308 Lapua Palma vs Lapua LR

[45-90]

Loaded 308 Lapua Palma SR and 308 LR with weighed charges of 2 different ball powders and match bullets, and chronographed the results. It was 88° so no cold weather ignition problems.
The large rifle primers produced superior results with these ball powders. With single digit S/D one third that of the SR primers which was at times even more, and better general accuracy at 100 yds also.
Plus the LR rifle primer had higher velocities by about 50 fps ave with 155 match and 40 fps ave more on average with 230 SMK. You'd have to add a grain of powder to the SR case to reach the velocities of the LR cases. Starline has SR primers with a larger .080" may be better for ball powder ignition. So more testing is required. Just informational for those who use 308 Palma cases and ball powder, stick powder may perform better as it's supposed to be easier to ignite.

 

[AR-180]

What ball powder were you using?

 

[45-90]

What ball powder were you using?

I was using 6.5 Staball, and 2000 MR, with BR2 in Lapua LR and Rem 7 1/2. Palma brass was the least accurate with sometimes 3 times the S/D in many cases, with velocities down 40 to 50 fps..you'd have to add another grain of powder to get the same velocities out of the palma brass...noticed this before in a target rifle with a 30" barrel and noted it. So I tried it specifically for this experiment. That was the result.

 

[Gogga]

I'm finding N140 in Palma brass to be very accurate. Federal 205M primers.

 

[45-90]

Ran several 308 Win ladder tests with mentioned ball powders with Lapua cases and resized 277 fury hybrid SS...in every case the resized SS hybrid cases were more accurate than the Lapua in the 100 yard ladder with 150, 168, & 230gr ...a lot more accurate, for most, and repeat performance from the last, ladder tests ... with Lapua Palma, Lapua LR, and resized hybrid 277 Fury, ...hybrid SS head cases were the clear winner winning every group size with unusually small ladder groups, next best was Lapua, and Lapua Palma bring up the rear in accuracy ladder with these ball powders...concerning, ...and why the test was repeated again, with different bullets plus it wasn't 100 degrees, today.

 

[Gogga]

Ran several 308 Win ladder tests with mentioned ball powders with Lapua cases and resized 277 fury hybrid SS...in every case the resized SS hybrid cases were more accurate than the Lapua in the 100 yard ladder with 150, 168, & 230gr ...a lot more accurate, for most, and repeat performance from the last, ladder tests ... with Lapua Palma, Lapua LR, and resized hybrid 277 Fury, ...hybrid SS head cases were the clear winner winning every group size with unusually small ladder groups, next best was Lapua, and Lapua Palma bring up the rear in accuracy ladder with these ball powders...concerning, ...and why the test was repeated again, with different bullets plus it wasn't 100 degrees, today.

It would be very interesting to see if this holds true for stick powders too. Could be a real plus for the hybrid cases. How do you size them, just down to the start of the SS head?

 

[45-90]

It would be very interesting to see if this holds true for stick powders too. Could be a real plus for the hybrid cases. How do you size them, just down to the start of the SS head?

Full length size in regular 308 dies, the SS heads clear most sizing dies, all the ones I have from many different manufacturers, the smaller base die barley touches the SS case head. And they stay around that size and do not expand, even at high pressure they are designed to run at 80,000, I've loaded them 5 times with mostly high pressure loads.