Prime vs Hornady 6.5 creedmoor brass

[Hondo1]

Is there a notable difference between Prime and Hornady brass? I have had great luck with the Hornady brass in the past but I keep hearing rumblings about the Prime brass being better. Does anyone here have frost hand experience between the two?

thanks

 

[lennyo3034]

Prime brass is Norma, which seems more consistent than Hornady. Primer pockets seem to last longer too. That being said, I use mostly hornady because it's good enough and I don't cry when a lose a few pieces.

 

[ballisticdaddy]

It depends on what you plan to load for. The brass from Hornady is not very consistent in neck thickness nor concentricity. If you plan to shoot out past 600 yards use the Prime or even better Lapua small primer brass.

 

[Dirty D]

I haven't used the Prime/Norma cases but I bought 100 Norma cases for load development and after fireforming to chamber and using a Lee neck sizing die my neck ID was .261" for 25 out of the 100 cases, not .260 or .262 but EVERY case was .261". The Norma brass is expensive but very consistent, I just bought two boxes of Hornady to compare it to.

 

[Hondo1]

Great info guys, is there a case capacity difference between the two?

 

[Mr. Z]

IMO just buy the prime factory loads. I've had outstanding results and the ES was 8fps on the 40 I ran though the chrony. Plus you then have once fired Norma brass if you think you can do better than that. I certainly can't. Same price point on eldm and Prime as well.

 

[Rob01]

It depends on what you plan to load for. The brass from Hornady is not very consistent in neck thickness nor concentricity. If you plan to shoot out past 600 yards use the Prime or even better Lapua small primer brass.

Been shooting well past 600 with Hornady Creedmoor brass since 2008. Works just fine.

 

[fjrgonzalez]

For just standard out of the box factory loads one superior to the other with regard to prime vs hornady 6.5 eldm or is it going to really come down to preference. Looks like the Hornady has slightly better ballistics?

 

[RPRlongshot]

Good stuff here. I've accumulated a lot of Hornady brass over the last couple years and have thought its ok. Maybe it's time I get more serious about the brass.
There is a club about an hour from where I live up in Granby MA. where I had explore out to 1000 yds. but need to make sure everything is just right before going out past 400yds.

 

[Niles Coyote]

Agree with Rob01 Hornady brass works fine and has been for me the past three years I've been using it in competition. Below is a comparison test target when I got some Lapua brass. Both of the 10 shot groups at the bottom were unfired factory new brass. [IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i84.photobucket.com\/albums\/k38\/jpedzinski\/IMG_20170217_185008_612-1.jpg"}[/IMG2]

 

[Rob01]

There is a club about an hour from where I live up in Granby MA. where I had explore out to 1000 yds. but need to make sure everything is just right before going out past 400yds.

Are you a member there yet? You mention 400 yards are you a member at Ledyard?

 

[Dirty D]

Agree with Rob01 Hornady brass works fine and has been for me the past three years I've been using it in competition. Below is a comparison test target when I got some Lapua brass. Both of the 10 shot groups at the bottom were unfired factory new brass. [IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i84.photobucket.com\/albums\/k38\/jpedzinski\/IMG_20170217_185008_612-1.jpg"}[/IMG2]

The bullet doesn't lie, as much as I like my Norma brass I had a chance to shoot some Hornady and my wallet can tell the difference but my targets can't.

 

[.30kal]

Great info guys, is there a case capacity difference between the two?

Not 100% sure, but the neck is thicker on the Prime so I needed to move to a larger neck bushing to get the same neck tension. I also found that I needed to back down .2 grains to get the same accuracy node with 140 ELDs, and got a slight bump in velocity over Hornady brass. So, there may be a slight case volume difference. One thing I don't like about Hornady is that it needs to be trimmed every 1-2 firings versus the Prime.

Prime used to be a steal at their old prices as both a factory load and fire-formed 1-fired brass. Neither of my 6.5 rifles liked the Prime factory very much, so once the price kept going up and with Lapua making brass, I don't see the need to buy any more Prime. My gasser loves factory Hornady 140, so I'll probably just keep shooting that and accumulating Hornady brass for it. I'm going to switch over to Lapua for my bolt gun once I burn through my Prime brass.

 

[TheOE800]

IMO just buy the prime factory loads. I've had outstanding results and the ES was 8fps on the 40 I ran though the chrony. Plus you then have once fired Norma brass if you think you can do better than that. I certainly can't. Same price point on eldm and Prime as well.

I bought a case and a box to test lot-to-lot consistency. Box was from a different lot by 1 digit increment. I forget which is which now, but one lot shot single digit SD and low two digit ES IIRC; I was impressed with this lot. Second lot wasn't quite as good with an ES of 50ish and SD in the high 20s - about as consistent as Hornady ELD-M is for me.

 

[Surffshr]

For just standard out of the box factory loads one superior to the other with regard to prime vs hornady 6.5 eldm or is it going to really come down to preference. Looks like the Hornady has slightly better ballistics?

IMO, it comes down to which one shoots better in your rifle. I've shot a case of prime and working on a case of hornady. They both performed equally in the club matches I've been shooting. Both were 1/2ish MOA when zeroing and both held calculated drops. FWIW, my third case will be Hornady simply due to having some very good data on Hornady brass reloads and being lazy about reloading in general (hence a 6.5CM). Oh yeah, and I sold the Prime brass in the PX so not an option now. They are both about the same price, but Prime does give you a thank you call. Pretty dang cool to have two very capable factory match options. I wouldn't hesitate to use either one straight out of the box in a major match.

 

[Tunnuh]

I've tried both in my tikka ctr. 260 and both group similarly. The 130 eld-m is .1 mil different in poi @100 yards than the prime. Both group the same as noted in my post of hornady's performance.

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/forum/...ch-performance

 

[jim10801]

Have only used the Hornady ammo and brass but I'm satisfied to the point that I just ordered 250 Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor cases from Powder Valley. They will arrive next week.

 

[lte82]

Alpha Munitions > Norma or Hornady. The consistency is phenomenal and it will easily last 10+ reloads.
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