lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

[padronanniversary]

Well, I started prepping my new brass today. My last batch of lapua did not have a single bad case in the lot. I open the first box today, and I had 10 out of 100 cases that had their necks smashed flat. I was surprised, I'm used to this with remington cases, but not lapua. I hope my other boxes are not like this since they are all from the same lot.

I just got done neck sizing it, trying to straighten then out, then loading a bullet in, then pulling it, then neck sizing again. What really pissed me off was pulling the bullets, now those are all dinged up. Oh well.

Anyone else having these issues with Lapua brass ?

 

[Two Shoes]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

I have found this common w/ Lapua, and everyone else's..........
Lapua's usually better due to boxed shipping, not plastic bags.
Best way to remedy this is buy a Lee Collet Die, $25.00,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Or just run em into your FLRS die stem to straighten.
Part of the reloading process.

 

[Queequeg]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

+1 All pretty typical Senor Padron. I run them up into my sizing die just far enough to bring them back to round.

Did the red paint on the walls influence your displeasure at all?

 

[padronanniversary]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

not enough beer today !

Its strange, I ran them through my Redding bushing neck sizer and did not help much. hmm...maybe i need to revisit that die to make sure I did not put pooch it

 

[Two Shoes]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

After re-reading your post, are you saying you have been just priming/charging, and loading the bullets?.
If so, you are missing a couple of steps.

 

[padronanniversary]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

no, just prepping the cases. I just loaded the bullets to straighten out the dings in the case since I was just using bushing dies. Then just pulled the bullets. I'm not that drunk yet !

 

[Queequeg]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

Padron,

I full length resize mine so I meant to suggest running them up into the die/over the necksizer bushing, just far enough to iron out the dent. Don't even need any lube.

 

[Two Shoes]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

Personally ( just my thing) I remove the red shit, scratches the bullets,,,,,,,,but as long as the the Base is not dinged, the scratches likely make little difference.
Red shit left over from annealing process I figure.
Most are.

 

[hangunnr]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

I've not run into a single bad case from Lapua.....lucky I guess...

The single best stuff I've seen comes from Nosler, they were spot on for length and the case mouths perfect.

Winchester was the worst I've ever seen, here's a look at some 300WSM brass I picked up at the local Gander Mountain.

Hope your Lapua didn't look this bad...

hangunnr

 

[Mudcat-NC]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

Holy smokes! What did the Gander Mtn folks do to those!?!?

 

[wilshire1412]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mudcat-NC</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Holy smokes! What did the Gander Mtn folks do to those!?!?

</div></div>
Looks like they neck sized'em through an M60!

 

[427Cobra]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

I run all new brass thru a K&M expanded, then neck size

 

[Kinsman]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

Most of the new Winchester cases I've bought looked like those of hangnnr's.After sizing, they were straight.

Most of mine from Midway. 308, 30-06, 300 WM.

 

[1more]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

Pretty par for the course these days. I guess that glad that we are getting any brass at all given the shortages

 

[wolfman]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

I just picked up a Sinclair expander mandrel/ die for this reason. I tried using my Lee collet to fix case mouths last season and the necks were so bad that it took more effort that I was comfortable with.

 

[QRE23]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

That's about par looking for Win. brass. It seems as though the Lapua brass that is mass produced and by this I mean the stuff they make the most of like .223 & .308 seems to have the worst quality control.

Out of 300 .243 Lapua cases I only had 11 when weight sorted that were what I would call "out of spec". Those 11 were 1-1.5gr above or below the rest of the group. The other 289 cases were all within 6/10ths with 90% being within 3/10's and not a single case had a dented or flat spot in the mouth.

My .223 Lapua brass (800rnds) had a range of 2.3grains from heaviest to lightest with no real main weight group. Kinda all over the place and about 10% having a flat spot on the neck. Compared to my .243 lapua stuff this is not even close but compared to my Win.223 brass, well lets just say the .223 lapua is wayyyyyy better than the Win.

All of the .223 and .243 were from the same lot per the box label.

My best guess is Lapua makes MUCH more 223 & 308 brass than anything else and probably X10 at that and maybe their quality control lacks a bit more for those 2 calibers. I don't know just a guess. But I know this and this is just my personal experience, my crappy looking Winchester 223 brass shoots every bit as good as my nice looking Lapua 223 brass. The Win. brass is certainly higher maintence and doesn't last as long so the Lapua is the winner for me.

 

[bigmerv]

Re: lapua 308 cases all dinged up out of the box !!

I just picked up 300 .308 Lapua cases from Cabela's on Sunday. All 300 were free from any and all dings, really immaculate looking. However, I did not weigh them for consistency.