The new Nosler brass is now available. I recently received a box of 50 of the .223 Remington brass. The brass is very good looking and packaged with foam-rubber inserts to protect it. The cases I received had round mouths, unlike most factory new unprimed cases. On the box it states "weight sorted and prepped." According to the folks at Nosler, "prepped" involves chamfering the case mouths inside and out, which also trims the cases to a uniform length during the operation. The cases also have flash holes deburred inside the case.

I weighed 20 of the cases on my RCBS digital scale and found that they weighed from 90.4 to 91.3 grains. That's only a .9-grain weight spread, or less than a one percent variation. The only other new unfired .223 Remington cases I had on the shelf for a comparison were Remington. I weighed 20 of those cases from a single lot and found that they ran 90.8 to 92.5 grains for a variation of 1.7 grains, almost twice the variation of the new Nosler cases. I know of no other manufacturer who segregates cases by weight.

I checked the cases for length and found that they were indeed uniform. Then I looked inside a few of the cases with my Hawkeye bore scope. The flash holes are deburred but not notably chamfered.

The price for the .223 Remington brass is $29.95 for 50 rounds. I am told that .243 Winchester cases are next in line. For more information, contact Nosler Inc., Dept. ST, P.O. Box 671, Bend, OR 97702; 800-888-3921; www.nosler.com.