450Bushmaster.net

I’ve got a couple boxes of Hornady 250 FTX to get me started in 450, but I’m a die hard reloader. What brand brass is preferred? I pretty much see Hornady and Starline brass for sale and wonder which is preferred.

I"ve had good luck with Hornady. Gunbroker sometimes has some good deals on once fired brass.

Starline and Hornady about the best picks. I've used Hornady since day 1, no complaints.

They're both good. My experience has been that Starlines are a little harder which allows them to make them a little thinner walled. Holding a little more water. Very few powder bullet combinations run out of case capacity before pressure signs begin to show, so capacity has never been a driver for me. I doubt many reloaders of this caliber bother to anneal their cases as they harden from repeated resizing, which if done properly, allows the mouths to experience less springback when crimping. Being harder to start out, the Starline benefit the most from annealing. The Hornady less so. Either one would be a good choice. I'm glad Starline came along as the competition has helped keep Hornady from price gouging

Hoot

Found some once fired Hornady brass at Midsouth Shooters Supply for $46 per 100, and have some on the way.

303hunter wrote:Found some once fired Hornady brass at Midsouth Shooters Supply for $46 per 100, and have some on the way.

You did good. Not uncommon to find it for $.50 a piece shipped here. If you feel the need to trim them, wait until after the 3rd firing. They're done changing length for the most part by then. I've got over 2.5k reloads behind me over 8 years and have never trimmed a case, so don't feel compelled to. Not like bottle neck cartridges. I do cull ones shorter than 2.675 (after resizing) however.

Hoot

Brass arrived and looks good. It’s mostly Hornady, but there are a few Starline, Remington, and Winchester cases mixed in. Should I cull these, or load them like the Hornady? I load a lot of 6.8 SPC, and different brands of cases shoot differently.

303hunter wrote:Brass arrived and looks good. It’s mostly Hornady, but there are a few Starline, Remington, and Winchester cases mixed in. Should I cull these, or load them like the Hornady? I load a lot of 6.8 SPC, and different brands of cases shoot differently.

I would keep like cases together myself. Chances are good that they have different capacities which will manifest in different velocities. Actually, it might make for a good range report. Same everything, just different cases in groups of 5. I'm assuming you have a chrony? I could send you 20) 225 FTX as seed.

Hoot

Hoot wrote:

303hunter wrote:Brass arrived and looks good. It’s mostly Hornady, but there are a few Starline, Remington, and Winchester cases mixed in. Should I cull these, or load them like the Hornady? I load a lot of 6.8 SPC, and different brands of cases shoot differently.

I would keep like cases together myself. Chances are good that they have different capacities which will manifest in different velocities. Actually, it might make for a good range report. Same everything, just different cases in groups of 5. I'm assuming you have a chrony? I could send you 20) 225 FTX as seed.

Hoot

Yes, I have a Magnetospeed Sporter. Just got a couple boxes of 225 FTX's also, so I'll try those cases for comparison.