HORNADY 6.5 Creedmoor brass?????

[dondlhmn]

OK...so I, like a lot of people, have heard a lot of wailing and cussing about primer pockets loosening up from the very beginning with HORNADY's 6.5 Creedmoor brass and I am wondering about the hows and whys....so several observations and a couple of questions:

(1) I see HORNADY's 6.5 Creedmoor brass on the shelves a good bit lately and I wonder why.....is it because it has gotten a bad rap and no one is buying it or is it because HORNADY has committed to making it and, therefore, we see it available?

(2) The bad rap it has gotten...is it truly bad brass for some reason like hardness/softness, sizing, quality control or is it mostly because the folks that have labelled it as bad are loading it so hot that the pockets start opening up right away (which IS KNOWN to be a sign of HIGH pressure)?

(3) I spoke with the people at Creedmoor and the techs at Hornady and they all (maybe singing the "party line") tell me that they haven't heard about that problem? How is that possible? I would think that anyone who is paying any attention at all would know of it, whether it is true or not. PLUS, if they had heard of it, I'd think they would/could offer some sort of info such as maybe a bad batch or two or whatever...but "NOTHING"?? COME ON GUYS!!

(4) I am in the process of building a 6.5 Creedmoor based on a Krieger Barrel and a Remington 700 action, so while waiting for it to get done am accumulating all the necessary stuff to go along with reloading/developing loads that my rifle will "like" and have decided to buy a couple of boxes of the HORNADY brass, but only that which shows a lot number that indicates very recent production.......I would think that IF they had a problem (even though they are not admitting it) and IF it got fixed somewhere along the line, that the more recently the brass was produced, the greater the likelihood that the stuff I buy would be OK. Anyone got any experience with this??

I have lots of .243 and .308 brass that I can but don't want to reform to 6.5 Creedmoor since most all of it takes a bit of time and is a PITA. If I discover that the HORNADY brass is, in fact, no good then I will have to go this way if I want to keep the cost of feeding the 6.5 down to a reasonable level, I guess.

So...if any of you have any PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with this, I would like to hear about it...both the good and the bad. I am not really interested in "I heard" or "my buddy's cousin's girlfriend's uncle" or like that, but PERSONAL EXPERIENCE is VERY welcome and will help me build some info upon which to make future decisions/judgements/purchases. Please either email me at [email protected] or PM me on this site.

THANKS, guys!!

 

[8nbait]

I have over ten firings on some Hornady brass with no problems at all in both 6.5 creedmoor and 6mm creedmoor. 6.5 pushing 140's at 2750, 130's at 2850 and 6mm pushing 95's at 3100. Not hot loads but not cool either.
I had some lapua brass that had loose pockets after 3 firings in a different caliber, the brass never showed any signs of pressure so the only sign was the loose pockets.

 

[Rob01]

Problems with the brass is not the norm. Could there have been a problem lot? Sure. I have seen many types of brass have problems including one that people thinks walk on water but in the world of the internet things catch fire and travel fast. You will get people who don't even own a Creedmoor parroting what they read or heard on the internet.

The brass is good. I have been shooting it longer than anyone here I can say with confidence and never had any troubles.

 

[kala_azar]

I currently have 3 firings on a lot of 150 Hornady Creedmoor cases. I shoot 140 Amax at 2850 fps, using 42.5g H5350 and Federal 210Ms. Brass FL resized in factory Hornady dies each firing.

None have needed a trim yet. I'm considering having them annealed after the this round, but that's just because I want them to last as long as possible. I haven't lost any yet to neck failure, excessive stretching, or loose primer pockets.

That velocity is out of a custom FN SPR done by Accurate Ordnance with a 24" Brux. Shoots in the .3s or better all day as long as I do my part.

In my personal experience, Hornady Creedmoor brass is absolutely good to go.

 

[dondlhmn]

But in the world of the internet things catch fire and travel fast. You will get people who don't even own a Creedmoor parroting what they read or heard on the internet.

Yes...ABSOLUTELY TRUE and that is why I prefer to hear from people with PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!! It is NOT that I am trying to be a butthead (though that possibly is my natural mode as my buddies claim), it is that on the internet you really have no way to check the veracity of what you read..BUT...often when you read/hear people talking about a subject where you DO HAVE SOME expertise it is pretty easy to separate the BS from the truth. So, I thank you guys that have taken the time to respond to my mutterings/questions!

 

[JGorski]

OK...so I, like a lot of people, have heard a lot of wailing and cussing about primer pockets loosening up from the very beginning with HORNADY's 6.5 Creedmoor brass and I am wondering about the hows and whys....so several observations and a couple of questions:

(1) I see HORNADY's 6.5 Creedmoor brass on the shelves a good bit lately and I wonder why.....is it because it has gotten a bad rap and no one is buying it or is it because HORNADY has committed to making it and, therefore, we see it available?

(2) The bad rap it has gotten...is it truly bad brass for some reason like hardness/softness, sizing, quality control or is it mostly because the folks that have labelled it as bad are loading it so hot that the pockets start opening up right away (which IS KNOWN to be a sign of HIGH pressure)?

(3) I spoke with the people at Creedmoor and the techs at Hornady and they all (maybe singing the "party line") tell me that they haven't heard about that problem? How is that possible? I would think that anyone who is paying any attention at all would know of it, whether it is true or not. PLUS, if they had heard of it, I'd think they would/could offer some sort of info such as maybe a bad batch or two or whatever...but "NOTHING"?? COME ON GUYS!!

(4) I am in the process of building a 6.5 Creedmoor based on a Krieger Barrel and a Remington 700 action, so while waiting for it to get done am accumulating all the necessary stuff to go along with reloading/developing loads that my rifle will "like" and have decided to buy a couple of boxes of the HORNADY brass, but only that which shows a lot number that indicates very recent production.......I would think that IF they had a problem (even though they are not admitting it) and IF it got fixed somewhere along the line, that the more recently the brass was produced, the greater the likelihood that the stuff I buy would be OK. Anyone got any experience with this??

I have lots of .243 and .308 brass that I can but don't want to reform to 6.5 Creedmoor since most all of it takes a bit of time and is a PITA. If I discover that the HORNADY brass is, in fact, no good then I will have to go this way if I want to keep the cost of feeding the 6.5 down to a reasonable level, I guess.

So...if any of you have any PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with this, I would like to hear about it...both the good and the bad. I am not really interested in "I heard" or "my buddy's cousin's girlfriend's uncle" or like that, but PERSONAL EXPERIENCE is VERY welcome and will help me build some info upon which to make future decisions/judgements/purchases. Please either email me at [email protected] or PM me on this site.

THANKS, guys!!

I'm going on my 6th firing with my Creedmoor brass, primer pockets are still good, the brass is good as far as Im concerned.

 

[shotdown]

I'm on my 4th firing and I did have about 6 cases with loose primer pockets (out of 175) on this last round. They are loaded to 41.5 gr (H4350), so nothing over the top but I was surprised to find some at their 4th firing.

 

[ace of hearts]

I will put in a plug for new Hornady 6.5 brass. Those who are heavily into brass prep will sing the importance of flash hole uniforming and primer pocket uniforming as a one time process that all new brass should go through once in its life. It is often mentioned that Lapua brass does not need these pretreatments. I must confess that so far I have not found one single 6.5 Hornady case that had a bur in the flash hole that I could see (though I have prepped them all anyway), and when I use a large rifle primer uniformer I never remove any brass from the factory pocket. I think Hornady brass is great and have started to question the need to perform these steps on their brass. What is your experience?

 

[Medic1736]

I had a 6.5 Creedmoor and there is nothing wrong with Hornady brass at all. I had some firings that were in the 7 and 8 fire range with no problems. I never had a primer come loose or any other problems. I was running 42.5g of H4350 with 140 Amax....not as hot as some run but there was no need to run it any harder. I think it is showing up on the shelves because people are A...running factory loaded ammo and B...reloaders have finally come across enough cases that they don't need to buy any. I have never formed any Creedmoor brass but from what I have read it is not worth the time when the price of Hornady brass is acceptable. Just my opinion for what it counts.

 

[dondlhmn]

OK...I am convinced. I went today and bought two batches of 50 (same lot number on both), so now I have a hundred HORNADY 6.5 Creedmoor brass to mess with and I can be on the lookout for several different bullets in the 120 to 139 grain range to play with and see what my rifle turns out to like best. The brass was not horribly expensive, but not truly CHEAP, either....70 cents apiece before taxes (about what .308 Lapua costs IIRC), so now I have enough of them to load for a while and see how they work out for me. As noted by "ace of hearts" above, I do tend to clean the primer pockets out after every firing, while not removing any brass if I can help it. I do the flash holes of brass I am going to use, but I do it only ONCE to ALL brass the first time I get them ready to load and never again. So far, that has worked well for me...just being careful to not let any carbon get in the way of getting the primer seated nicely, but not removing any brass which might result in loose primers due to the pocket being hogged out.

 

[Aimsmall55]

I have been shooting a Crusader for about a year now. There have been only 2 things that I've noticed

1) a very few cases of inconsistent neck tension on virgin brass
2) weight sorting... Well, lets just say that it could be better.

Other than that, I think Hornady looks at the Creedmor as their "baby" and the appearance and QC is a little higher. I load pretty hot and have never had a single issue.