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Is this really what to expect from Lapua brass?

Those cases had been fired 14 times. I turned the necks for a different rifle that day.
I have Lapua 6-BR with 32 firings that have never been annealed.

In fact, I've never annealed a single piece of brass in my life.

Yr 2000? You're showing your age.
It's circa :1995.šŸ˜‚

How the hell are your primer pockets surviving 32 firings??? I dont doubt the brass body and neck could handle that, but not primer pockets. What kind of witchcraft are you doing on your brass?
 
How the hell are your primer pockets surviving 32 firings??? I dont doubt the brass body and neck could handle that, but not primer pockets. What kind of witchcraft are you doing on your brass?

I'm not beating on the brass.
The brass with 32 firings has had a steady diet of 33.5gr AA-2230C with 65gr-ish projectiles through a 1/14 twist Shilen.
AA-2230C is very close to AA-2520 in burn rate.
I have loaded 35.5 with the 55 & 58gr for a bit, and even once ran the 35.5gr charge with the 65 by accident.
That was the only time they ever got hammered.

The 65gr was pushing close to 3600fps. YIKES!!

Normally it's ran at 3400 fps


My brass for the fast twist barrels isn't going to last as long. I have a batch with 10 firings so far, but I'm also using a suppressor and 35gr of Staball for a mid 2800 speed.
Time will tell how long they survive.
 
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Wait until you open a box of Nosler premium brass that was sized, chamfered and de-burred and ā€œready to loadā€ and because of their new lose packaging have 15-20% dinged necks. When 10 years ago they were packaged standing up in a box with individual compartments and you could load from the box. And oh they are 10-15% more expensive than Lapua and donā€™t last as long. Size them and use them
Nolser brass is 100% shit. I would rather use hornady brass.
 
I never understood why people get so bent out of shape about dented necks, wanting to load their new brass without sizing it first. Seems like you'd have to be a real cheapskate with your time or just not understand the effect, to want to skip that step. Personally I'd much rather make sure my brass has the same neck tension for the first loading as it does for all the others, so of course it's going to get sized, or a least run over a mandrel or expander ball. I mean, Duh?
Maybe he's never loaded cheaper brass. I started on range brass, then hornady, then lapua... I still use lapua but prefer peterson.

I've always sized and prepped all brass before loading anyways.... Consistency is indeed, accuracy.
 
I will admit, I am kind of shocked. I have read endlessly about how amazing Lapua brass is. So, I bought my first 100 box of 300 Norma Mag. It arrived today and I opened it expecting the world to look a little brighter. This is what I pulled out of a sealed box from a major reloading vendor. Did I just get a shit box that might have been through a plane crash on the way here? Or, is this typical
Holy Cow! That looks awful. I have only bought a few hundred pieces of Lapua myself but never saw anything like that. Like you, I would be surprised.
 
Putting your Lapua brass in a Lyman tray is like parking your Mercedes AMG in the trailer park.

We've all parked good things in places where they don't belong. šŸ˜³
I normally park the good brass in its aluminum tray made by our very own @Rthur of ALD Rifles. He makes some nice stuff.

This is the only image I have of the proper loading tray.
20211118_144059.jpg
 
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Neck mandrel and move on no biggie. virgin brass is meant to be run through a neck mandrel. so far ive had very good constancy with virgin brass with mandrel run through them.
 
Golly!!! That is unacceptable. Its really only superficial at this point. If manufactured properly the brass is perfectly fine. For the prices paid I would expect the brass to be in better condition. Hopefully it was just poor QC and this doesn't become a trend with their brass.
 
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I will admit, I am kind of shocked. I have read endlessly about how amazing Lapua brass is. So, I bought my first 100 box of 300 Norma Mag. It arrived today and I opened it expecting the world to look a little brighter. This is what I pulled out of a sealed box from a major reloading vendor. Did I just get a shit box that might have been through a plane crash on the way here? Or, is this typical?View attachment 7884174
Never had anything that bad personally, out of 600 6.5 CM SRP and 100 300NM only a handful with slightly bent necks
. I would contact them.
 
I anneal and mandrel all virgin brass anyway.

Well, I anneal when Iā€™m going to use the AMP press and want things perfect. I find that almost no brand of brass is as consistently annealed as when I run it through my AMP. But I have the robot, so itā€™s basically nothing added into my process.

When itā€™s just gonna be loaded fast and shot, I just mandrel it all.


I donā€™t even bother to inspect the cases.