I've fired 7 rounds through each of my 338 Lapua brass. Tonight while cleaning I found 3 out of 100 with case seperation cracks. How many firings are you guys getting before the cases are garbage? How serious can a case speration be, will it cause firearm damage or worse? When you start noticing case seperation, should a guy garbage the whole lot of brass and start new, or keep shooting and garbage each case as required?
338 Lapua Case Life
- Thread starter datatools
- Start date
- Location
- Whitehorse, Yukon
Just a suggestion, adjust your sizing die so it doesn't set the shoulder back so much.
Case seperation will certainly test out how well your action handles gas!
RC
Case seperation will certainly test out how well your action handles gas!
RC
Is it good brass (i.e. Hornady, nosler, lapua) or cheap brass (i.e. remington, winchester, federal)?
Are you FL sizing? Case-head seperation is almost always caused by creating excessive headspace by FL over sizing or if the firearm has too much headspace: same result. Only takes one firing for brass to come apart regadless of manufacture.
Regards,
Peter
Regards,
Peter
When i go full troottle 3 reloads is the max, it is more forgiven if you back up 250 fps and as accurate 7 reloads out of a 338LM is very good but i would no try to press the lemon more, head case separation can lead to disaster... Cheers. JP.
When i was working as a spare range officer this spring, 5 gentlemens all equipped with 338LM came to shoot they had buy togheter 2 cases of Hornady 338LM match 400 rounds ( i check after those were 850.00 a case )... so i asked the persons if they were keeping their empty cases and they given 250 empty cases to me they did not shoot the rest, going back home i was very happy of my full bag of empty Hornady case. So i am good for a while now... JP.
So it sounds like 7 reloads is doing well. I use RCBS full length die set and I've been loading 300gr SMK's, 90.3gr of H1000, Lapua brass and Fed215M primer. I'm getting excellent accuracy with this load out to and beyond 1000 yards. The Sierra manual states that 92.2gr of H1000 is maximum, so I should be ok.
Get yourself some US 869 (108.5 gr ) powder from Hodgdon(you can buy it at Higginson Powders ) it really shine with 250 gr Hornady Match BTHP bullet it give me a tad over 2900 fps ( extra full troottle load carefull ) and real easy 2 inch groups at 350 metres... Cheers. JP.
- Location
- calgary alberta
Ditch yer dies.
A set of Redding Type S match neck dies are spendy, but worth the $$.
You are over working your casings by full length sizing them.
I have 21 reloadings from my 300 win mag which apart from my 308s and 50s are closest I have to a SAAMI spec chambering. My 338 Lapua is an Improved chamber and I have 33 relodings to date and the brass is still showing no signs of failure.
- Location
- calgary alberta
Correct impending failure is not always noticeable, fearless I am NOT, careful and highly experienced with every high end gizmo available for reloading I AM.
Given the fact that virtually none of my rifles are factory and I cut my chambers to minimum dimension also accounts for minimal casing growth.
Many BR shooters get 50 to 80 reloads from their casings.
personal_aviator
Regular
- Location
- Onterrible
Tonight I will be on reload 8 with mine. Lapua brass I bought off the EE as once fired. I pitched 3 so far due to a crack in the neck, and what looked like a crack starting to develop on the body, the last one I wrecked in a die. I anneald after 5 and will anneal after 3. The rest of the brass looks good. I neck size only and I removed the expander ball from my decaping rod.
Did not want to insulted you experience is a better word... I will be starting soon the the LR shooting since i got a brand new rifle TC Icon Precision Hunter in 6.5 Creedmoor ( test target certified .175 @ 100 ) and just sent a email to order a Deon March 60X52BR scope from Kelbys rifle in the U.S.A... They can ship to Canada since they are the only dealer in N.America did not know that... Cheers. JP.
With annealing I am on my 15th reload with this lot of once fired .338LM I only bump the shoulder back when absolutely necessary and neck when not bumping I Neck size only with forester NB die. The annealing really helps ! With my fifty brass I am on number 5 with no end in sight I anneal after every firing and am using IVI Match only neck size and will only bump when necessary. If I FL size on fifty brass it does not last long!
Sounds like neck sizing only is the way to go. Does any one know where to order dies for neck only in 338 Lapua (and I might as well switch my 308 over to neck only while I'm at it). I removed the decapping ball and havent had any issues in my 7 reloads with necks cracking, is this also a recommended thing to do?
I tried to neck size only but had difficult extraction on a TRG-42 the chamber are so tight full lenght resized is not an option, hopefully when i hanload for my 6.5 Creedmoor i will be able to neck size only, i do it for my 308 and it is the epitome of accuracy... JP.
There is something wrong with your reloading/brass sizing process. TRG's do not normally have tight chambers. Being a military rifle, if anything, their chambers will be on the larger size. Are you running hot loads? It's usually the only way to make brass hard to extract from a generous chamber. Neck sizing alone will not make brass difficult to extract. What brand dies are you using?
R.
Neck sizing is the only way to go, for most rifles. As Rick (Alberta Tactical Rifle) mentioned, you really need to get some Redding Type S dies. Give him a call, and he'll get you set up.
R.
personal_aviator
Regular
- Location
- Onterrible
I got my Redding Type S dies from Jerry at Mystic and i`m very happy with them. I also got a body sizing die from him as well.
