Hornady Brass: Ok to mix from factory loaded vs purchased for loading?

wcoats · Sep 22, 2022

First off, I know there is better brass than Hornady so don't bother telling me that. I have some Hornady brass sitting around that I haven't been using that I'm wanting to do something with.
I have about 250 qty of once fired Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass that's a mix of brass that was purchased as new brass for loading and brass from factory loaded ammo. Most of it is already mixed but I have 30 pcs that I know were from loaded ammo yet to be mixed with the rest of it. That got me wondering if I should have avoided mixing it. Is there any difference between the brass Hornady sells as virgin brass for loading vs what they use to load their factory Match ammo?

I weighed a few pieces of the brass that's already mixed to see how consistent it is and noticed after only a small sample I have two groups that are about 8 grains apart in weight which is a much bigger range than I expected. Based on this I'm planning on weight sorting it into at least two groups and wondering if the weight difference is from the factory loaded vs purchased as new brass for loading.

Greenmoustache · Sep 22, 2022

To my knowledge there is no difference in the dimensions/specs between Hornady virgin brass and the brass used for loaded ELD-M/X. That being said you will likely have a difference in case volume in your once fired vs. virgin brass. Personally I would treat it all as “virgin” for this round and avoid going straight to max load if you haven’t already.

All else equal, you’ll likely see the primer pockets start to loosen slightly sooner on the fired vs. virgin brass if you were to keep all of them consistent in number of firings going forward.

TLDR I wouldn’t sweat it, you’re going to get more consistency sorting by weight than if you were able to go back and sort by virgin vs once fired. Next time you buy some virgin brass skip the Hornady and go with Lapua/Peterson/Alpha

wcoats · Sep 22, 2022

Greenmoustache said:
To my knowledge there is no difference in the dimensions/specs between Hornady virgin brass and the brass used for loaded ELD-M/X. That being said you will likely have a difference in case volume in your once fired vs. virgin brass. Personally I would treat it all as “virgin” for this round and avoid going straight to max load if you haven’t already.

All else equal, you’ll likely see the primer pockets start to loosen slightly sooner on the fired vs. virgin brass if you were to keep all of them consistent in number of firings going forward.

TLDR I wouldn’t sweat it, you’re going to get more consistency sorting by weight than if you were able to go back and sort by virgin vs once fired. Next time you buy some virgin brass skip the Hornady and go with Lapua/Peterson/Alpha

Thanks for the reply and info. For clarification all of the brass is once fired, it's just that some of it started as factory ammo and some of it started as virgin brass that I've loaded once.

I have 500 pcs of 6.5 Creedmoor brass with Prime headstamps that I purchased from Midway when it was on sale that I've been using for most of my 6.5 Creedmoor loading. I've heard that it might be Norma brass. I can tell it's better and more durable than the Hornady brass I have. But I figured I should do something with the Hornady brass vs it continuing to sit around not getting used.

Ledzep · Sep 22, 2022

MOST of the time you'll be okay. However, I've run into instances in the past with pretty much every brass mfg. where mixing lots produced unintended consequences. Namely MV spreads. You'll end up with 80% of them indistinguishable, then 20% of the total that is faster or slower. Sometimes you can sort them out (weight, volume, etc.). Sometimes there's not a clear indicator.

I would suggest velocity testing 10-20 from each lot before mixing, personally.

ETA: What I'll also do sometimes is mix lots for stuff that will be 400yd positional practice ammo. In other words I'm shooting it at a distance where the velocity spreads that may/may not arise don't have time to manifest themselves into vertical spread that will make me miss a 1.5-2 MOA target.

straightshooter1 · Sep 22, 2022

wcoats said:
First off, I know there is better brass than Hornady so don't bother telling me that. I have some Hornady brass sitting around that I haven't been using that I'm wanting to do something with.
I have about 250 qty of once fired Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor brass that's a mix of brass that was purchased as new brass for loading and brass from factory loaded ammo. Most of it is already mixed but I have 30 pcs that I know were from loaded ammo yet to be mixed with the rest of it. That got me wondering if I should have avoided mixing it. Is there any difference between the brass Hornady sells as virgin brass for loading vs what they use to load their factory Match ammo?

I weighed a few pieces of the brass that's already mixed to see how consistent it is and noticed after only a small sample I have two groups that are about 8 grains apart in weight which is a much bigger range than I expected. Based on this I'm planning on weight sorting it into at least two groups and wondering if the weight difference is from the factory loaded vs purchased as new brass for loading.

I don't know if there's really any difference in Hornady's cases from their regular brass to the "Match ammo" brass. I had the same question regarding Federal's brass and called them to find out; they confirmed there was no difference. Whether that's true with Hornady . . .

I'm sure you'll find that within any manufacturing process there are variances from one run to another and why there are quality control people to keep an eye out. Just like with bullets, cases can have variance from one lot to another. To illustrate this, here some testing data I found for Peterson Cartridge Co. that might convince you that it'd be a good idea to sort your cases:

918v · Sep 22, 2022

Hornady 6.5CM brass varies a lot depending on when it was made. So if you have brass from years ago it’s going to be different than current brass. The 8 grain variance is just one clue.

Don’t waste your time and components trying to sort it out. Start with one known lot.

acudaowner · Sep 22, 2022

8 reloads and still going strong factory hornady brass
it may not be the best in the world , it's defiantly not the most expensive , but if it works just as good as my lapua brass which shot just as good as my perterson brass or my alpha brass and cost 1/3 rd less if it works who cares have at it . hope yours works out just as good .

jrhtx · Sep 22, 2022

For Hornady 6.8 SPC brass, S&B made brass for Hornady some years ago, Hornady makes their own (?) 6.8 brass now. There is a difference in headstamp (slight) and case capacity.

Has there ever been any rumors or discussion of someone making CM brass for Hornady early on? Just something to check.

Dead Eye Dick · Sep 22, 2022

My RPR probably has never been shot with anything other than Hornady Brass. Both factory loads, and range pickups and virgin loading brass. Never having shot the RPR past 840 yards, I have not seen an accuracy issue. Hitting 800 yard targets with ease using the RPR last Friday. The MPA gets a diet of Starline and Lapua Brass.

One issue I have noted, brass sized correctly for an MPA chamber will stretch when shot in my RPR’s chamber. (Which probably has north of 2500 rounds thought it and still showing decent accuracy) Starting to get incipient (and in case actual) head separations on the brass. Going back to each having its own sizing die.

Ledzep · Sep 22, 2022

jrhtx said:
For Hornady 6.8 SPC brass, S&B made brass for Hornady some years ago, Hornady makes their own (?) 6.8 brass now. There is a difference in headstamp (slight) and case capacity.

Has there ever been any rumors or discussion of someone making CM brass for Hornady early on? Just something to check.

Specifically with the 6.5 Creedmoor and Hornady, I'm pretty sure it's all been made at Hornady. Early production stuff had the anneal marks left on, but the story I heard was that enough people called in complaining about "dirty brass" that it they started acid washing it like everything else. That said, within the industry there's regular purchasing between companies. It just depends on price, production capacity, and timing. The other thing is that there are multiple processes to make brass. Even from the same company you may see variation from one process to another... Again this is dictated by availability of raw materials, available production capacity, etc. Even if one process is more efficient than the other, it makes more sense to have a machine running than to having it sit idle.

If you care about performance 918v nailed it, all one lot, every time.

wcoats · Sep 29, 2022

Thanks for the input, everyone. I weight sorted it into two groups and will use it for some practice ammo for positional shooting at 300-550 yards. I'm also going to load it up with some Hornady 140 gr BTHP that I have sitting around and haven't worked up a load for. That's still better than it just sitting around not getting used.

Old Man with Gun · Sep 29, 2022

I have a lot of Hornady 6.5C brass and see about a 15 grain spread overall. I sort my brass into six groups within 2-3 grains of each other. Chrono shows 2864 to 2880 average velocities across the groups, so there is a little difference in velocities.

I have found weighting loaded ammo or empty cases to group gets the same results.

oso1 · Sep 30, 2022

Like others have already stated use brass from one lot, why reload for precision and use mixed brass ? You should just buy a couple hundred pieces of new brass all same lot and eliminate that variable.

hlee · Sep 30, 2022

straightshooter1 said:
I don't know if there's really any difference in Hornady's cases from their regular brass to the "Match ammo" brass. I had the same question regarding Federal's brass and called them to find out; they confirmed there was no difference. Whether that's true with Hornady . . .

I'm sure you'll find that within any manufacturing process there are variances from one run to another and why there are quality control people to keep an eye out. Just like with bullets, cases can have variance from one lot to another. To illustrate this, here some testing data I found for Peterson Cartridge Co. that might convince you that it'd be a good idea to sort your cases:

View attachment 7961411

What I get from this is that (with the exception of lot LC059) weight sorting Peterson brass as a surrogate for volume determination is a waste of time...

Screen Shot 2022-09-30 at 8.04.06 AM.png

straightshooter1 · Sep 30, 2022

hlee said:
What I get from this is that (with the exception of lot LC059) weight sorting Peterson brass as a surrogate for volume determination is a waste of time...

View attachment 7966796

Since it's "average" weight to "average" volume, I don't think one can draw any conclusions with this data regarding sorting within a given lot. The data simply shows me variations from lot to lot. So, one should not assume that a good load developed for one lot of brass is necessarily going to work the same in another. And mixing lots can produce a wider variation than just using a particular lot.

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