Best .223 Precision Semi Auto brass

[NHPiper]

What brass are people using in their ARs to achieve better than 1/2 accuracy?

I dont mind trimming, chamfering, deburring, and uniforming primer pockets, but i dont want to bothet with neck turning or weight sorting if I dont have to.

I have 500 pieces of prepped Lake City #17 brass that should be sufficient for my <1/2 MOA needs. But if not, do I bite the bullet and buy Lapua?

 

[Dave62677]

i use starline, a little less than 1/2 moa

 

[XLR308]

I have had really good results with LC brass and the only real prep done was weight sorting and removing the primer crimp.
I also have a small batch of Nosler 223 brass that is very good but if I had to replace it I would go with Lapua instead.

 

[spife7980]

I bought a bag of 250 new (non crimped) lake city 18 brass from midsouth just because it was .12 cents per and to give me something to play with.
It didnt impress me very much when I put the micrometer and calipers on it but Ill be damned if it didnt shoot well enough. I think its all I would run through an ar, more expensive than that and youll be past the cost benefit line IMO.

If you dont mind "once" fired @airborne6.8 sells processed brass for 10 cents per. Its mixed headstamp so youll get various lake city years, wcc, fed stamps. But its even cheaper.
Its what Im using in one ar upper but it doesnt meet the 1/2moa qualifier, its 10 cent brass and a 8 cent 55gr sp bullet, Im glad its less than 1 moa out of this 100 dollar barrel.

 

[Foxtrot2November]

id say stick with LC

 

[Doom]

I’ve shot all Rem, Lapua, Win, LC nd Hornady in my bolt gun and with proper prep and sorting I could not in pick one over the other for accuracy. Lapua required almost no additional prep. Once fired LC on the other hand is a pain in the a—! For the AR I lean towards Win and LC.

 

[Steel head]

LC!

 

[Greasegun]

If money were no obstical I would recommend lapua just because it is so consistent, but ARs chew up brass and throw it on the ground so personally I cant bring myself to do it. LC has been proven to be decent quality and far cheaper. If you lose some oh well...

 

[lead ƒarmer]

Not trying to hijack this thread, but am curious what the general consensus is on Lapua vs LC in a precision bolt gun. All I've ran so far is matching year LC, and it has been pretty impressive and surprisingly tough on hot loads. But now I can't find any new LC 223 with normal primer pockets. It was in stock everywhere earlier this year, I guess I should have jumped on it back then. The nice thing about running LC is I don't worry about losing brass at a match or at the range because it is so cheap. Is Lapua really worth the .55 a piece compared to .14 for LC?

 

[Codiekfx400]

Lake city is good enough for me.

 

[Fret]

Not trying to hijack this thread, but am curious what the general consensus is on Lapua vs LC in a precision bolt gun. All I've ran so far is matching year LC, and it has been pretty impressive and surprisingly tough on hot loads. But now I can't find any new LC 223 with normal primer pockets. It was in stock everywhere earlier this year, I guess I should have jumped on it back then. The nice thing about running LC is I don't worry about losing brass at a match or at the range because it is so cheap. Is Lapua really worth the .55 a piece compared to .14 for LC?

I'm a novice at reloading since I just started last summer and I was just shooting .223 ARs. A month or so ago, I put a bolt action .223 together with a Savage target action and a Shilen 1 in 7 twist barrel together which the shop had in stock while waiting for a couple of slower twist barrels to be made. I was using LC brass at first since I had a bunch of it for my ARs but switched to Lapua to see what difference it would make. I really haven't noticed any significant difference.

Here's my best 5 shot group at 100 yards so far with Berger 77 OTM and LC brass:

And the best with Lapua brass and 77 OTMs:

 

[lead ƒarmer]

I'm a novice at reloading since I just started last summer and I was just shooting .223 ARs. A month or so ago, I put a bolt action .223 together with a Savage target action and a Shilen 1 in 7 twist barrel together which the shop had in stock while waiting for a couple of slower twist barrels to be made. I was using LC brass at first since I had a bunch of it for my ARs but switched to Lapua to see what difference it would make. I really haven't noticed any significant difference.

Here's my best 5 shot group at 100 yards so far with Berger 77 OTM and LC brass:

View attachment 7202998

And the best with Lapua brass and 77 OTMs:

View attachment 7202999

Any noticeable difference in standard deviation or extreme spread?

 

[nfoley]

I have tried LC processed brass several times and I always have had issues with the primer pockets (despite being swaged).
Starline brass has been awesome! Long brass life, excellent accuracy, and cheap (something like $220 per 1000).

 

[Greasegun]

Not trying to hijack this thread, but am curious what the general consensus is on Lapua vs LC in a precision bolt gun. All I've ran so far is matching year LC, and it has been pretty impressive and surprisingly tough on hot loads. But now I can't find any new LC 223 with normal primer pockets. It was in stock everywhere earlier this year, I guess I should have jumped on it back then. The nice thing about running LC is I don't worry about losing brass at a match or at the range because it is so cheap. Is Lapua really worth the .55 a piece compared to .14 for LC?

LC is made to take 5.56 military pressure so its no surprise it holds up well. I think case capacity would be measurably more consistent with Lapua and the necks would be more concentric. The primer pockets should be more uniform as well. Cant say how much it would matter on paper but I would think it would be noticable. At the least it would require less brass prep.

 

[Greasegun]

I'm a novice at reloading since I just started last summer and I was just shooting .223 ARs. A month or so ago, I put a bolt action .223 together with a Savage target action and a Shilen 1 in 7 twist barrel together which the shop had in stock while waiting for a couple of slower twist barrels to be made. I was using LC brass at first since I had a bunch of it for my ARs but switched to Lapua to see what difference it would make. I really haven't noticed any significant difference.

Here's my best 5 shot group at 100 yards so far with Berger 77 OTM and LC brass:

View attachment 7202998

And the best with Lapua brass and 77 OTMs:

View attachment 7202999

Good Lord thats unbelievably good. Yeah I would say at that point what difference does it make?

 

[Garyc]

I like Lake City and have a bunch of it but it's not always available. I don't like to use once fired, I want new stuff because I don't have small base dies and I needed some for a new build so I ordered 350 pieces of starline today. I'd have ordered new lake city if I could have found it but it's not out there right now.