loading new Lapua brass

[ryutzy]

I'm loading new lapua brass that is supposed to have the flash holes deburred/cleaned up. Need an opinion from you professionals. Is there any benefit to using my flash hole tool to "chamfer" the flash hole? Hard to explain without a pic but my flash hole tool will put a slight chamfer on the inside of the flash hole when I use it. The flash holes of this Lapua brass looks great, but dont have that chamfer. I thought that possibly the chamfer would help the flash of the primer??? Any thoughts would be great. I am using Lapua to try to get away from the problems that have plagued me in the past with hornady, winchester, and remington. So far Nosler has serverd me well.

[Rick in Oregon]

Both Lapua and Norma (and Nosler, made by Norma), being european-made premium brass, both have their flash holes drilled vs. punched, thereby not having any burr to fret about. Also no need to chamfer the flash hole either, it's about perfect as-is. About the only time I use my primer pocket uniformer on either brand, is after firing the case to clean the carbon out of the pocket; my cutter/uniformer still is not cutting, just skimming the nice squared bottom of the pocket.

You'll find that if hand-seating primers with Lapua or Norma brass, the top of the primer will be a nominal .002" below flush of the case head; ideal for consistent ignition. JMO

[ryutzy]

It seems like with my hornady and especially the winchester brass dont shoot very good groups until the brass is once fired. (inch and a half groups then down to a half inch groups with once fired brass). The case itself seems to be uneven/out-of-round. I can load cases, roll them across the table and visually see the wobble of the bullet and neck. Now this is not the cause of my loading proceedures because I can also see this happen with the same brass before I load it. It's just more pronounced with the bullet in the case. Now once I fire the round I can reload it and the problem goes away. At first I thought I was experiencing bullet runout, which led me on a wild goose chase that was frustrating, but now I've discovered that it's the cheap brass. So far I've had no problems with Nosler, and so far Lapua seems to be great, but I have just started with it. Through this whole process I have not changed my reloading or brass prepping proceedures. The only thing I did different was change to Redding competition bushing dies, but I still experienced the exact same problems with the new brass. I did neck size all new brass as well as all the normal prepping proceedures. I prefer once fired brass for the accuracy, but new brass should be more accurate then what I am currently experiencing with WW. I dont want to shoot 200 rounds through my barrel just for once fired brass so that I can use the WW brass? Does anyone have a good alternative??? I have heard that there are alternatives out there for fire forming brass but im not sure on the proceedures.

[acloco]

Full length size the new brass. If you still have excessive bullet runout, the problem is in your gear, NOT you.

[Rick in Oregon]

Full length size the new brass. If you still have excessive bullet runout, the problem is in your gear, NOT you.

+ 1 for that operation. (If the virgin brass will chamber easily, I just neck size new brass to minimize work-hardening, either works just fine.)

ANY new brass, regardless of brand, has been tossed about, tumbled with the other 100+ pieces, having both body and neck impacted by other brass during tumbling, packaging, shipping and handling. You can never expect that virgin brass to be perfectly concentric.....never. Don't sweat it, use virgin brass for working up primary loads, or shoot it at rodents....what I always do. The once-fired stuff will be the most accurate, as it's been fireformed for YOUR chamber. Once fired, I neck size only until either a body or F/L die is needed to just bump the shoulder for slight bolt resistence upon chambering.

We typically use about 400 - 600 cases for each rifle, fireform early in the season at squirrels or PD's, then all the once-fired stuff is carefully inspected at home, and then real "accuracy loads" are assembled using that brass, now that it's perfectly concentric (for that chamber).

Consider new brass just a "starting point". You'll still have to fully prep it, and part of that prep is fireforming in the rifle it is intended for. It will never be perfectly concentric until it's been fired.....period.

[ryutzy]

I always neck size new brass. I did try FL sizing but found that it really wasnt sizing the case at all, so I just neck size to perfect the case mouth and to make sure I have the neck tension that I want. Looks like I will be doing a lot of plinking and just plain shooting to get all my brass fire formed for the real deal. So far I have never had an issue with fire formed brass and it seems that the more expensive brass like Nosler and Lapua are better out of the box than the others.

[Rick in Oregon]

Looks like I will be doing a lot of plinking and just plain shooting to get all my brass fire formed for the real deal. So far I have never had an issue with fire formed brass and it seems that the more expensive brass like Nosler and Lapua are better out of the box than the others.

You don't list your location, so I assume you can't do as we do here, and shoot your FF loads at colony varmints. The field accuracy is surely good enough to hit ground squirrels past 350 yards, so I'm not sure just how much more accuracy you need with your "real deal" loads. Shooting competition? (My 223 Ackley shot a .119" fireform group with H335 and a Nosler 55gr BT)

You are spot-on on the Nosler (Norma) and Lapua brass. You pay more, you get more (in this case, anyway.) Plus, the Nosler brass is inspected and weight sorted again here in the USA prior to distribution. If Lapua ever makes 204R brass, the domestic suppliers are really going to have to bring up their QC quite a few notches. I'd gladly pay more for GOOD, uniform brass instead of the hours spent detailing domestic brass that could have/should have been done prior to leaving the factory. It pains me that our American brass sold for handloading is of much less quality compared to the brass made in Sweden and Finland and imported here.

[acloco]

I always neck size new brass. I did try FL sizing but found that it really wasnt sizing the case at all, so I just neck size to perfect the case mouth and to make sure I have the neck tension that I want. Looks like I will be doing a lot of plinking and just plain shooting to get all my brass fire formed for the real deal. So far I have never had an issue with fire formed brass and it seems that the more expensive brass like Nosler and Lapua are better out of the box than the others.

Hmm...interesting.

Have one more thing for you to try. With a black sharpie, color your a new case from the neck, past the shoulder, and about 3/16 into the body of the case. Also blacken the case from the base up to 1/4" of the case body. Lightly lube the case as normal and size one case.

What does the blach sharpie tell you? I would REALLY like to see a picture.

[ryutzy]

Sure I'll give that a try. When I said it didn't seem to be sizing the case I meant it wasn't sizing the case body. I may not have used the proper wording in my previous post. I am using a Redding Case body sizer. This die does not size the neck. It will only size the case body and will bump the shoulder. I have a separate die for neck sizing. Redding says their case body die will not size the body as much as a standard die, which is apparant when I compare it to my hornady FL sizing die. Now I can put a mark on the neck with a marker, but being a body die only it should only touch the marker on the shoulder and body. I will have to give it a try on my next loading to see what it will do to the mark. I met 0 resistance and by all appearances it hardly touched the brass but we shall see.

[ryutzy]

Rick Most of my loads are used for coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and deer sized game, however I really do enjoy hitting little targets a long way out there. Most of these loads will be used for coyotes and fireforming for coyotes will be fine. I would like a little more accuracy for bobcats tho as they are a smaller target. I'm in central Ohio so I do not have the luxury of walking out my back door and shooting prairie dogs. I do get to shoot coyotes out of my living room window though. This past winter I shot 7 coyotes and a fox from my house. I have deer that frequent my yard which is interesting because I dont live in the woods. I'm almost a half mile from the nearest woods, but I'm in their travel routes I guess. Gotta love living in the country. I do make frequent trips to Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and I've been to Idaho for hunting trips etc. I have not done a day with skippy yet but hope to in the near future.

[acloco]

Check the lettering on the bottom of your cases as well. Some case, when the caliber/manufacturer info is stamped, leaves high points and can cause the brass to be tipped slightly in preses, regardless if shell holders or no shell holders are used (Forster CoAx or Arbor presses).

I would still FL size a few along with using your body die.

[ryutzy]

acloco----Will do. I will play around a little more with the FL sizer. BTW I got to shoot another coyote this morning from my house. I need to figure out how to get my pics up on this site.