I’ve never used Peterson brass and aren’t really to familiar with its quality.

If you had to rank Peterson against Lapua, Norma, Nosler, Hornady, Remington, Federal, ect., where would you place it in the list?

My first choice is always Lapua and second choice is a toss up between Norma and Nosler. I have about 400 pieces of Hornady .280 Rem brass but I will have to either fire form it or hydro form it for a new .280 Ackley Improved. I really don’t want to spend the time, money, powder, primers and throat erosion fire forming all of it. I had to hydro form a couple hundred 30.06 to Ackley Improved a few years ago and I hated every second of the process.

Its good to go, I use it for a few different cartridges.

My ranking, best on top

ADG
Lapua
Alpha
Peterson
Norma
Nosler
Hornady
Bertram

Peterson or ADG are my first choices, for the last few years. I am happy with either one. If Peterson is available but ADG is not, no problem. Reverse those, and my attitude is the same.

Lapua has always been the gold standard. The others listed are U.S. made, and at times are available when Lapua is not.

Nosler branded 28 Nosler got very expensive. Peterson is better brass and significantly less money.

I’m curious why you put Lapua and ADG above Alpha.

My only experience is in the 6BR. I say Peterson & Norma are equivalent in quality & longevity.

Quality wise I believe the top four on my list are about the same. ADG got the spot due to availability of what I need most often. It works out really good, each manufacturer seems to produce some different offerings. Peterson does aggravate me at times, the flash holes on their brass are usually in need of cleaning up. Im not sure what they do different, as ADG, Alpha, and Peterson run the same equipment to produce brass.

10/4

I foolishly made an assumption that Peterson did not need the flash holes addressed.

Last week I shined a light down into brand new Peterson brass. Yup, flash holes need to be cleaned up. And they needed to be opened up. Some of them were small enough it took a little effort to get the debur tool inside.

Lesson learned.

Well, dang! I’ve been using Lapua for so long that I forgot about even looking at the flash holes. Well, I’ll be through woodworking this week, so I can set up for reloading and case ‘cleanup’.

You don't need too...that's the reason Lapua is always up near the top of brass conversations. They are the standard for which everyone else on that list strives for...

Peterson is my favorite and go-to these days. Probably the highest quality option available, not the cheapest, but very good brass. They have the tightest tolerances I have seen on case weight variation. I personally use a lot of Peterson brass, and highly recommend them. They are certainly worth the cost.

ADG brass is also very good, but they don't clean their necks after annealing. So there is a sand paper like carbon build up inside the neck, and must be cleaned and brushed before loading.

Lapua is also very good, but their necks are often too tight to load right out of the box. They require a neck expander/uniformer before loading, but very good brass. They are very thick brass, and I often have to drop the powder charges a touch lower to not get the ammo too hot.

Norma is also very good, and I have used them for MANY years. I like their brass a lot. Norma discontinued their OEM "bulk" packaging, and went to 50 count boxes. Their pricing went up 2x-3x on their brass when they did, which often pushes their price point higher than others.

Most of Nosler brass is made by Norma, which is also very good, just very pricey. Except for the Nosler bulk brass, which is not fully processed and MUST be sized and chamfered/deburred before loading. (I went round and round with a supplier about this issue)

Alpha brass that I have used has done well. I don't have a lot of uses with them.

Hornady brass, well, it's Hornady brass. Very high weight variations from case to case, and their brass is much softer than others, which will reduce the amount of reloads you will get. But, it's cheaper than others and you get what you pay for. It works fine for basic ammo, and most shooters who shoot 100-300 yards will never know the difference.

Bertram is done and closed shop, so they are gone.

Lapua and ADG do not need the flash holes cleaned up.

I wrongly made the assumption that Peterson does not either.

What I meant was that once I switched to Lapua (mostly) some years ago, I no longer needed to spend so much time prepping brass, and I got used to not prepping it. I forgot that some brass does need a little work, so I kept on with not prepping. That isn’t so bad at this time in my life, as I am no longer working toward top accuracy, as I was years ago.

And what Chad said about Lapua brass thickness was worth note. The brass caused me a problem a few years ago. I had my 223 bolt gun rebarreled (the Ruger barrel was fine, but I wanted better), and my Lapua cased reloads would not chamber in the new barrel. I could not figure out what the problem was. Since I had never fired a factory round in the rifle, I had to find a neighbor and borrow a factory round. It chambered easily. The problem turned out to be a combination of a tight match chamber in the new barrel and thick case necks in the Lapua brass. I had the chamber neck opened a touch and all is well.

I pass an expander ball through every brand of new brass. I've seen every brand have neck I.D.s that were too tight.

Unfortunately there are times you have to get what you can find with certain cartridges. I had to buy Starline, Hornady and Prvi Partizan in the past few years and quite honestly Hornady was not any better than the other two.

I had a heck of a time finding 220 Swift brass during the government covid confinement experiment, I ended up getting 150 rounds of unfired Winchester brass off of GunBroker. I forgot how bad Winchester brass was.

For the money, I think Starline is VERY good for the price. It's one of the lower cost brass options, loads very well with minimal prep, and has yielded multiple reloads on the brass I have used.

There was a time that I had to switch to Winchester for my 220 brass. I uniformed the primer pockets, trimmed the flash holes, and lightly turned the necks. The results were worth the effort, and it shot great. After shooting it once, I Partial Neck Sized from there.

Yes, I agree that Starline brass is good for the price and a better deal than Hornady. I think Hornady is over priced for what it is.



I did all the quality improvements to the Winchester brass as you did and annealed it, I still use it but it probably has one more firing left before it gets trashed. Lapua is hard to beat.

I used Starline handgun brass for years with complete satisfaction. When they began venturing forth into the rifle cartridge realm I was a bit cautious but I have found that their rifle brass is excellent as well. Look at the flash holes in Starline brass, and you'll see nothing you need to address...not that flash holes are all that matters, but it's an indicator of their attention to detail.

If I can't get what I want to from Starline, I'll look for Lapua first, then Norma, and then maybe Nosler.

Thanks for all of the info.

I went ahead and bought a couple hundred .280 Ackley Improved brass from Peterson as well a spending probably way too much money on a hydro form die from Hornady. My .280 Rem brass is about 50/50 Remington and Hornady so I guess I’ll have to wait and see if that brass was worth it. I just really didn’t want to waste time and components on fire forming it and couldn’t bring myself to throwing all of the .280 brass in my odd brass bucket to probably be forgotten and eventually be thrown away/given away.

We aren’t supposed to talk about Starline.

That is correct.

The first rule of Starline...

Petersen brass is Nicely packaged and comes with a note saying the case volume is less than other brands and some load rework may be needed. In a 6.5 CM I has to reduce my load almost 2 full grains to prevent a heavy bolt lift.

It’s good brass, however the case volume is less than others including Lapua.

I still have not tried too many brands but I like the Peterson brass I have so far. As a cheap value-seeking person, i really like the includes ammo case. There is even a piece of foam to protect the case mouth. Both in packaging and feel, it reminds me alot of the ADG brass. Btw, i kinda really hate how Lapua's box only hold 50 loaded rounds.
Can't say I can rank the brass brands I;ve tried but i tend to prefer tiers. Peterson is on the same tier Lapua, ADG and alpha for me. Moving forward I will probably get more peterson because it seems to be the lowest cost of this bunch. I've probably tried about 6-7 other brands of brass.

Hahahaha

I got no issues using Starline. I've never had any significant variance issues like some have claimed to have had.

I guess I've never been a brass snob. Come to think of it, I've never been much of a snob on any component...most stuff seems to work right as long as I am working right

I take care of my brass and Starline seems to last about the same as any other brass.

And I've had just as much Starline brass take me out to 1200+ yards as any other brand.

I say use what you can get your hands on and have some fun.