Can I get match grade MOA's reloading mil-spec brass?

[XavierRED]

I have many different kinds of brass I reload with... LC, CBC, Aguila,FC, PPU,GGG, RC, Nosler... I reload both .308 and 7.62 brass. Is like to find one kind of brass I'm comfortable with... The most brass i have is LC 12.

I wanna get good groups and have gotten good groups all around. It seems like i got the best groups when i fired out of the nosler... I have yet to reload any of the LC but i ultimatly want one kind of brass and wanna sell the rest. I have a semi-auto 308 so don't wanna shoot Lapua or Norma... WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

WES
Colorado Springs

 

[HodgdonExtreme]

With some sorting, culling and good prep work, most any head stamp will shoot great.

If you want to choose just one head stamp, I'd go with the one you've got the most of.

I bought a mess of 1X LC12 a year ago. It'd been cleaned and swaged. I did nothing other than size and trim, and its definitely capable of ~1/2-3/4 moa. Maybe better, but I'm not a consistent enough shooter to be able to tell.

 

[Silverjay]

LC brass shoots extremely well out of my OBR and SSG. As mentioned, brass prep and sorting. Don't forget annealing.

 

[dauntedfuture]

WES,
I see that you are shooting an AR-10 series rifle; I think its a DMPS factory gun. Be realistic and you will not be disappointed; You should expect to get 1.5 MOA or so with that rifle. The most important factor to consider is what bullets will work best; I would try several weights with one powder and see what happens and refine things from there. I would say that powder is the second most important thing followed by cases and then primers. For load development stick with one kind of brass, LC .308 brass is just fine. After load development keep the sorted stuff for LR and the mid for SR. Be careful is you develop loads with commercial and then put the same charge into a MIL case. Mixed MIL cases very more in INT capacity then commercial cases can.

 

[catgunguy]

I have been using Lake City brass in my DPMS LR-308 with the 24" heavy barrel and 1/10 twist with 178gr. A-Max It has shot 1\4" groups consistently from 100 yrds.
I did weigh sort the brass to one grain lots. When using pulled 147 gr. fmjbt it will still shoot under an inch. at 100 yrds.

 

[CMH]

DPMS LR-308

It has shot 1\4" groups consistently from 100 yrds.

Would love to see some group pics of that.

 

[catgunguy]

Would love to see some group pics of that.

I will have to dig out some targets and post some.

 

[Sgt_Jamez]

With some sorting, culling and good prep work, most any head stamp will shoot great.

If you want to choose just one head stamp, I'd go with the one you've got the most of.

I bought a mess of 1X LC12 a year ago. It'd been cleaned and swaged. I did nothing other than size and trim, and its definitely capable of ~1/2-3/4 moa. Maybe better, but I'm not a consistent enough shooter to be able to tell.

What is your criteria for sorting? I've got brass prep down pretty well, but have never bothered with sorting. I assume you are talking about case weight?

 

[catgunguy]

Here are a couple pictures from some target from last month. I was using LC-94 brass.

 

[918v]

You need to adjust your load to the brass you're using as they all have different case capacities. If you found "the load" using Nosler brass and you want to use LC, reduce the charge .5-.7grs. That should maintain velocity and not change the barrel harmonics.

 

[HodgdonExtreme]

What is your criteria for sorting? I've got brass prep down pretty well, but have never bothered with sorting. I assume you are talking about case weight?

Sorry, have to defer to someone with more expertise in what are legitimate hi/lo limits on case weight.

That said, if I weigh 10-15 cases and see their basically running ~190gr, +/- say about 10gr, and then find one that's 215gr, I'm going to cull it.

Hopefully someone can chime in with a better idea of what all is (practically) acceptable. I know that if you went over to accurate shooter and read what the F class guys do, you're eyes will bleed. I don't consider that "practical".

I throw out the few that OBVIOUSLY don't belong, that's all.

PS: Only weigh/cull after they've all been cleaned/sized/trimmed/chamfered/etc so you're comparing them apple's/apple's.

 

[918v]

I sort to 1 grain. Through experimentation I have found that with 4064 each grain of case weight is worth .06grs of powder.

You are not going to find a .308 case that weighs 215 grains or even 190.

 

[4Quangs]

Once fired LC brass and the like are capable of very good hand loads. Having said that, the amount of work required and the quality of brass sold varies so wildly that it's pretty much a crap shoot if you'll save any money over commercial brass. I've switched to using commercial Winchester brass for all of my reloading. The Win brass will deliver at least 6 shots in an M1A before the bulge immediately above the web causes chambering problems. I overwork the brass by using a SB die for my M1A; the SB die straightens the cases (less runout) and ensures easy chambering in my M1A Loaded NM chamber.

 

[XavierRED]

WES,
I see that you are shooting an AR-10 series rifle; I think its a DMPS factory gun. Be realistic and you will not be disappointed; You should expect to get 1.5 MOA or so with that rifle. The most important factor to consider is what bullets will work best; I would try several weights with one powder and see what happens and refine things from there. I would say that powder is the second most important thing followed by cases and then primers. For load development stick with one kind of brass, LC .308 brass is just fine. After load development keep the sorted stuff for LR and the mid for SR. Be careful is you develop loads with commercial and then put the same charge into a MIL case. Mixed MIL cases very more in INT capacity then commercial cases can.

Hey there... It is DPMS..and... You might be surprised that I'm actually getting .25 moa's with this gun! It's super accurate... I'll be loading up LC bread and attempting better shots...
Wes
Colorado springs

 

[XavierRED]

Actually better than .25 moa at 100 yards... I'm getting 1inch moas at 200...
Wes

 

[waveslayer]

Sorting brass is a waste of time by it's weight. Your accuracy will suffer and velocity wi) change if you use all different kinds of brass to reload. What will cause this is, the different cases will have different case capacity amounts, thus the pressure will be different. Don't waste your time on sorting all your LC brass by .1 grain difference. Just stick to LC, for example and you will be fine. What's important is the case capacity. Measure that, not the case weight.

 

[918v]

Except that case weight is inversely proportional to capacity. Heavier cases have less capacity. Lighter cases have more capacity. That is a fact of life.

 

[waveslayer]

Except that case weight is inversely proportional to capacity. Heavier cases have less capacity. Lighter cases have more capacity. That is a fact of life.

Have you ever weighed your cases then the case capacity? I have done it many times for many different calibers for QL. If the case weighed more than the others I would have thought it would have less or more water capacity... it didn't. There was a variance of .1-.3 grains of water weight... that could easily have been a drop of water or so. So in reality no, heavier cases don't necessarily have less capacity.

 

[918v]

I have.

Not only that, I worked up loads in each weight and observed a directly proportional relationship to velocity. For example, I found that I need to add .12 grains of 4064 per each grain of lost case weight to maintain velocity. When going from LC to Win I had to add 1.5 grains more 4064 to maintain velocity.

When measuring case volume you have to use brass fireformed to your chamber having the exact sane case length. Then, you have to make sure you don't have any bubbles in the case. The. You have to allow the water to settle and migrate into the primer pocket. Finally, you have to have the exact same meniscus on top otherwise the weight will be off.

Case volume measurement is very difficult. If you have poor eyesight and shaky hands, your results won't be consistent.

 

[catgunguy]

Have you ever weighed your cases then the case capacity? I have done it many times for many different calibers for QL. If the case weighed more than the others I would have thought it would have less or more water capacity... it didn't. There was a variance of .1-.3 grains of water weight... that could easily have been a drop of water or so. So in reality no, heavier cases don't necessarily have less capacity.

Does that apply to different years of Lake city brass or are you referring to the same year head stamps?
I have checked the weight of some years of LC brass and the weight varies as much as five grains. Does your finding mean that the volume of this brass would still have the same volume? If not, what difference in volume would there be? Thank you for your insight.

 

[EddieNFL]

Have you ever weighed your cases then the case capacity?

Yes and yes. That's why I still sort by weight.