- Thread starter Rlovato
- Start date
Because it could be too much pressure with a large firing pin leading to punctured primers.
OP- Do you get any cratering on your current primers at all? If you are getting cratering already with large primer I wouldnt expect the small primers to do you any better.
Strip your firing pin out and throw some calipers on it to see what it actually measures, .075" or .0625"
And push comes to serve maybe you could have gretan bush it up.
Don't do it! Hold out for LRP brass. I had a horrible time with 300 pieces of Alpha SRP brass in my Tikka. I would love to go SRP in the future but I wont be doing it in a none small firing pin gun.
Lapua isn't the only game in town either. Starline is offering 6.5 Creedmoor brass:
https://www.starlinebrass.com/brass-cases/65-Creedmoor/
As is Peterson:
https://www.petersoncartridge.com/products/65-creedmoor
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/76154
And also Norma:
https://www.eurooptic.com/norma-brass-cases-65-creedmoor-case-of-250-mpn-20265136-norma.aspx
All three of these are good quality brass that should treat you right.
https://www.starlinebrass.com/brass-cases/65-Creedmoor/
As is Peterson:
https://www.petersoncartridge.com/products/65-creedmoor
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/76154
And also Norma:
https://www.eurooptic.com/norma-brass-cases-65-creedmoor-case-of-250-mpn-20265136-norma.aspx
All three of these are good quality brass that should treat you right.
Get the bolt face bushed and the pin turned; problem solved.
Or just buy other brass. Seems simpler to me. Norma .260 brass has taken everything that I've thrown at it with no loose primer pockets and no heavier than necessary necks. Well over 10 loadings on the first batch.
I would not argue that Lapua is not good brass, but it is not at all the only game in town these days for quality long lasting brass.
See my post above for three quality brass options that do not have small primers and do not require that you modify your bolt face or firing pin.
I would not argue that Lapua is not good brass, but it is not at all the only game in town these days for quality long lasting brass.
See my post above for three quality brass options that do not have small primers and do not require that you modify your bolt face or firing pin.
I understand your frustration. Something to know is that a few years back, Nosler aquired Silver State Armory, makers of SSA brass. I had quite a few hundred pieces of SSA .260 brass and sold them off for cheap to someone who just wanted to load them just once for an AR in .260. They were too soft and got loose primer pockets after just a couple or so firings. That was with medium loads too, not hot.
The three companies I listed above have a better reputation than SSA/Nosler.
The three companies I listed above have a better reputation than SSA/Nosler.
I think i'm going to try Atlas brass when my new MPA 6.5 Creedmoor SL rifle arrives. From the reviews I've read and seen it looks really promising. Decent pricing and has large primer pockets. I have way to many Federal 210m primers to change right now! Not sure if any one here has had any experiance using Atlas brass, if you have please share.
https://atlasdg.com/product/6-5-creedmoor/
https://atlasdg.com/product/6-5-creedmoor/
Norma is far from a new offering. They have been around for 100 years and are well known for their quality brass.
A good way to get decent Norma/ruag brass is to buy some Prime factory ammo and shoot it in your rifle. Once done, you have ready to go brass already fire-formed to your chamber and ready for 10+ loadings with your choice of components.
No one has mentioned that the de-capping pin on the resizing die might be too big to fit through the flash hole on the Lapua SRP brass. That was the main complication for me when I tried the Lapua 6.5 CM brass.
So I purchased the small replacement de-capping pins for the Redding resizing die from Brownells and I was good to go.
The BC numbers improved with the Lapua brass significantly, cut them in half from Hornady brass.
So I purchased the small replacement de-capping pins for the Redding resizing die from Brownells and I was good to go.
The BC numbers improved with the Lapua brass significantly, cut them in half from Hornady brass.
Don’t forget Alpha Munitions - their brass is top quality, even with Lapua, and they make 6.5 creedmoor LRP brass.
I've only had bad luck with Starline (.308). Majority of the their primer pockets are too weak to start with and I don't think the brass is hard enough in the base of the casing. I can put identical loads in Starline and Lapua, only to have Starline start dropping primers after the 2nd reload.
I've ordered their brass 3 times, both from Midway and Starline directly. I'd say 80% had weak pockets on the first reload and quickly caused dropped primers.
Not defending Starline because I have no skin in the game, but putting identical loads in two different brands of brass is never going to be a good comparison. Did you first measure case capacity and developed a load for the Starline? I didn’t think so.
FWIW, others have had quite good luck with Starline rifle brass, when using a load developed for it.
What do you think would have happened if you used that identical load in Federal or Hornady brass?
I had no issues with about 20% of the cases. The pockets were strong from the start. I worked up loads with no over pressure signs. The rest had weak pockets from the start like brass used a dozen times at high loads. Those in the lot that were not loose I can still reload. My experience is the QC is not consistent.
That's good to know, I see a lot of people say Nosler is made by Norma so that's what I've always thought.
Thanks for catching the error, meant to say SD, standard deviation dropped to single digit with Lapua brass with the small primer pocket.
Hope that clears up the confusion.
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