6.8 Large Primer vs Small Primer

I've never shot any of the large primer Remington brass, so this is hearsay. :a26: Most of us reloaders prefer the small primer brass (Hornady, SSA, Federal and S&B) over the large primer Remington brass due to perceived higher number of reloads with the small primer stuff. I believe the main reason is because the large primer pockets tend to get loose after fewer reloads than the small primer brass, especially when shooting hotter reloads. Since you've already got the Remington stuff, just shoot it and reload it as long as holds the primer. :a08:

I'm still shooting the same Rem brass I bought in 2011..... Lost count on how many times I've loads them....
Fed brass has the crimp in the primer pockets that you need to deal with.....

I had nearly 2000 rds of the Remington. That's all I used with the #34 primer. Tough brass. Never had to trim it because I sized it right, and usually got at 6-10 reloads depending on the load before the primer pocket started to get loose.

A lot of people say it isn't as good as small primer, but I ran the same load levels they do, without any problems. I also don't like Federal brass because it tends to be soft, and I've heard the same thing about Hornady. The Remington will do a good job for you as long as you size it correctly and don't try to make a magnum out of it.

Just don't mix the two in your reloads because there could be some accuracy differences. Sort your brass large and small primer. Otherwise it's all good brass.

lapriester said:

Just don't mix the two in your reloads because there could be some accuracy differences.

Click to expand...

+1 on that plus each brass type will have their own max, e.g., what is safe in a Remington might be over max in a Federal. S&B and SSA have the most case capacity so never take a load developed in that brass and use it in another.

One other aspect. The neck thickness of the Remington brass I have is around 0.011" where the Federal and others is around 0.013". I use a bushing resizing die so I can't resize the Rem brass with the same bushing as the other 6.8mm brass. This is the only reason I don't reload Rem Brass. I don't have enough of it to warrant purchasing a bushing for it.

I have been using large primer brass for 10 years no complaints here.

I like working with the large primers more than the smaller ones. They go in much easier and never had even one get messed up. The small primers were a different story.

I use large primer brass in my AR15 and small primer brass in my Remington LTR, it makes it easier to tell which brass is for which rifle. They will both shoot either brass just as accurately.
James