260 Lapua Brass problems, I think I got ripped off!

arcticcathonda

arcticcathonda

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
105   0   0
Location
Southern Alberta
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 happened again. The brass tended to be hit or miss, 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 chime in here?

Thanks

__________________
 
delta1 said:
Are these brass full length resises before loading? How did the primer feel when you were priming? Did You start by working up a load for the rifle , or did you just settle on a load? A little more information on your reloading the brass for this rifle would help.
Click to expand...

Of course, my mistake. These were all full length resized and trimmed to spec. They were all primed on press and felt fairly easy going in. These were occurring with my sighter (min loads) so I didn't bother shooting the rest.
 
I would assume you properly FL sized your cases if not do it. The other thing could be your die tolerances maybe out. Although FL dies are suppose to be uniform I found dies from company to company FL sized differently and may not fit your particular chamber. It may work for one rifle but not another.
 
Hodgdon 4350 with 41.3gr is below min my book says start at 43.5, max is 46.5 with a 120gr nosler bullet. under min can case problems with some powders.
Did you do the following to your once fired brass ??
Trim your cases to 2.025 if your cases were 10k to 20K to long causes many dangers.
iF you full lenght rezised I would say your die was not set right you did not get base of cartridge
You should watch when seating primers if primers go in like butter your primer pockets are far to loose, some times a primer pocket swager will tighten up pockets
 
manitou210 said:
Hodgdon 4350 with 41.3gr is below min my book says start at 43.5, max is 46.5 with a 120gr nosler bullet. under min can case problems with some powders.
Did you do the following to your once fired brass ??
Trim your cases to 2.025 if your cases were 10k to 20K to long causes many dangers.
iF you full lenght rezised I would say your die was not set right you did not get base of cartridge
You should watch when seating primers if primers go in like butter your primer pockets are far to loose, some times a primer pocket swager will tighten up pockets
Click to expand...

I made sure I check all of my brass trimmed to the specs the stated. Hodgons manual told me to start at 41.3 for H4350 with 125gr bullets So thats what I did there, Measuring the bases of a couple of the cases now I am see that the very tight ones were 0.470" at the base and others that had no problems feeding were 0.466". Like you said, maybe I need to run the FL die further down.
 
Just touching? Or are you camming over a bit to ensure a tight contact?

You might just be dealing with a tight chamber in your rifle, and a loose chamber in the gun the brass was fired in. If so, you'll probably need a small base die to get the brass small enough to chamber reliably.
 
Barnes_270 said:
Just touching? Or are you camming over a bit to ensure a tight contact?

You might just be dealing with a tight chamber in your rifle, and a loose chamber in the gun the brass was fired in. If so, you'll probably need a small base die to get the brass small enough to chamber reliably.
Click to expand...

This sounds like the most likely culprit. I am indeed camming over to ensure tight contact. But I think you are right in saying chamber sizes could have potentially differed.
Thanks very much.
 
If you're already camming over then that's as small as your FL die will go. Looks like you need a small base die. Does your rifle have a match chamber? They pretty much all need small base dies.
 
You said you were under the assumption it was once fired brass. Did the seller specifically state it was once fired or you just assumed it was. That makes a big difference. Just wondering because its always buyer beware when buying anything used, especially brass.
 
EC said:
You said you were under the assumption it was once fired brass. Did the seller specifically state it was once fired or you just assumed it was. That makes a big difference. Just wondering because its always buyer beware when buying anything used, especially brass.
Click to expand...

He said it was once fired. This may be the case, but a number of the primer pockets are now loose, to me this means that the "once loaded" cases were very high pressure loads perhaps.
 
arcticcathonda said:
This sounds like the most likely culprit. I am indeed camming over to ensure tight contact. But I think you are right in saying chamber sizes could have potentially differed.
Thanks very much.
Click to expand...

If you have not already done so . . . check to make sure your die is contacting the shellholder while you are actually sizing a case. If there is any space, screw the die down a bit more.
 
I would say if it was once fired and now the primer pockets are loose it very likely was a hot load. I have run into some new brass that was loose from the start though, maybe try a different brand of primer for a double check.
 
FWIW, I've owned two 260 Remington rifles and got fantastic results with RP brass in both cases.

My pet load was the 125 gr partition over 45.5 grns of H4350, stupidly accurate in the first one and MOA in the second.
 
When you primed the cases did any feel like they just slipped in while others had resistance?

If they all felt the same while seating then it was your load that stretched tge primer pocket.

I have blown primer pockets with brand new brass, in a newly chambered gun, with loads that should have been at the lower end of the spectrum in my 260 with H4350.

I Switched to H4831 and things definitely got a lot better, but then again I was load developing with 140gr bullets.
 
CyaN1de said:
When you primed the cases did any feel like they just slipped in while others had resistance?

If they all felt the same while seating then it was your load that stretched tge primer pocket.

I have blown primer pockets with brand new brass, in a newly chambered gun, with loads that should have been at the lower end of the spectrum in my 260 with H4350.

I Switched to H4831 and things definitely got a lot better, but then again I was load developing with 140gr bullets.
Click to expand...

Remembering back some were definitely easier than others. Some cases I needed to double check that I primed it because they felt like they went in a little easy. Like the one load that was very hard to feed so I decided to extract it, then the primer fell out when the cartridge came out.
 
If like you said it was hard to chamber a round then that can only mean one thing. For Whatever reason the case is to big for the chamber. Maybe it is not sized small enought or the bullet is seated to far out or your chamber is very small.

I have reloaded for a long time and I have used brass many times over and that does not make them over sized but rather may wreck the primer pockets if the load is to hot. My experience is that brass generally starts to split necks etc. when it has been used lots.

I would expect that your problem lies with the die or adjustment of it.

Graydog
 
Seems to me that no matter the reason for difficult chambering a flag goes up when a primer falls out of a live round when it is extracted. The cause may be for the same reason but loose primers are of more concern. Even if your chamber is a tight one it did not make the primer pocket/s loose. At this point the brass is suspect, period. Time to start with new brass to see what happens and then contact the seller.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom