assume it’s good for 8-10 reloads, with proper annealing?
Click to expand...

For FGGM you can tell that they are once fired by the primer sealant. For Prime, is there anyway to tell that it has only been fired once?
 
BlackFenix said:
For FGGM you can tell that they are once fired by the primer sealant. For Prime, is there anyway to tell that it has only been fired once?
Click to expand...
someone will have to chime in, but most guys selling it on here are gonna be pretty straight up, if they were reloading it they probably wouldn't be selling it at all
 
BlackFenix said:
Good point!
Click to expand...
Yep, I don’t reload so I save my once-fired brass to sell. Got all different kinds from Norma and Prime stamped Norma, to different kinds of Federal, and of course Hornady. Haven’t done inventory in a while though since I mostly just shoot Norma these days.

It would take truly greedy fuck to load it up a number of times and then sell it instead of shooting it to failure.
 
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I've been running Prime brass for about a year.. Im starting to see some loose primer pockets at 5x, but I'm shooting mostly 147ELDs, pretty HOT.

My take on the new brass would be Lapua. I think if you were to compare the lifespan, 15x, 20x?? against the others, youre probably $$ ahead.
Right now Grafs has 6.5CM Lapua on sale for $100 and flat rate shipping of $7.95 per order, not per box (i just ordered more) so get 3-4 boxes??
 
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This is easy. Lapua or Peterson. With the occasional annealing of the necks, 200 pieces will outlast the barrel you’re shooting them in. Alpha may be the same, but I’ve never personally used it. Don’t buy cheap brass under the guise of saving money. It doesn’t add up.
 
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Supersubes said:
This is easy. Lapua or Peterson. With the occasional annealing of the necks, 200 pieces will outlast the barrel you’re shooting them in. Alpha may be the same, but I’ve never personally used it. Don’t buy cheap brass under the guise of saving money. It doesn’t add up.
Click to expand...

Have you seen any difference in the count of reloads between Lapua and Peterson? If so, were the loads the same?
 
Stpilot12 said:
I've been running Prime brass for about a year.. Im starting to see some loose primer pockets at 5x, but I'm shooting mostly 147ELDs, pretty HOT.

My take on the new brass would be Lapua. I think if you were to compare the lifespan, 15x, 20x?? against the others, youre probably $$ ahead.
Right now Grafs has 6.5CM Lapua on sale for $100 and flat rate shipping of $7.95 per order, not per box (i just ordered more) so get 3-4 boxes??
Click to expand...

I was hoping to get far more loads out of the Prime brass but it sounds like that may not be the case...
 
BlackFenix said:
Have you seen any difference in the count of reloads between Lapua and Peterson? If so, were the loads the same?
Click to expand...

I’ve been running lapua for a really long time, in many cartridges, so I know it really well. Peterson is fairly new, but I’ve tested four different cartridges from them. So far, they’ve proven extremely strong, and they age well. Peterson is like lapua in thats it has slightly lower internal capacity than domestic brass, so a small adjustment in charge weight is needed. I’ve never been impressed with norma. It’s like really uniform domestic brass, which costs more than lapua. Nowhere near as strong as lapua or peterson.
 
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h3dgehawk said:
Lapua rules them all. There is a converting thread on here. It only requires a neck trimmer and uses the creed die. it is lots of work, but they shoot a lower ES and SD than hornady usually.

I do not fire form either, I just load up a full charge and start shooting them. Lapua is cheaper in the long run because they last longer.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about converting 308 to 6.5?
 
I love Lapua, hell everyone loves Lapua but when you can buy 500 Hornady for the cost of 200 Lapua your going to need that Lapua to last forever to make up the difference. I've got 8+ loadings on my dedicated AR brass and 12 on my bolt brass and both are still going strong.
 
I’ve retired exactly ONE Lapua case (out of a total of around 1000 pieces across calibers). I’ve shot 308, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 6.5 Grendel—the former two in both gas and bolt. The stuff just keeps going. I’ve also never retired a Peterson case, but I’ve used them less. I’ve also used Hornady, Norma, Starline, and Federal. I don’t think you can go wrong with either Lapua or Peterson. Peterson comes with a nice box if you buy 50–don’t know if that’s true for bulk.
 
I've used Prime/Norma, Hornady, and Alpha for 6.5 Creedmoor. Honestly, I've never had a problem with Hornady. I don't do anything special in my case prep. I don't swage flash holes, turn necks, sort brass by weight, or uniform primer pockets. I resize correctly, trim when necessary, chamfer, deburr, seat primers, throw my charge, and seat my projectile. The only special thing I do is use a bushing die and a mandrel to set my neck tension and I do anneal every other firing. My ES is under 15 and my SD is under 8. If I were trying to punch the tiniest groups in paper at 600 to 1000 yards, I realize that might not be good enough, but for the type of shooting I do, that's more than good enough, and I don't worry if I lose a piece or five or ten in a match. I get anywhere from 6 to 8 firings before the primer pockets get loose.

I like the Alpha brass a lot. I've had their large primer brass for a couple of years now and it takes less powder to reach the same velocities as my other loads. I haven't reloaded it twenty times yet, but I've read of a few guys on here who have, so I don't doubt it'll last . I have some on their fifth firing and the primer pockets are still incredibly tight.
 
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Lapua is definitely the stuff. It’s all I use for 308. Currently using Hornady for 6.5 creedmoor because I had some once fired brass from factory loaded eld match. My rifle shoots well with the Hornady brass but I do the extra case prep on it that I don’t with Lapua. It’s ok if you want to save $ but seems Lapua pays for itself in the long run. I’ve got 3 firings on the Hornady and am just expecting a couple more or so.
 
tnbowhunter said:
Lapua is definitely the stuff. It’s all I use for 308. Currently using Hornady for 6.5 creedmoor because I had some once fired brass from factory loaded eld match. My rifle shoots well with the Hornady brass but I do the extra case prep on it that I don’t with Lapua. It’s ok if you want to save $ but seems Lapua pays for itself in the long run. I’ve got 3 firings on the Hornady and am just expecting a couple more or so.
Click to expand...
This is why I have stayed away from Hornady. It just hasn't held up well for me in the past.
 
I saw some stupid low ES and SD happen from new Alpha brass. Makes me want to pay the premium...

But, I am relatively new and having fun, so Hornady for me is fine.
 
I decided to buy 2 boxes of Peterson and will try to find 3 boxes of Prime. I figure that will give me enough to get started and I can compare both brands of brass. I also went with the Small Primer for the Peterson to see what it can really do. One of the big benefits of Peterson was being able to purchase 50 pieces at a time and that even at full price it was still pretty reasonable for great quality brass. I will say, it was hard to pass up Lapua for $100!
 
As I shoot a gas gun, Hornady all the way. Way too much brass given up to the “Brass Gods”.
 
@19Scout77 www.tacticalbrassrecovery.com this is one of the single best investments I have made. I've been running one for two and a half years, around 8-10 matches and It has never caused a jam nor have I lost any brass with it attached to my rifle. My only caution is it will attract a crowd and everyone will be jealous.
 
I saw some stupid low ES and SD happen from new Alpha brass. Makes me want to pay the premium... ​
Click to expand...

I have been developing 6mm CRDM loads with new Alpha small primer brass. The SD has been "stupid low" with H4350, and CCI 450 primers. I'll be trying 6.5 Alpha brass next. Don't know about the longevity.
 
For value, I don't think you're going to beat the Hornady. Before some of these others came out, lots of folks were loading the Hornady brass with very good results. It only became "inferior" once more expensive stuff came out.
 
FWIW, I'm running 350 pieces of Hornady brass on my 6.5 CM. About half came from boxes of 140 ELD-M factory ammo and the other half I bought new on here and loaded up myself. Good results from all of it.
 
Niles Coyote said:
@19Scout77 www.tacticalbrassrecovery.com this is one of the single best investments I have made. I've been running one for two and a half years, around 8-10 matches and It has never caused a jam nor have I lost any brass with it attached to my rifle. My only caution is it will attract a crowd and everyone will be jealous.
Click to expand...
That is cool but it looks a little unwieldy when shooting tactical competitions. Is it?
 
@patriot07
When the creedmoor was released Hodgdon had a max charge listed with 140's around 43 grains of H4350. This was revised two years latter to a max of 40.0 for the 140 A-max and added 142 smk with a max of 41.5 of H4350 yet most people were using loads greater than 43 grains and complained of loose primer pockets on the Hornady brass.

@BlackFenix
Not at all. The only time I have taken it off at matches is for stages where the rifle has to be tipped over at 90 degrees. Barricades, tank traps, tires, etc it has not gotten into the way.
 
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