- Thread starter E9Diver
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How much are you paying?
It's not up there with the Lapuas and Normas, that's for sure.
As I said in another recent post on the subject matter, I'm between 11-13 cycles on my original Lapua 80 pc. batch, I started loading in '06.
Even my Normas are at 8-9ish.
If you're not spending an arm and a leg, sure...why not, but don't expect many cycles out of it.
Chris
338LM is not a poor man's caliber. That being said you'll save money in the long run if you buy better brass right off the bat. I get ~10 loads on Lapua brass and buy it for ~2.50 each
Depends on your load. Annealing won't help your primer pockets stay tight. Shoot a hot load and annealing does nothing to save your brass. Shoot a mild load and it will keep your necks from splitting and from work hardening to the point where you have very little neck tension after sizing.
If you don't screw it up, annealing will generally help in a few ways, case life being but one of those.
I can't speak for HB, but I believe he anneals, as do I, so see our above posts.
It should be noted that when I started with my 80/20 Lapua/Norma cases back in '06, I was using a Hornady generic .338 caliber neck sizer and fiddled with 50%, 75% and 25% neck sizing, so I most certainly mucked some things up, while doing so. Plus, my first steps at annealing were with the 338LM and 308 cases, so who would have thunk it?
Chris
Yep, I do. Every 3rd shot and I generally get about ~10/11 shots per piece before I start feeling loose primer pockets and/or the beginnings of case separation.
I toss them as soon as I start feeling separation because here's what you end up doing when you get case separation and the stuck portion won't come out any other way:
Yep when the web seperates and it tears or if you have total head seperation it is ugly, if you are lucky it comes out with a stainless steel bore brush. That is definately not lucky, if the pockets get loose or you really start seeing stretching around the web from high pressure loads after full length resizing. Make your judgement call! I reload the S&B cases and have had no issues with them.
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I was totally unlucky in the above pic. I had to melt Cerosafe and a piece of all-thread into the stuck case and then make a custom washer/nut combo to pull it out. Major pain in the ass!
Isn't "cheap .338 Lapua Magnum" an oxymoron?
Joe
Joe
Anyone here have load data for the Lapua. Im using Lapua brass, 300 grain sierra, 215m primers and have H1000 and Retumbo powder. Rifle is a Rem 700 with a Hart 1-10'' barrel at 26 inches
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