Part 1: Photos and detailed measurements of GGG 'Imperial'.
Part 2: On the range, On Target and Over the Chrono.
Part 3: Components.
Part 4: Components - Brass.
Part 5: GGG: Gas! Gas! Gas!
The brass is, of course, the most interesting component to reloaders, since it is the part we can use again (and again). The downside to GGG military-style brass is that the primer is crimped (with a ring crimp), meaning extra work will be required to prep the cases for the first reload (i.e. to remove the crimp by reaming or swaging). Is the brass good enough to justify that extra work? Read on...
Fired GGG case after stainless media cleaning; the case was sectioned to facilitate primer swage adjustment (hence the pronounced/excessive chamfer at the primer pocket entry).
The table below compares the weight of 40 cleaned, fired & deprimed GGG, RUAG
and Lapua cases. The GGG weight spread is very much smaller than RUAG
(although we should remember the heavy-round anomaly that we saw when GGG rounds
were de-constructed in part 2 - that particular case was not included in this
sample as it wasn't fired and still contains a live primer). In fact, the
GGG spread was so small that I added Lapua to have a decent comparison.
The results place GGG (SD: 0.39) just behind Lapua (SD: 0.31), with a large gap
between GGG and RUAG (SD: 1.31). GGG is also the heaviest brass,
suggesting good strength and long life (number of reloads), assuming similar
brass composition.
| GGG | RUAG | Lapua | |||||||||||
| 176.6 | 177.1 | 176.9 | 178.0 | 171.4 | 169.4 | 170.2 | 172.9 | 173.7 | 173.6 | 173.5 | 173.8 | ||
| 176.2 | 177.0 | 177.5 | 176.6 | 170.7 | 170.1 | 170.6 | 172.1 | 173.5 | 173.4 | 173.7 | 173.3 | ||
| 176.7 | 176.8 | 177.2 | 177.3 | 171.8 | 171.8 | 172.9 | 169.1 | 173.2 | 173.7 | 173.6 | 173.4 | ||
| 177.1 | 176.7 | 177.1 | 176.7 | 172.8 | 171.6 | 169.4 | 169.6 | 173.7 | 173.5 | 173.4 | 173.9 | ||
| 177.2 | 176.1 | 176.7 | 176.8 | 171.4 | 170.3 | 173.3 | 172.8 | 173.2 | 174.4 | 173.4 | 173.0 | ||
| 176.6 | 177.4 | 176.5 | 176.8 | 172.0 | 172.1 | 171.8 | 172.0 | 173.2 | 173.7 | 174.3 | 173.1 | ||
| 177.2 | 177.9 | 176.7 | 177.3 | 172.1 | 170.4 | 169.5 | 169.4 | 173.5 | 173.8 | 172.9 | 173.7 | ||
| 177.4 | 176.5 | 176.9 | 176.9 | 170.4 | 172.7 | 169.9 | 172.5 | 173.4 | 173.4 | 173.2 | 173.8 | ||
| 177.3 | 177.1 | 176.9 | 177.0 | 170.6 | 172.3 | 173.6 | 169.1 | 174.0 | 173.4 | 173.7 | 173.5 | ||
| 177.2 | 177.2 | 176.8 | 177.1 | 172.0 | 169.6 | 170.1 | 171.7 | 173.2 | 173.6 | 173.5 | 173.3 | ||
| Min | 176.1 | Min | 169.1 | Min | 172.9 | ||||||||
| Max | 178.0 | Max | 173.6 | Max | 174.4 | ||||||||
| Mean | 177.0 | Mean | 171.2 | Mean | 173.5 | ||||||||
| ES | 1.9 | ES | 4.5 | ES | 1.4 | ||||||||
| SD | 0.39 | SD | 1.31 | SD | 0.31 | ||||||||
| Comparison | |||||||||||||
| Mean | ES | SD | |||||||||||
| Lapua | 173.5 | 1.4 | 0.31 | ||||||||||
| GGG | 177.0 | 1.9 | 0.39 | ||||||||||
| RUAG | 171.2 | 4.5 | 1.31 | ||||||||||