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Peterson Brass quality?

rockchalk06

ʞlɒʜƆʞɔoЯ
Full Member
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Jul 5, 2020
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Edmond, OK
I'm starting to look at higher quality brass for my 6.5 Creedmoor and curious about Peterson. I don't see it mentioned here as much as Lapua. At half the cost of Lapua, am I sacrificing quality trying it?

Thanks in Advance SH
 
It’s freaking awesome. From my experience, which is only about 1,000 pieces, it has been every bit as consistent as Lapua in 6 creed.
 
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I don't get people thinking that Peterson costs half of Lapua. You do realize that Peterson is priced at 50 ct at most places, while Lapua is priced for 100 ct.?

You can get 100 pc of Lapua at Powder Valley for $87.
 
I bought about 300 Peterson .308 from Europtic and it runs about $35.00 for 50. It's very consistent. Lapua was maybe $5 more per 50? I gave Peterson a shot because they're manufactured in the U.S. by some Yun'zers, lol.

Peterson also makes .280AI brass- I just picked up a 100 but have yet to load them or weight sort them.
 
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Bringing back an old thread but, now that you guys have had more time with the Peterson, what do you think? How does it directly compare to Lapua? It's almost time for me to buy some more brass and I was thinking about giving them a try.

Lapua has always been the gold standard for me. I'm currently at 14 stiff firing with my 308 brass and it's just now that my primer pockets are beginning to get a little loose. I even mixed lot numbers and my SD's are still under 8fps so it's hard to compete with that but I would really to support and American company as long as the quality is there.
 
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I've been 50\50 with Peterson brass. All of it has been extremely consistent. My 6xc and 7-08 stuff has been awesome, several loads on each and still going strong. My 260 brass is just "meh" - I'm hitting pressure very early and primer pockets are getting loose quick (40 grains of h4350 and 140s). My 6br and 270 brass is horrible. In the 6br, my necks get huge dents in the necks from my die - no issues with lapua brass. My 270 is the worst brass I've ever used. This stuff is so soft it's stretching 1/4 inch coming out of my die.

I reload at least 15k rifle rounds a year, I assure you its nothing I an doing wrong.

I contacted Peterson about my 270 brass. They said they had not got any complaints about their 270 brass and were excited to look into this issue, but they will not reply to emails about correcting this. I've since switched to starline 270 brass with great results.

Despite this, Peterson is still my go-to for brass. I've just learned to test 50 pieces before committing to orders of several hundred.
 
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My 270 is the worst brass I've ever used. This stuff is so soft it's stretching 1/4 inch coming out of my die.

Curious what's going on with what you describe. I've been fireforming Perterson 270 brass into 6.5-06 AI which is a pain in the ass with the trimming. So far I'm 350 into 600 total pieces. I had to back the FF pressure WAY back to eliminate imminent case-head separation. I lost 22 pieces early in the process. I started with Hodgdon's minimum recommended charge for a standard 6.5-06. I kept pulling powder out the load until the stretching signs in front of the web stopped. I'm currently at a lighter charge than a 6.5 Creedmoor but the brass is forming very well. 140s at 2610 fps is remarkably anemic out of a 28" barrel.

I found this odd because I have somewhat of a false shoulder due to the necking down and I am also jamming the bullets.
 
Yeah, I completely forgot to mention I was having case head separation on the second firing...also with light loads. I think it is something with the neck and shoulder area itself. Maybe I just got a batch that was over annealed or something. My cases are coming out from an expander mandrel extremely rough. I have to actually dip my necks in some imperial wax to limit this, but even then some are coming out extremely stretched, looking more like a sausage than a shoulder.... I can run other brands through my expander mandrel with a light coating of one shot, so it has to something with the brass itself. I just wish Peterson would have made it right, especially after saying they would. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in today's situation, maybe my emails got overlooked or lost. It just sucks to have to toss so much brass and start from scratch with starline.
 
Yeah, I completely forgot to mention I was having case head separation on the second firing...also with light loads. I think it is something with the neck and shoulder area itself. Maybe I just got a batch that was over annealed or something. My cases are coming out from an expander mandrel extremely rough. I have to actually dip my necks in some imperial wax to limit this, but even then some are coming out extremely stretched, looking more like a sausage than a shoulder.... I can run other brands through my expander mandrel with a light coating of one shot, so it has to something with the brass itself. I just wish Peterson would have made it right, especially after saying they would. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in today's situation, maybe my emails got overlooked or lost. It just sucks to have to toss so much brass and start from scratch with starline.
Please reach out to them again....I would love to know their response....particularly if you sent them back any of the non-acceptable brass.

Jim at Prime is now using Peterson brass (and they are doing the manf for him...I THINK...dang, can't remember what I had for breakfast LOL) and says he is very happy with them.

And, I was born in Pittsburgh....and that's "yins" and not "yuns" hahaha
 
I’ve used the 6.5 Creedmoor brass in Large and Small primer and they worked great so far. I have 50 300 WM Long cases supposed to be delivered tomorrow so I’ll see how those fair. Peterson was the only brass I could find and thought I would try the Long version to cut down on the stretch on the first firing. Federal brass starts out .010 short but with my sizing die run all the way down to the shell holder, I only get .001 shoulder bump on my fired brass.
I did have varying case neck thickness on the Creedmoor brass but I skim turned the necks and all is well.
 
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Yeah, I completely forgot to mention I was having case head separation on the second firing...also with light loads. I think it is something with the neck and shoulder area itself. Maybe I just got a batch that was over annealed or something. My cases are coming out from an expander mandrel extremely rough. I have to actually dip my necks in some imperial wax to limit this, but even then some are coming out extremely stretched, looking more like a sausage than a shoulder.... I can run other brands through my expander mandrel with a light coating of one shot, so it has to something with the brass itself. I just wish Peterson would have made it right, especially after saying they would. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in today's situation, maybe my emails got overlooked or lost. It just sucks to have to toss so much brass and start from scratch with starline.

Incipient CHS, is generally from shoulder movement, not charge weight. Are you creating a false shoulder, or jamming bullets? Have you thought about necking up 25/06? It is not very far to go, plus its short like 30/06 and not long like 270 and 280 brass.
 
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Incipient CHS, is generally from shoulder movement, not charge weight. Are you creating a false shoulder, or jamming bullets? Have you thought about necking up 25/06? It is not very far to go, plus its short like 30/06 and not long like 270 and 280 brass.
No to both. My bushing brings my inside neck diameter to .274, I then run it through a .275 expander mandrel.
 
You're jamming bullets into the lands, but surprised by high pressures?



Yes. I'm currently using 0.2 fewer grains than Hodgdon's minimum published 6.5 Creedmoor charge for a case that has significantly more capacity.
 
I wonder if something like this would work?

I have no experience with fireforming BTW, I've just heard of people using this method before.
 
Just ordered 100 Peterson 284 Win cases. I'll report back when I receive them. If they're the same quality as Lapua, I'll definitely be using them from now on.
 
I like that Peterson brass comes in ammo boxes. I just got some 280 a couple weeks ago, and each 50 pieces came in a nice little ammo box.
 
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Peterson small primer 260 brass on its 12th firing and still going strong. Single digit SDs.

mine does not give any early pressure signs. Stands up to being loaded stout just fine
 
Finally got my 300 WM Long brass and the preliminary exam looks really good. It’s .0025 short of my chamber length so should work good. Concentricity of the necks is 0-.001. I’ll check back when I get to fire some up.
 
I use Peterson .244 Remington no complaining from me.
 
Yes it is. Federal factory ammo stretches .014 to fill the chamber on the first firing but my sizing die gives me .002 shoulder bump with the die screwed down to touch the shell holder firmly. The Long brass gives me 2.5 thousandths clearance new so it should last a good while.
 
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Finally got a chance to look at it a little closer. The weight variation for 50 was 1.2 grns. Had I kicked out the 1 lowest weight case, it would have been less than 1 grn. Length was within 3 or 4 thousandths. I loaded up 20 of them after running through my F/L sizer to set the neck tension the same and make sure all were round. Neck thickness was .013 measured in 4 different places around the neck. Very uniform. All flash holes were deburred and centered. We’ll see how they do after I put a little pressure on them.
 
Been using their small primer 6.5 Creedmoor brass for 5 years with no issues. Just got 400 of their Dasher brass to use in a new barrel.
 
Got a chance to heat up a few and I’m impressed. Cases stretched .002 and resized very easy. The necks seem pretty soft and don’t have very much spring back. Ran some through my concentricity gauge before sizing them new and they ran 0-.002. Found a good load at 72.0 grns IMR 4350 with 150 grain NBT in new unfired brass. May have to tweak it a bit after it’s fire formed. This is 2 separate groups shot before and after scope adjustment. I think it’s a keeper.
 

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