260 Lapua Brass problems** Problem solved!

arcticcathonda

arcticcathonda

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Hello there,

Well today was the first day at the range with my new 260 Remington build and I had about 45 Loads worked up with H4350 and 123gr Lapua Scenars all in Lapua Brass.

I purchased the brass off of a fellow here on CGN under the assumption it was once fired. Here is how the day unfolded

First sighter round: 41.3Gr powder, fed and extracted fine.
Second round: Feed very hard into the chamber fired okay, then did not want to come out of chamber at all.

Finally got it out and noticed binding (scrape marks) near the base of the case.

This trend continued for another round until one of the primers fell out upon extraction and happend again. The brass tended to be hit or mis, some fed okay others fed awful. In the end I quit after 6 rounds as I was pretty bummed out.

When I got home I am running some other Remington brass through the rifle and it is perfectly fine, and some of the lapua brass is tight even without the bullets in them.

Am I correct in assuming these are truly not once fired brass? Does brass tend to flow into the bases over time leading to a thick/tight chamber fit?
Also I assume loose primer fit in Lapua brass is not common on once fired brass?


Anyone care to chim in here?

Thanks

Primers falling out on extraction,Very hard feeding and most difficult "mortered" extraction to get round out.
 
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kman300 said:
I'm assuming you sized them trimmed etc and tested for proper cambering in your rifle with a dummy before hand?
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I did size them and trim them before hand. I did also cycle one dummy round to make sure it would fit. As I stated before the rounds were definitely hit or miss whether they would be very very snug and bind, while others would slide in okay. They were all run through my Hornady Custom grade Full length resizing dies
 
Even FL dies don't do much to brass down near the base. And it sounds as if your chamber is smaller than the chamber the brass was originally fired in. It has nothing to do with bullet seating or pushing the shoulder back in your FL die. If that is the case, you can FL size all you want, the brass is still perhaps larger than your chamber down near the base.

I think the primer falling out is a different issue.

take this for what you paid for it... Quite often used, lower price brass is more expensive than starting with new components.
 
RickF said:
Even FL dies don't do much to brass down near the base. And it sounds as if your chamber is smaller than the chamber the brass was originally fired in. It has nothing to do with bullet seating or pushing the shoulder back in your FL die. If that is the case, you can FL size all you want, the brass is still perhaps larger than your chamber down near the base.

I think the primer falling out is a different issue.

take this for what you paid for it... Quite often used, lower price brass is more expensive than starting with new components.
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Thanks very much for the advice, I guess I swallow this as a hard lesson and do it differently next time. But would you agree, loose primer pockets= this this is garbage now for all intensive purposes?
 
That said, in my experience WW primers for example are smaller in width than Federal or CCI. I don't know what you re using, but it is very possible that a different brand primer may not be loose in those primer pockets. Jut a thought, it is possible that issue is with undersized primers, not enlarged pockets.
 
Do you have a custom barrel ,and if so is the barrel stamped 260 rem?
If it is not stamped your smith should have done it so you should contact him and find out what size neck it has been chambered for and if he used a match reamer.
When using a match reamer often small base dies are required to properly size your brass.
Now as far as primer falling out only means they are loose and possibly the brass was loaded very hot and possibly fired a few times,lapua brass can handle more pressure than saami spec brass.
 
arcticcathonda said:
Thanks very much for the advice, I guess I swallow this as a hard lesson and do it differently next time. But would you agree, loose primer pockets= this this is garbage now for all intensive purposes?
Click to expand...

For all INTENTS AND PURPOSES, yes it is garbage if the primers are falling out upon extraction.
 
coyote said:
Do you have a custom barrel ,and if so is the barrel stamped 260 rem?
If it is not stamped your smith should have done it so you should contact him and find out what size neck it has been chambered for and if he used a match reamer.
When using a match reamer often small base dies are required to properly size your brass.
Now as far as primer falling out only means they are loose and possibly the brass was loaded very hot and possibly fired a few times,lapua brass can handle more pressure than saami spec brass.
Click to expand...

The more I am looking into this the more I think a match reamer was maybe used. The gentleman I got the barrel from had purchased it from Sean at Northshore barrels. If I got brand new Lapua brass would it fit my "tighter" match chamber and then be fire formed from there?
 
arcticcathonda said:
The more I am looking into this the more I think a match reamer was maybe used. The gentleman I got the barrel from had purchased it from Sean at Northshore barrels. If I got brand new Lapua brass would it fit my "tighter" match chamber and then be fire formed from there?
Click to expand...

Well A good friend of mine got a barrel from sean last year in 260 rem it wasnt stamped so we werent sure of the neck diameter but we assumed it must be saami spec.
Turns out after we installed the barrel and headspaced it used some fired brass my friend had FL sized them and they would not chamber
so he got some new brass but the necks had to be thinned they were to tight.

I dont remember for sure but it seems we had perhaps lead sluged the neck area of the chamber to get a measurement.

Imo you should contact sean and find out what neck diameter he is chambering the 260 in cause if it is the same reamer that chambered my friends barrel it is not saami spec.
On a side note once the brass was worked the gun shot very well.
 
I wouldn't throw that brass away, other than the specific ones that must be culled due to expanded primer pocets. Full length resizing might not bring the brass back to the new factory dimensions, but they should be close enough that they will chamber in a factory SAAMI chamber. A custom chamber might require a small base die or even a custom die.

If full length resizing doesn't do it (try to chamber a resized cartridge case prior to loading it) first ensure there is firm contact between the shell holder and the base of the die, the press handle should feel like it over centers as the shell holder meets the base of the die. This ensures the shell holder has firm contact with the ram and that all resized cases will be resized uniformly. If the resized cartridge still doesn't chamber easily, thin down the top surface of the shell holder, you can shorten the die as well, but screwing up the die is more expensive than replacing the shell holder. Once you've taken enough material off the shell holder you will get to the point where the case will chamber without resistance.

At this point the case length should be checked to ensure its within spec. Now that you have a trimmed brass case that will chamber easily, make up a dummy cartridge that you can keep for future reference. Now again attempt to chamber the cartridge. If it chambers easily all is good and you can begin the loading procedure. But if you are once again faced with difficult chambering, the bullet might need to be seated a bit seeper into the case neck. Take care not to seat the bullet so deeply that the bearing surface passes through the neck and the bullet is loose in the cartridge or simply falls into the body of the case. Make small adjustments to the seating die, perhaps a quarter or half turn per adjustment, then attempt to chamber the cartridge after each adjustment. Once the cartridge chambers easily, you can proceed with prepping and loading the remainder of your brass.

If you don't feel any resistance when seating a primer, cull that particular case, Watch for neck cracks, cracks in the body of the case, or the early stages of case head seperation, which is commonly seen as a black line around the web of the case.
 
I have had two barrels from Sean, I use either a full length resizer or neck size only with a Lee collet die. I am also using Lapua brass with no troubles. Like others have said, your brass is likely garbage now. Call Hirsch Precision and get some new stuff and start from scratch.
 
FWIW-I have to agree with the poster who said to get an accurate measurement of neck.I built a .260 AI last year before the Lapua brass came here.My neck is .295",and the Lapua doesn't even come close to chambering.Since I don't want to neck turn,it's back to Rem. brass for me.
 
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