Peterson Cartridge cases
Bull’s-eye
Peterson Cartridge, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an American company founded by Derek Peterson and two business partners. The company’s goal is to produce match-grade brass or cartridge cases for long-range shooters.
According to the company’s webpage they currently manufacture cases in seven calibres: 6.5 Creedmoor; .260 Remington; 7mm-08; .308 Win (a standard version and one with a small rifle primer); .300 Win Mag; .338 Lapua Magnum; .375 CheyTac and .401 CheyTac.
It takes 14 steps to form a Peterson case and the primer flash holes are drilled, not punched to ensure the best uniformity.
Lynx Optics of Johannesburg, one of the distributors of Peterson cases in South Africa supplied .308 Win cases (the standard version) for us to test.
Peterson cases come in sturdy see-through plastic cases (50 to a case in our test samples) that can double as ammunition boxes. The lid is lined with a removable foam pad to prevent the cases from bouncing up and down in the boxes and damaging the case mouths. With the loaded ammo stored in the box you obviously do not use the foam pad.
Instead of just loading a number of cases and firing a few groupings with the Petersons I also decided to weigh them, test their concentricity fresh out of the box and measure their case neck thicknesses for consistency.
Ten randomly selected cases produced an average weight of 179.4gr, placing them in the same weight class as our local PMP cases. The weight difference between the lightest and heaviest case was 1.9gr, which is very good indeed.
I also weighed 10 randomly selected, new PMP and Norma cases and these averaged 179.51gr and 163.09 respectively. There was a 4.1gr difference between the lightest and heaviest PMP cases and a 2.9gr difference between the Normas.
Next I tested the selected cases for concentricity (run-out). The Petersons showed an average run-out variation of 2.36 thou; the PMPs an average of 2.39; and the Normas 1.98 thou.
To test the consistency of the neck wall thicknesses I used a ball micrometer and took readings at four points on each case’s neck. The Peterson cases had an average case neck wall thickness of 0.366mm while the PMPs averaged 0.373mm and the Normas 0.334mm.
In order to give an indication of the consistency of the neck wall thicknesses I subtracted the lowest value (thinnest part of the neck) off the highest value (thickest part of the neck) of each case. I added the results up for each case brand and worked out the average variation. Here the Norma cases came out on top with an average of just 0.01mm. The Petersons were second with 0.022mm and the PMPs third with 0.024mm.
With the “vital stats” of the cases taken it was time to load up some ammunition and head for the shooting range. My CZ 550, .308 Win is accurate with Nosler’s 125gr Ballistic Tips so I loaded 15 of those in front of 42.7gr S335 for a muzzle velocity of approximately 2 800fps.
At the shooting range I measured the velocity of nine bullets and they averaged 2 775fps. What really pleased me was the low extreme spread of the velocities – only 8fps. That kind of consistency is truly very good for new cases fresh out of the box. The accuracy was also good – a 15mm average for the three, three-shot groups.
My last test was to fire six shots at a SA Hunters springbuck target from 200m – three shots from the prone position and three from the sitting position over my shooting sticks. All six shots found the heart. Tinkering a little with the load and using once-fired Peterson cases, I am sure the groupings at 100m can be shrunk to smaller than 10mm.
I am happy to recommend Peterson cases, they certainly have the potential to deliver top performances in properly tuned rifles. If your favourite dealer does not stock Peterson cases ask him to contact Lynx Optics at 011-792-6644.