Is it just me or has anybody else noticed....

MColeman

MColeman

Club Coordinator
that Lapua brass quality control seems to have slipped. Now,this is not a slam on Lapua at all. They still make the best brass that I know of but I recently chambered a couple of barrels with a .272 neck and, in both cases, some loaded rounds measure .273+. The bullets mike .2435 at the pressure ring and every chamber I've cut with my 6BR w/.272 neck has worked perfectly.

Normally, I would do a chamber cast to make sure the new reamer is as advertised but the loaded rounds measure too big. I'll have to turn the necks slightly. Not a big deal but have never had this problem with Lapua brass before. They are .220 Russian cases.
 
Mickey

I just noticed the same thing on some 243 Win brass except on mine it looks like I have 2 different lots in the same box. About 50% are .010 shorter then the other 50%.
 
I have some 6mmBR Lapua

That the flash holes were off-center on about 35% of the 125 I bought, and about the same amount had burrs in the flash hole that had to be reamed out.
 
Mickey

My present lot of Lapua brass is a little thick in the necks also. They seem to clean up ok and are( I think) concentric.
 
Mickey

The latest 500 I purchased seem to have varied flash hole sizes. I use a .0625 drill to ream them out, and it just falls in some without cutting anything, and others it really cuts quite a bit.
Since I turn necks in a lathe, I haven't noticed anything about the necks being big, or what ever..........jackie
 
I was thinking about ordering a no-turn reamer for a dual purpose rifle and quickly abandoned the idea after spending some time with the tubing mike and out of the box 6BR brass. I won't say I like to turn necks, but I'll turn some off to clean them up. Have no choice really. Still worlds ahead of the next best thing I suppose. DW
 
One Other Thing

I can say this. As long as Lapua continues to make as strong of a case that they have in the past, I doubt anything will be noticed. We ream the flash holes, sort by weight, and turn the necks. Those are the things that bring the case up to standard.
Now, if Lapua starts messing with the strength of the case, we are in trouble. I have always believed that one of the single most important factors in allowing us to shoot Benchrest the way we do now is the phenominol fatigue resistance and strength of the Lapua Brass.........jackie
 
I recently bought a box of BR cases and a box of 6.5x47. The 6.5 had much more consistent neck thickness than the BR's. The 6.5's however had the little bit of a flake in the flash holes that had to be reamed out. I dont actually ream the flash hole but I have little drill bit .059 that I just put in there and turn by hand and that cuts it out. I have not shot any of these cases yet , still waiting on rifle.
 
I'm wit' Jackie 110% about the toughness of Lapua.........for me, even if it required MORE prep I'd still buy it!

The last Lapua that I bought was 500pc of the new 6.5X47 and it compares favorably with lots of 6BR brass from '99 and '04. Also .243 and .308 cases from the same time period. It seems to be great to me :cool:


al
 
eww1350 said:
That the flash holes were off-center on about 35% of the 125 I bought, and about the same amount had burrs in the flash hole that had to be reamed out.
Click to expand...

I ran into the same troubles that you state, 3 full unopened boxes and I just gave up lots of them off center and all of them had burrs some even had oval flash holes. All of my other boxes of lapua are just fine

Ron Tilley
 
I think this all points out that to strive for premium accuracy that careful brass prep is still required. All of the tedious steps we go through are for a reason.

I can't really comment on recent Lapua brass quality since what I am prepping was bought 4 years ago.
 
At our last match, a shooter was having trouble seating primers below flush of the case head. New 220 Russian cases. Some would seat flush while others would be above the case head. After he reamed all of them with a primer pocket cleaner all would seat below flush with the head. If he hadn't noticed this primer protrusion it COULD have been a safety concern when trying to chamber the cartridge.
 
It is my opinion that the 220 russian brass from Lapua has seen some degree of it's quality diminish over the last 10 years.
 
MColeman said:
that Lapua brass quality control seems to have slipped. Now,this is not a slam on Lapua at all. They still make the best brass that I know of but I recently chambered a couple of barrels with a .272 neck and, in both cases, some loaded rounds measure .273+. The bullets mike .2435 at the pressure ring and every chamber I've cut with my 6BR w/.272 neck has worked perfectly.

Normally, I would do a chamber cast to make sure the new reamer is as advertised but the loaded rounds measure too big. I'll have to turn the necks slightly. Not a big deal but have never had this problem with Lapua brass before. They are .220 Russian cases.
Click to expand...

Hi Mickey,
I have had one lot of 220Russian cases That had the primer pockets double stamped off center so that the primer pockets were two depths in the same pocket at the flash hole. They had a corresponding off center extra stamp impression on the inside of the case also. I lost about 1/3 of the 100. Recently, I had a box of 100 that had 1/3 of the primer pockets stamped so shallow that primers would not sit down flush even after normal reaming with a Whitetail. It took Many reamings to get the primers below flush. The inside case depth appeared to be the same as normal cases. ----Bill
 
On the seated primers not being flush

Make sure your decapping primer stem isn't contacting the bottom of the case and "coining', which will shorten the primer pocket, happened to me much to my embarrassment.
Charlie
 
Damn

CharlieH said:
Make sure your decapping primer stem isn't contacting the bottom of the case and "coining', which will shorten the primer pocket, happened to me much to my embarrassment.
Click to expand...
I did that once when I refitted a bushing in a Redding competition die. It took me a while to figure where the little dome on the pocket came from - a real demonstration of the power of the press! :D
 
CharlieH said:
Make sure your decapping primer stem isn't contacting the bottom of the case and "coining', which will shorten the primer pocket, happened to me much to my embarrassment.
Charlie
Click to expand...

That's what I thought might be happening when Summers first encountered the problem but these were brand new cases never been fired or sized.
 
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