Lapua Cases

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  • Last Post 25 December 2016
billglaze posted this 15 December 2015

Recently, Santa brought me a pre-Christmas present.  A new Savage Model 12 in 6 mm Norma BR.   As an aside, I had no idea that accuracy like this rifle displays, ever could be bought over-the-counter. I find myself working with Lapua brass.  It is probably the best, most uniform brass I have ever had the pleasure of loading. Now, to the point:  I wanted to see if anybody on the list has used Lapua brass in other calibers? Because the stuff is so expensive, (nearly a buck a round, delivered for the 6mm) I didn't want to lash out and drop a Big Ben on a hundred cases, if they weren't “sumpin special.”  Looking particularly at the .308 Win. As always, listening for the voices of experience. Bill

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. My fate is not entirely in Gods hands, if I have a weapon in mine.

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John Carlson posted this 15 December 2015

For my Savage Target Action 223 Rem I bought 1000 once fired Lake City brass for $30 (before the insanity). From about 400 LC08 cases I found a batch of 100 cases that all weighed from 91.5 to 91.6 gn. A second 100 case batch weighed 91.4 to 91.8 gn.

I bought 100 Lapua cases ($80) which weighed from 93.7 to 96.5 gn.

I understand that case weight is not the best measure of quality. A more practical test is performance at the range. In this arena I have found no identifiable difference in performance between my 80 cent Laoua Brass and my 3 cent Lake City brass.

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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norm posted this 15 December 2015

Bill, I have checked Lapua 308 brass for neck thicknes. A box of 50 typically will have 1 or 2 cases that have more .001 variation. One box of Nosler 308 had 37 of 50 with .001 or less variation.

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John Alexander posted this 16 December 2015

After a lifetime of scrounging, I now only buy Lapua brass for its neck thickness uniformity   I use Lee Collet dies and work the brass a bare minimum, seldom shoot at full factory pressure, never full length size unless once for a different rifle, so the brass lasts well over 150 reloads without annealing before case neck splits start to appear.  My 222 and 223 brass bought a few years ago was about 50 cents per case so brass cost is something less than 1/3 cent per shot.  With current costs for other components that is in the round off error. I have better ways to save money than reducing brass cost. Besides, it is so pretty. John

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2coldhere posted this 17 December 2015

I wish the brass for my .338 Lapua Magnum was only a dollar apiece. I paid $2.50 and it's gone up since. It is however the best brass I have ever owned.

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billglaze posted this 18 December 2015

Gentlemen:

Thanks for your timely and highly informative replies. Some time ago, I ran across an old score book from my High Power competition days

In it I saw where, at one point, I had shot some Remington BR cases with Small Rifle Primers. The notation in my score book simply said: Outstanding!

After having been informed about the Lapua brass, I believe I'll try some SR brass. Now, if I can only find a source for it--without calling Midway, or,somewhat more pleasantly, Graf, I'll be in business.

I've been using L.C. 77 Match brass (much more consistent than the run-of the-mill service stuffZ) but thought I'd try the SR Lapua. BTW: I've got about 2,000 rounds through 50 of these L.C. Cases; no split necks or defects yet.

And the beat goes on! Thanks again for your input.

Bill

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. My fate is not entirely in Gods hands, if I have a weapon in mine.

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RicinYakima posted this 18 December 2015

Bill, looking at Midway yesterday, they want $.90 a case for US made 30/06 brass.

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giorgio the slim one posted this 18 December 2015

Lapua brass cases are worth their weight in gold , Of course if your sport is  bench rest competition ,or hunting at long range . For short range plinking or fun shooting I can make do with east european brass , Those who reqire reaming of the primer pocket are the Sellier & Bellot.Big work , but if they are collected from the range free of charge................I can use S&B brass .Whoose clients in the end of the XIX century were the Russian Czar and the Ausro Hungarian Emperor .Both lost in  the WWI. 

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billglaze posted this 18 December 2015

Thanks, Giorgio.As I recall, both of those mentioned came to rather sticky ends.  Of the two, I would guess that Franz Josef had the more merciful.  Not to mention his wife. Bill

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. My fate is not entirely in Gods hands, if I have a weapon in mine.

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Bud Hyett posted this 20 December 2015

Lapua brass in .308 and 6 mm BR is very good in my experience, well worth the extra money. I believe in neck uniformity for even bullet pull and have outside neck turned many cases for this reason. I do not think it increases accuracy as much as eliminating the occasional flyer. In a production chamber, the rifle chamber will be too “loose” to gain accuracy.

I turned production brass to a minimal 80% cleanup on the neck to gain uniformity and experimented with bushing dies in .308 to see who much neck seating pressure helped and found minimal pressure helped.

Winchester, Remington, Federal have as much as.003 difference in neck thickness and that means a lot of turning. Even some years of LC Match brass will have .002 difference in neck thickness. One lot of R-P 6 mm Remington brass needed turned to .011 neck thickness for 10% cleanup and then split within the next two firings. That is when I adopted the 80% cleanup rule.

I bought Lapua brass and checked the neck thickness on .308 Winchester, the necks were uniform within .001. Getting out the outside neck turner, all I did was make one side shiny when I turned it. When I got the 6 mm BR, I used R-P brass initially because that was available and turned it, then annealed. When I found 6 mm BR Lapua brass, a check showed these necks to the same .001 differential as the .308.

In summary, the Lapua brass is worth the extra cost.   

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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billglaze posted this 20 December 2015

BHyatt: I do believe I'll take advantage of your research in this “case.'” (HAR!) But I believe I'll try to locate some cases with the Small Rifle primer, due to the good luck I had with them in Remington cases Lo These Many Years Ago. Now, If I could just find a source for them--they might be a rarity because of the primer size.

A few months ago, I found I had stashed away in an obscure corner of the shop,120 brand-new Remington Bench Rest cases; they have the small primer size. I figured I'd struck gold. Turns out that I haven't been able to size them down to where they'll hold Sierra bullets; in fact, I can't even get them sized enough to hold .309 cast bullets. Still trying to figure out what to do to them, and why I didn't have any trouble in the 1980's with them.

Always something weird going on. Thanks again for your input; you've been spot-on about the 6mm BR.

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. My fate is not entirely in Gods hands, if I have a weapon in mine.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 20 December 2015

you know how everybody get's that once-in-a-lifetime break ?? well i few years back ordered 100 6.5 swede lapua brass from a big supply house ... they charged me 25 cents each ... ok, not the lottery but for a shooter that is a major smiley !!

ken

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billglaze posted this 20 December 2015

Boy, Ken, those cases are the closest thing to legalized thievery I've seen.  Of course, that's before I started my Political Science course in college.<G>I'll bet you put them to excellent use; but, of course, you seem to be very observant about what's going on in the sport! Bill

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. My fate is not entirely in Gods hands, if I have a weapon in mine.

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Eddie Southgate posted this 22 December 2016

I keep 500 6.5 Swede and 500 of their .243 Winchester on hand at all times . They are that good in my opinion . I wish they made more game type bullets . I would buy them as well as the 139 gr 6.5 and 200gr .308 Scenar bullets I already use

Eddie 

Grumpy Old Man With A Gun......Do Not Touch .

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750k2 posted this 23 December 2016

I always look to lapua first - I've found norma to be good but little soft.

I suggest you go with Lapua or if it is cheaper try Nosler - I was really surprised by them 

and they might be even better than Lapua.

1 Lapua

2 Nosler

3 Norma

4 any factory from a big sample and many hours of weighing, measuring and work.

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SierraHunter posted this 23 December 2016

I've been wanting to try lapua cases for awhile, but the only caliber I have that they make cases for is my 300 blackout but that rifle is not accurate enough to justify it, and I can't make myself cut up lapua cases to make cases for my other guns.

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Tom Acheson posted this 23 December 2016

This commentary is worth what you paid for it!

For my 30 Kern I used Lapua 7.62x39 cases, for my 30 PPC it was Lapua 220 Russian, for the 30 Silhouette it was Lapua 223 Match cases and just recently for the 6.5 TKS is is Lapua 6 BR. For all of my CBA BR matches since 1997, nothing but Lapua.

When turning necks you realize how consistent the neck wall thickness of Lapua cases are. There must be a reason why so many of the shooters in the jacketed bullet BR world use Lapua cases. 

In all those iterations of mine, I've never weighed cases. The time I could spend micro-managing the cases would be more productive figuring out how to shoot these things!

Tom

 

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John Carlson posted this 24 December 2016

Just for another perspective:  I realize that just weighing cases is less accurate than actually measuring case capacity, but it's still pretty common.

Shooting a 223 Savage Target Action (shoots reliably in the high 3s) I bought 1000 rounds of Lake City Brass.  Of that a bit over 200 were LC-10.  Of those a bit over 150 of them weighed between 92.2 and 93.2 gn.  About 500 were LC-08 of which one batch of 100+ rounds weighed +/- .1 gn.

I bought 100 rounds of Lapua (blue box) brass.  They weighed between 93.7 and 96.5 gn.

After fine tuning loads for both the Lake City shot just a tad better than the Lapua.

Everyone's mileage will differ.

Oh yeah, those Lake City brass cost me $.03 each (before the madness began).

I'm just finishing up processing 500 Lake City brass for the 30-06, look forward to shooting them next season.  

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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OU812 posted this 25 December 2016

Lapua 223 cases are a little thicker and have less runout in the neck area. Get you a Lee collet die and adjust to size necks. It may take a couple of firings to fireform using lighter loads. Once completely fireformed cases will be more concentric.

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