different Brass ?

[Bassfish1952]

As a hunter and fun target guy , How much difference does the brass make ?

I have 6.5 resized, once fired Hornady and now some 6arc  Starline, How will that affect how I do down range on a deer ?

Will a load worked up in one work for the others ? Do I need to pick one and as the others wear out go down to one brand ?

Thanks

[CZ527 Guy]

Unless you are going through what can be, quit a leap to anneal your brass, trim your brass to an exacting length & perhaps more for each reloading cycle. You are utilizing different brass, each time you reload a piece of brass. Brass does differ to some extent from brand to brand, or from firing to firing & at 1000 yards these differences can stand out in a distinct manner.

Based on my experiences few hunters would recognize these very real differences of performance in most cases. The more we reload, the more we learn to evaluate performance, the less this statement "few hunters would recognize these very real difference" may be true.

What are your goals & how are you measuring your ability to achieve those goals. IMHO most hunters set the goals rather low. Few hunter / reloader's measure the ability to achieve those goals with adequate or significant scrutiny to actually realize these impacts.

Lot to lot of brass from the same manufacturer can differer. So certainly brass from diffrent manufacturing facilities are likely to differ. That being said, The more consistent your components are the better chance you have of reaping very consistent results that can be seen on paper. The consistency needed for a hunter who limits themselves to 100 yards on game, will differ from the requirements for a hunter that practices & hunts at three to five hundred yards.

Everything matters. Bullets, barrels & bedding come first. followed by powder, primers & brass (including brass prep) Brass is in the list of what matters, though generally not in the top 3 concerns in my honest opinion. Though I would highly encourage segregating brass family's for load evaluation.

No way would I encourage loading a box of hunting ammo with mixed brass. You will need to test for yourself, the significance of changing components, including brass.

[grayfox]

lot to lot consistency for powder does occur, but with the brass available today I haven't seen much of that within a same mfr.
A different brass mfr however, has a slightly different design than any other mfr...
See lots of that. Hornady, lapua, starline, peterson, nosler, sig sauer, winchester (stuff someone already has, they don't seem to make it any more), Remington. Heck even different years of lake city can be different. Mostly in overall weight, but also in interior volume. So generally speaking, each brass mfr will take a different load, by a few 1/10th's of a grain. Up to 1-1.5 grains in 308, which I have experienced. In grendel the rule of thumb is hdy is ~0.2 gr more powder to get the same MV... but the starline brass was more consistent than hdy. I think I'm seeing the hdy brass in 6Arc to be more consistent than the hdy brass in 6.5 grendel, don't have any starline to-date however.

The easiest way to compare is to work up a ladder of the 2, side by side. 1 shot per powder load, 1% delta in wt, then graph them out. Takes 5-6 shots per mfr. I tried once upon a time, to just shoot a duplicate load in 308 of win brass to hornady brass, I got a 150 fps delta!!! the hornady at that grain weight was way too hot. So I don't so that any more. do the single-shot ladders and compare the performance curve.

Powders, otoh, today don't differ by much lot to lot but they will still differ. Everything else being equal, I can load the same gr wt into my favorite good combo, of my next powder lot and see the diff, then tweak the load.

So, brass, yes, different mfr, be prepared to have separate load workup for that new mfr. You might end up close but don't bet on it, for 0.75-1.0 moa accuracy you'll need a separate wt load out for that new brass mfr. Keep a load diary/book.

Now if you're ocd like competitive shooters, you will chase consistency down to a much deeper level... but they are looking for 0.2 moa's or better every week in competition. or 0.1's.

[CZ527 Guy]

I am recognizing .4 grains more capacity of CFE 223 in the Starline 6mm ARC brass over the Hornady brass.

Using the same load of CFE 223 under a 105 grain BTHP I am seeing roughly 30fps less velocity from the Starline 6mm ARC head stamped brass.

[Bassfish1952]

I am recognizing .4 grains more capacity of CFE 223  in the Starline 6mm ARC brass over the Hornady brass.

Using the same load of CFE 223 under a 105 grain BTHP I am seeing roughly 30fps less velocity from the Starline 6mm ARC head stamped brass.

I think when starline becomes easier to get I will just buy 3 or 4 bags and set up to use it for hunting. Settle on a load and use all other that I have for target practice .  
Then I can put aside the brass, bullets and primers then the only change will be powder lot.  20 loads a year to check zero and hunt use all new brass that's 5 years per bag of 100 and plenty to play with to try to become better at this. settled.



Now I think I will take a vacation from anything for 5 months , I'll be on the read but won't be able to do any outside stuff till around Dec so not much to post about 

Thanks