Lapua brass; 99% good

[scudzuki]

I was prepping 200 Lapua .260 cases after their first firing last night.
Decapped/neck-sized with a Lee collet die, then measured the case length of every single case.
I had only checked the length of a dozen of the cases after I bought them, and they were all identical at 2.025"
I did have to run an expander through the necks when new, but that was all I did.

Last night, 198 of the cases were 2.027" or less.
1 was 2.052", and one was 2.050".
I checked the shoulder length and they were all the same.
The extra long cases showed no defects, separations, or signs of overpressure. No abuse evident.
Frankly, I'm happy the rifle didn't blow up in my face.

I have 200 each new Lapua .308 and .223 cases that I will be closely scrutinizing before they see a speck of powder.

Joe

 

[bh-ltr]

Is there a major difference in neck thickness? If the shoulder length is the same then you're not seeing case head separation.

~Brett

 

[scudzuki]

Nope, same case wall thickness.

Joe

 

[bh-ltr]

So.... Where do you think the additional length came from?

 

[oldfatguy]

So did you trim after neck sizing? Have seen neck wall thickness variations of up to 0.002" on one case, so while very good, Lapua is not perfect.

OFG

 

[scudzuki]

So.... Where do you think the additional length came from?

They must have started like that.
Brass only grows in length to the shoulder.

I neck sized only, and the long cases measured the same over the shoulder as the rest of the cases.

Joe

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[scudzuki]

So did you trim after neck sizing? Have seen neck wall thickness variations of up to 0.002" on one case, so while very good, Lapua is not perfect.

OFG

I trimmed this time after neck sizing, but not the first time. Like I wrote above, I measured a dozen or so when they arrived and they were all at 2.025, so I assumed they all were.

I will measure every case in the future.

Joe

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[oldfatguy]

My cases live in 50 round ammo boxes and are processed together so each case sees the same operations. Easy to keep up with.

OFG