Best brass for a precision AR loading?

[Tim K]

I was originally using 1K of Winchester brass for my precision load. I was running 24.5g of Varget under 77SMKs, and that turned out to be on the warm side. Now that I've fired that load from all 1,000 cases, I find I have lots of loose primers. I'm checking the load at 24.0g to see if that's light enough to stop killing brass.

I've got lots of brass around here, and I can probably sort out 200-300 pieces of any head stamp you can name, including Winchester. Is there some type that's particularly long lasting? Any other reasons to choose one over another?

[Great-Kazoo]

Ones with a crimp? You're not alone regarding winchester brass. i processed some and that stuff looks like a 1 possible 2x firings. One guy told me he was going to stake the primer pockets? on the loose looking ones.

[Hoser]

Lake City or Winchester is pretty solid.

[Zombie Steve]

I'd say Lake City can take the most abuse, but my most recent batch is from 1974... not sure about more recent production.

All said and done, Winchester really isn't bad brass. Like most, you can go straight from the box / bag and get to work, or you can give it just a little more tlc (flash hole deburring / uniforming comes to mind) and have something even better. Normally I don't bother, but you did say precision.

Also had good luck and similar results with PMC brass.

[Tim K]

I have both LC and Winchester. I'll just sort and see which I have more of and go that route.

[DonnyCommo]

Cost effective? Lake city
expensive? Lapua.