sauer14

Question, if I am shooting a 308 with a win case with a certain load and then switch to a different case say Remington and different primer with the exact same load at 100 yds will it change my accuracy?
Honestly sometimes I am just about ready to pull my hair out after a shooting session. I try to as constant as possible so could this be a problem?
Any help would be great.
Thx.

d80hunter

I have a large amount of Starline brass that I use specially for hunting rounds. Everything else gets thrown in a mixed brass pile for plinking. I never really cared if the mixed brass was as accurate or not. It is a matter of organization and consistency makes me operate this way.

You should know if the mixed brass is consistent if you shoot it enough. Maybe your accuracy issues are from other things, but you could try buying a large amount of the same brand of brass to keep things simpler.

Topgun 3006

One of the first things that a reloader should know is that you should not mix cases and/or primers. Everything should remain a constant and if you change any component you should start low with your powder charge and work up toward max as you watch for over pressure signs. What you are mentioning can certainly affect accuracy and is definitely not a recommended practice mainly for safety concerns.

Nomercy448

The question has been answered, but yes, brand of case matters.

For plinking and 'normal range' hunting, I don't usually do this, but for long range shooting and competitive loads, I sort brass by weight - within the same brand. 'Theory' being the profile/cross section SHOULD be the same, but the weight difference illustrates a difference in thickness, which is a difference in chamber pressure by both obturation and by case volume.

Also important to keep track of number of loadings on a given brass. 10th loading brass will hold bullets (neck tension) very differently than virgin brass. Which is one benefit of annealing, man I wish I had a mechanical annealer!!!!

The general rule for reloading is to control EVERYTHING, make EVERYTHING consistent. - defaulting to safety. Brand of brass is included there. Granted, I'd be hard pressed to think that "normal" loads will ever cross a safety boundary just because you changed brand of brass, but MAX loads could. Changing primers DEFINITELY can cause a safety issue - new primer = entirely new load development.

Bullcamp82834

Don't go cheap on brass.
Buy some new cases of a good make and start load development from there. One case separation will make this point better than all the words you could ever read here. Avoid that.

Don't use questionable brass or mix brands of brass, particularly when working at near max pressures.

huffmanite

Yes, at least sort your cases by brand. Also, brand of primer can make a difference. Did an experiment once with my most accurate rifle, a rebarreled Ruger tang safety in 7x57 mauser. Curious about difference a primer would make, I'd loaded at least 4 sets of ammo. Each 3 round set was the same, except for the primer.

Shot them all at same bullseye on a 100 yd target. When finished I'd created basically one hole that was about 1/2" wide and around 2 1/2" long. My mag primer had hit the highest on the target. Each primer set had hit in a different spot.

bronko22000

I believe for hunting purposes or if you're not loading to max powder charge it won't hurt. The reason I say this is that your accuracy will probably drop off using mixed case brands but not enough to substantially affect hunting accuracy (except at extreme ranges). Also, if you're loading below the max. recommended charge there is also no problems. (these charges are max for all cases) I've noticed when loading my .223 for my AR using mixed brass brands that there are some brands where the charge fills the entire case including the neck. These cases are discarded after spraying the primer with gun oil.

Topgun 3006

***IMHO this is basicly an irresponsible post when dealing with reloading that can result in injury or worse if a person does not follow the proper procedures. YOU may consider it no big deal, but to put out what you did and have a newbie reloader read it and then make a mistake is not right. One of the first things a reloader is told is to NOT mix components and to start low and work up each load when ANY changes are made to include brand of case, primer, bullet, and/or powder. To do anything other than that is just asking for trouble and all it takes is one mistake!

emtrescue6

+10000 Well said Topgun!

Bullcamp82834

Ditto on the kudos to Topgun. Good advise.

To paraphrase my Dad on the subject of using brass of questionable origin:
- go ahead and load that pick up brass if you want , but let me know before you touch one of them rounds off so I can get behind you -

I got his point.