Re: Lapua 260 Brass
My last 2 outings with my Palma rifle where at 1000 yards. Palma = sling/coat/irons/308/155s for those not familiar with the term. 1 MOA X ring, 2 MOA 10 ring for a target.
I had been suspicious of my box of 50 cases that were several times fired Winchester, unsorted by weight. I usually shot them at 600 only but had experimented with them at 800 with mixed results. As a point of reference, before I decided to go down the Lapua brass path for 308, I had a full case of 1000 new WIN cases, all the same lot. After attempting to sort them by weight and having just horrible consistency within the lot, I packaged them back up and sold them cheap, putting the $$ back into 500 pieces of Lapua brass. My Lapua brass also has several firings on it (4-6 firings on both the WIN and the Lapua brass)
At any rate, in both sessions, on two different ranges in two different states, I started with 10 rounds Lapua brass followed by 10 rounds WIN brass. I experienced the following:
Session 1:
- first 10 shots, - 100-4X. Shots on call, waterline elevation. Clean Cold bore, so I had dialed in some elevation I did not need and shot 2 10s at 1 o'clock before dialing down into the X ring. Shoulda been a 6X clean.
- second 10 shots, 99-3X. Chasing elevation shot-shot; call was sometimes on, sometimes off.
Session 2:
- first 10 shots, - 100-5X. Shots on call, waterline elevation. 2 sighters preceded the string to get dialed on elevation for conditions.
- second 10 shots, 98-3X. Chasing elevation shot-shot; call was sometimes on, sometimes off.
1000 yards with a standard chambering really tests the velocity consistency of ammo. The only variable was the brass in this shooting. A combination of neck tension and case volume is what I believe is the culprit causing the differences in my strings.
I am very happy to see Lapua bring 260 brass to market. My next build will be a 260 because of it.