204Ruger

I have just purchased a new AMP Annealer and I prepared some brass in various calibers to mail to AMP for their free calibration service. I sent two batches of Lapua brass for the 6.5x47 Lapua. As I was preparing to send them off, I decided to measure the neck thickness with a tubing or ball mic. I was pleased to see 12 cases from Lot Numbers have exactly .013" neck thickness measured at about 3 places on the neck.

Then I moved on to my Norma 204 brass. Holy crap! up to .002" difference between cases and differences around the circumference of the neck. This sucks! I don't want to neck turn this stuff. So my question is, what is the best quality 204 brass? BTW, I measured some Hornady brass and they were not much better.

Bike: That's a raw deal! Especially considering it's "premium" brass.

Most of my 204 brass is older WW, but even that domestic stuff had much better neck tolerances, usually under a thou. The Norma brass I do have in 204 was purty dang good in regard to neck thickness consistency if memory serves. For a long time, Norma was the supplier for Nosler, and that stuff I have also was very good for neck concentricity. You may have got a bad batch that escaped the QC guy while he was in the can....who knows?

But seriously, that is excessive and from what I'm aware of, unusual.

I wonder whether NormaUSA has their own 'spec' for brass, that's different from Norma itself (in Europe). Is Nosler no longer buying their component brass from Norma? Have they brought the Silver State capacity online to make Nosler-branded brass now?