Not sure Nosler brass is worth the price.

A Guy Out West

Well-Known Member
As you may know, the Nosler brass is supposed to be turn key. Just prime it, drop in the powder , seat a bullet and off you go. On the last two batches of .308 and .243, I had to ream out the primer pockets in order to get the primers to seat properly. Using Rem 9 1/2 and Fed 210 primers. Also, I had the unfortunate experience of trying to chamber a round in the .243 which had not been sized by Nosler. I was in the middle of a varmint shoot when I tried to put a round in but the bolt would not close. I ejected it and took a quick look, nothing wrong so I put in another round and everything was fine. Later I camed it in hard with the bolt and fired it, it came out perfectly and would re-chamber just fine. It must not have gotten sized at the factory. Yes, it was fresh brass right from the box. With all the work I have had to do, I'm thinking the premium price is not justified.
 
As you may know, the Nosler brass is supposed to be turn key. Just prime it, drop in the powder , seat a bullet and off you go.......

That's how I usually treat Norma.Works out at a quid a piece but if looked after x10 +loads (7mm-08) it's worth the extra..How does that compare with Nosler.
Last time I bought bullet HEADS they were expensive compared to ie. Sierra..john
 
That's how I usually treat Norma.Works out at a quid a piece but if looked after x10 +loads (7mm-08) it's worth the extra..How does that compare with Nosler.
Last time I bought bullet HEADS they were expensive compared to ie. Sierra..john


John you should have just bought ordinary BULLETS:D
 
The Nosler brass is less than one of your quid. About $1.05 each if I remember correctly.
Good value if the quality is good. The way they manufacture it by the million it's little wonder there is the odd bad un'. As you found out it can spoil your day and after all we are paying premium for their quality control ..john
 
I thought Nosler brass was made by Norma, maybe they have a new supplier? Shame as I'm using Nosler and I'm finding it quite good. I just ordered a box of Nosler 7-08 which I haven't looked at yet, I'll see if its as good as the old stuff...
 
Guy out west,I was always taught that you should size and trim new brass as its made to a rough size ????? .a old friend showed me 35 years ago tha treat new brass as once fired and do all of your reloading sequences as normal all the best jason
 
Guy out west,I was always taught that you should size and trim new brass as its made to a rough size ????? .a old friend showed me 35 years ago tha treat new brass as once fired and do all of your reloading sequences as normal all the best jason
This is 100% correct. New brass should be FL resized in your dies and otherwise prepped. BUT, Nosler claims that their brass is, "Fully prepped. Ready to Load." Nosler brass hasn't a good reputation among people I shoot with.~Muir
 
Muir over here it's supposed to be the go to brass if you want quality, I use it for 308 but they don't make it in 25-06 so I ended up getting Remington,but I will be getting lapua 243, maybe there quality control is falling behind a bit
 
Nosler doesn't make cases AFAIK. Most of its lines are supplied by Norma, but not all cartridges.
 
I have some Nosler brass which I haven't used yet and it is definitely not worth the money. Mine are shorter than the trim length in the reloading books and they were certainly not uniform length I had to trim them all. The longest one in the box was 2.479" and the shortest 2.477" so they all got trimmed to 2.477" except the first one which is a dummy round now because I trimmed it too short in a rush setting up the case length trimmer!

They will probably be used for the occasional subsonic rounds where pressure is not too great. I'm not willing to use the brass as accurate long range target rounds I will keep the Norma and Lapua for that.

I have subsequently purchased some PPU brass which as far as I am concerned was much better value than Nosler brass. I also have 25 Norma brass and 100 Lapua brass which are far better than the Nosler.

My review of Nosler brass? Mutton (crap brass) dressed as Lamb (pretty black and gold box).
 
Fallen out of love with Nosler brass. Too soft and primer pockets expanded after 2 loads to the point of being useless. No such issues with Lapua, Sako and Federal brass using same load in .30-06.
 
I have just reloaded for a guy's 204 using Nosler brass - not because of the hype but it is better than the Hornady. I always as stated above, full length new brass simply because I don't trust the manufacturers. As a matter of interest on the final testing it shot fairly well.


Nick T final test 001.jpg
 
Back
Top