Poor quality Lapua brass

tomL

tomL

Member
Rating - 100%
93   0   0
Location
coquitlam, bc
I have a batch of Lapua 308 brass that the case will split at the neck after 2 firings.

As well, I also have some Lapua 223 match brass that the neck will separate after resizing even though the brass has only been fired also twice.

Anyone else have similar experience?

Tom
 
Seems odd for that to happen to you twice, in the same area. Was the brass bought new? What is your reloading process?
 
Not ever. Something wrong..what kind of rifle ? New brass or something else ?

I use a lot of Lapua brass….223, .308..6BR and converted 6BR to .30BR and .220 Russian (6ppc) never-ever got a split neck on any of those and actually, ever seen it more than once or twice on other brand of brass, even military brass, fired multiple time in semis.

Brass show sign- give up at the case head or primer pocket become loose but split neck after 2 firings ..something is haywire with your reloading process, die..rifle chamber neck area.
 
Last edited:
When I use other brands of brass, fired in the same gun and sized the same way, the brass remains malleable and do not crack nor break off.

Tom
 
Or maybe its old as heck. I had an un opened bag of winchester brass in 303 that won't keep neck tension. Keeps enough for .314 cast, but not .311 jacketed. Old product.
 
I had the same issue with a batch of Norma 6.5x55 brass that came from factory loaded rounds.

I bought five boxes of that stuff just for the brass.

Normally you can't go wrong with Norma brass cases and IMHO it's on par with Lapua.

Anyway, this stuff was splitting the necks with every shot, out of a close to pristine M38 with an in spec chamber and bore.

After the first five rounds, I tried a different box and the same thing happened with the only two rounds fired from it.

That was enough of that. I went home and pulled all of the bullets and punched out the primers.

Usually Norma brass, just like Lapua has ''blue'' from just below the shoulder up over the neck. This is from annealing the brass for proper hardness and tension holding the bullet.

This stuff had the telltale blue color but it was very dark. I reannealed the cases and reloaded them with the bullets and components that were original.

When I went through the reannealing process I didn't bother to separate the individual cases.

I took a box to the range and shot them without issue.

I'm still using that brass, which has been used in the same M38 for over 30 years and has been reloaded a dozen times as well as annealed after 4 shots.
 
tomL said:
I have a batch of Lapua 308 brass that the case will split at the neck after 2 firings.

As well, I also have some Lapua 223 match brass that the neck will separate after resizing even though the brass has only been fired also twice.

Anyone else have similar experience?

Tom
Click to expand...

I had a 6.5x55 that would do that, so I tried Lapua brass - thought the issue was the Prvi stuff I was using. Same issue with the Lapua. Wasn’t the brass causing the problem. It was excessive headspace in the chamber. The brass that survived that first firing was fine from them on as long as I only bumped it back 2 thou rather than FL sizing it.
 
Canuck65 said:
I had a 6.5x55 that would do that, so I tried Lapua brass - thought the issue was the Prvi stuff I was using. Same issue with the Lapua. Wasn’t the brass causing the problem. It was excessive headspace in the chamber. The brass that survived that first firing was fine from them on as long as I only bumped it back 2 thou rather than FL sizing it.
Click to expand...

If you’re bumping the shoulder then you are FL sizing it.
 
coyoteking said:
If you’re bumping the shoulder then you are FL sizing it.
Click to expand...

Yes, but only the minimum amount needed to maintain consistent headspace and easy chambering/extraction. The body does get worked a bit, but that's no big deal - the trick is to minimize the amount of expansion that's happening when fired to keep the brass from being overworked.

What I meant was that I'm not working the brass (especially the shoulder) back down to the smallest dimensions the die will make it. I'm not saying this is the OP's pronlem of course. Just saying what I found the problem to be when I had similar issues, and what my solution was.
 
is there any resistance when chambering a round? it sounds to me like one of two things could be happening in the 308 and this is just a suspicion. either trim length is too long for the chamber and damaging the brass. additionally check sized brass sizing and record measurements before firing around the neck compared to fire formed, potentially it is expanding a lot and causing it to crack, i know Lapua is harder than most brass and uses a different brass alloy than alot and just spit balling here but if cases were expanding a ton could effect brass getting neck splits.

I have only ever have had neck splits with Lapua on many time fired brass and a good annealing stopped the problem, those cases are coming to an end of life though after 20+ firings on them.
 
Few years back, I bought a new box of 6.5x55 Lapua brass to reload for my new Tikka shortly after purchasing it. First reload done and shot off with everything fireformed, I started to resize it...7th or 8th round in, the neck came off right at the shoulder as it was coming back down over the expander ball !! Pretty even line right around it.

Before y'all ask...{{ yesss, it was lubed up with Imp sizing wax..I am using Redding dies ...never any problems before with any of my older brass}}
This is my first issue EVER with Lapua brass !, Used it for a long time in other calibers...awesome !

I thought...this ain't good, sooo, I took a few pics and sent them off to Lapua, with an enquiry as to the lot # and to see if there were any known issues with it, or other problems. ~~~crickets ~~ more crickets~~~~no reply at all !
Thought this was strange for such a stellar company ! The other 99 brass were and are still being used today from 2018 (40 virgin brass left out of that lot) I have 9 reloads on that stuff and a few at 10 per.
A little research after the fact showed I wasn't alone. I shrugged it off..No biggie, still love the brass and will continue to use it!... once I get a little more load development data for my 6.5 PRC, I'll be getting a new box of Lap brass for it too ;)

** FYI...Very recently..I bought my new Tikka 6.5PRC...also got 3 boxes of factory 6.5 PRC ammo to play some, do some trigger time and load work up with the empties. Two of the boxes were Hornady Match 147 ELDM and a box of Norma 140 gr Whitetail ammo for deer season if I decided to take it out.
Outstanding results with both these factory loads.
I prepped my empties for reloading some 129 gr LRAB's for hunting. I had 10 new once fired Hornady match brass that I couldn't use !!!...the primer pockets are enlarged orrrr just made too big !! All from the same box of 20 too...different lot # from the other box.
I can fully seat the primers with my fingernail and the weight of my LEE universal de-capper die in my fingers will slide em back out again. All the other (30 pcs) of Hornady Match brass are fine. No Norma issues out of the first 8 / 20 rounds
 
While there is a bit of Discussion going on here about BRASS I ask this :
Has any one shot enough of any of these brass brands from the SAME rifle and with the SAME load to determine what is the “ BEST “ in there opinion ?
Alpha
ADG
Bertram
Lapua
Peterson

Not interested at this moment in any Enlightments about any other Brands of Brass ! Thxs RJ
 
remington jim said:
While there is a bit of Discussion going on here about BRASS I ask this :
Has any one shot enough of any of these brass brands from the SAME rifle and with the SAME load to determine what is the “ BEST “ in there opinion ?
Alpha
ADG
Bertram
Lapua
Peterson

Not interested at this moment in any Enlightments about any other Brands of Brass ! Thxs RJ
Click to expand...

I've shot several hundred Lapua and Peterson cases through several different rifles. The Lapua always outlasts the Remington before splits and losses, encouraging me to move onto another lot.

I shot a bunch of Bertram and Lapua out of a Mosin and there was little if any difference between the two as far as longevity before losses go.
 
OP: Are you applying lube to the inside of the necks? The expander ball in your FL resizing dies can exert alot of stress on the brass if not lubed. Maybe you have this covered already, but if not, hope this comment helps.

Lee's lube is water based and once dry will not contaminate the powder. I often use it on the inside of the case necks for FL resizing. Oil and wax based lubes do not dry on the case neck insides. If you lube with oil/wax based dies on the neck inside for the expander ball, you need to clean that out, and the easiest method I know of is to tumble in dry media.

I also use lanolin and isopropyl alcohol mix lube for FL resizing, shaken in the plastic bag method (which gets the lube into the case necks), and the expander ball friction is no worries at all, and never had a stuck case. But these cases are now contaminated inside and must be tumbled in dry media to clean out that lanolin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom