For those loading for a while...FGMM Brass VS LAPUA Brass

[Capt Beach]

I understand the Lapua Brass is the Gold Standard...but my rifle seems to love the FGMM 175...I really want to start shooting F/TR and know I'm going to need to reload to be affordable...

Return on investment wise...is it better to sink $$$ into Lapua brass? I've heard it can be reloaded (as long as your loading conservative match loads) 10-12-14 times...Can FGMM brass stand up like this?

Thanks for looking...

Capt Beach

 

[repiv]

The short answer is no. Lapua is more concentric meaning not out of round or banana shaped. If you measure on a concentricity gauge almost all loaded rounds will be .0001 or less in variance. Lapua is also thicker and you don’t need to do anything to the necks as far as turning, or clear out the primer flash hole as this is done at the factory. I believe it is hands down worth what it costs and anything else is not worth messing with.

Of course to realize the full potential of the brass you need the right dies too. Look into Redding Full Length Type S bushing die. Also look for the micrometer seater too, not as much for the micrometer but for the sliding mechanics of the die that holds the bullet in place during seating or the Forster Bushing die and their seater also are good.


My 2 cents..........

 

[Ol' RD]

brass failure

let's see if I can post this. Not my data. Pulled it from a reloading magazine for .308 brass.

BTW: I have some Lapua brass and did not anneal out of 100 I split 8 necks on the 15th reload.

 

[turbo54]

Lapua is worthwhile for F/TR, where you never lose brass, and you have plenty of time to aim every shot *perfectly*.

 

[Capt Beach]

So according to the chart above if I had 400+ rounds of FGMM brass and got 8-10 loads out of each, I potentially have 3000 or so rounds of 308 to fire...and also looking at that chart...seems like Norma rules the roost...

 

[Suasponte]

There are many factors in how long your brass will last.

1) Are you loading the max load in them or are you shooting them on the milder side?
2) Are you sizing your brass properly (setting up your die for the proper shoulder bump)
3) Do you neck or FL size after each firing.
4) Are you annealing or just loading cleaning and shooting?
5) Mfg's of your brass, Not all cartridge brass is made equal!!
6) Military style brass tends yield more reloads than Commercial. (Lake City and so on) (Brass tends to be thicker with less case capcity)
7) The chamber in your rifle.

I could shoot the same lot of say Hornady Match 308 brass as you but get more reloads because I
anneal the necks after every 3rd firing. I also tend not to shoot the max charge when its possible.

It is extremely hard to say your Lapua 308 brass is going to yield "X" more loadings than Hornady or any other mfg.

The less you move or reshape the brass the better off you will be. Number of loadings.

Terry

 

[pkt1199]

I don't think you will go wrong with the Federal brass for the price of buying FGMM loaded stuff. I'm on my 7th (and probably last) cycle with a set of the same Federal brass you are referring to. The brass is still in good shape but I don't need to push it to failure. I won't pitch it but it will go to the 'retired unless things are dire' pile.

Should note I typically only neck size it and only load to 44.5 grains of Varget for a 168 pill.

 

[insight3b]

I am probably one of the only guys on this site who doesn't think Lapua brass is te end-all be-all. Trying to run a 175gr SMK at the same velocity as FGGM is tough on brass and ALL brass will develop loose primer pockets on about the 4th load. I stopped using Lapua years ago as 1X fired LC and FC work just as good when prepped properly.

 

[Fuzzball]

"I am probably one of the only guys on this site who doesn't think Lapua brass is te end-all be-all."

Well, there's at least two of us. And I doubt any of us have tools or skills for checking case run out to a tenth of a thousant (.0001").

What's the "best" isn't quantifiable all that simply. If you want to overload then use Laupa; it's hard enough to take it without the head expanding quickly. If you load normally the softer Federal stuff will handle that fine and it's soft enough to last longer without splitting. Remington and Winchester and Nosler lie somewhere between those extremes but all of these things overlap and some production runs switch positions so the real world isn't as cut and dried as some of our 'experts' will stoutly proclaim.

 

[lightman]

I would answer your question as no, it will not hold up like Lapua. In my opinion, theres no comparison between the Federal and Lapua. I think that chart was part of an article in Handloader magazine a few years ago. That is, a few years before the 2007- 2008 shortages and the negative quality control that resulted. Norma and Lapua probably held their standards better than most. I'm not sure if you will see any difference in your groups, with any brand of brass. Those of us that do a lot of prep to our brass know that Lapua is about as perfect as it gets. If you have a really accurate rifle and plan to shoot in competition, I would go Lapua. A box of brass will last you all season. Lightman

 

[Belisarius]

Nothing like Lapua! I bought my first 100 cases 11 years ago and still have 93 of them. Lost a few along the way /primer pocket enlargement/, experimenting with this and that. Consider that my loads are way over any published data anywhere. The primer pockets of the 93 are nice and tight after countless firings. I only necksize, bump the shoulder occasionally.

 

[pshell]

Lapua is much better; no brass prep and durable. If you bump the shoulder correctly and learn to anneal you will end up throwing it out because you know it shouldn't last that long! Federal is really bad for reloading. Lake city brass is also pretty shitty unless it's 118LR and even then it's really not worth the price. Most LC brass is machine gun fired and will not last if you can even resize it without cracking. Winchester is a good compromise. You will have to prep the brass, but it will last with annealing.
All that goes out the window if your trying to make your .308 shoot like a .300WM. Your primers are going to fall out pretty quick regardless of brand.
It sounds like you don't reload yet. Use all that Federal brass to figure it out. You can make it shoot pretty well. It will wear out and that's when you buy the good stuff. You only need to do that once as most bottle neck cartridges act like the others. The belted stuff adds a little to the equation, but nothing you won't be able to handle at that point. You won't really be able to appreciate the match stuff until you have worked with lesser brass. It will also be pretty painful to do the new reloader mistakes to match brass.

 

[Deadshot2]

If your rifle "Likes" one brass type and not another only tells me that you haven't adjusted your load correctly for the "other" brass. All brass has different volumes and internal shapes.

I shoot Winchester, Lapua, Federal, BHA Match, and Hornady Match. Each requires a different powder weight even when using the same primer, powder, and bullet, in order to achieve the same accuracy. When I hit this proper amount, I find that they alll shoot pretty much the same.

That said, I do go to the trouble to weigh all my brass and make up "sets" within each Headstamp group. I also sort out the cases by runout. The cases with the lowest runout get used for my precision ammo, the rest for my "gravel pit shooting".

Lapua does a lot of this for the Customer and is probably the best "out of the box" brass available on a wide-spread basis. If you want to put in the extra effort other headstamps will also do the job.

As the old ad on TV said years ago "The Choice is Yours".