Lapua Brass Issues?

[footman2000]

I recently had a 6-250 built and purchased 250# 22/250 lapua brass to neck up for use. From the get go I had problems chambering rounds, the bolt was tight to snug when locking the lugs. I am jumping the bullet .020" from the lands. I took the gun to Mark Chanlyn of Rocky Mountain Rifle Works for evaluation-he built the gun. After hours of examination and totally disassembling the rifle, the Lapua brass seems to be the problem due to weakness in the shoulder area. Apparently, the shoulder is not holding when the expander ball is removed through the neck. When we used Winchester brass with the exact same process including 2 different sets of Reading Competition dies, well lubed brass/expander button, etc. they work perfectly with easy chambering. I called Lapua and they want brass for examination, I think I am going to send them 250. Has anyone had a problem with lapua brass? I love Lapua their scenar bullets and have only used their brass in my .308 in the past. Never had a problem.

Terry

 

[Wheres-Waldo]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

How many increments are you necking up in?

I have crushed a FEW Lapua shoulders, but ive never drawn them out too far durring use with an expander mandrel, although I'm working within one caliber, no necking up.

If worse come to worse, you send Lapua the brass, they may pull that lot (what of it they have stocked) and refund or replace your batch.

 

[Bearwalk]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

Interested to hear how this turns out. I have a ton of Lapua brass, but never any problems.

 

[bigmerv]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

No problems with my Lapua .308 brass, it's from 2009 i think.

 

[raptor99]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

My son had a 6-250 built to shoot tactical and HP matches.He had prolbems with stiff bolt lift and closure. Not all the time but intermitent problems.

He used Winchester and Norma brass. I have read several times where this is a common problem with the 6-250s. He had his rechambered to the 243LR and I built the 6XC instead of the 6-250. Not saying this is your problem but you may want to research it some to get more info on it. It "May" not be a brass problem.

 

[Patriot Prepper]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

So far I have not had any problems with Lapua brass. In fact, along with Norma, it is the best out there. Wish I has more.

Hope they find out what's wrong with your brass.

 

[Linkless]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

A possible solution is to have your sizing die modified to not neck down so much. This will make the expander not work as much and if done properly will eliminate it completely. You will also work your brass a lot less and it will end up lasting much longer.

 

[buffybuster]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

My guess is you're getting a "donut" around the neck/shoulder junction. Lapua brass is thicker in the shoulder area than Win/Rem brass. When you run the expander ball into the case, some of the shoulder becomes the neck. If you seat the bullet into the neck, below the neck/shoulder junction, it pushes the donut to the outside of the case, resulting in a stiff bolt closing.

You can test this by not seating a shorter bullet so far in the neck and check how it chambers or neck turning that area and checking it.

My bet that is your issue.

 

[Bradley]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

If it's a brass problem, Lapua will take care of you. Great customer service in my experience.

 

[footman2000]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

I am necking up in one increment with the carbide reading expander button. From what I understand from Reading and others that shoot this cartridge this is standard for the .020" expansion. I was thinking that after a few firings they would probably harden enough to limit the "drawing out". You're right I will just send them in and get things squared away. It is just a little odd because they do not have any customer service here just importers.

 

[footman2000]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

Thanks for all of the input. It seems I am having the same problems you had Raptor. I thought aboout the 243 but I like the velocities with the barrel life of the 6-250. I am just going to go through the painful and time consuming process of uniforming the brass of a couple hundred Winchester.

 

[raptor99]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

Hope the Winchester works for you but my son still had problems with the Winchester, just not as bad as the Norma.

We really liked the 6-250 but when shooting HP a tough chamber or extraction will kill your scores. I really liked the 6XC its deadly accurate and I had over 1800rds through it when I rechambered it to a 243LR.

If your looking for accuracy and barrel life you may want to look at the BRs they are the way to go in the 6mms or the 243 case if you need to shoot the 115s at distance. Hope things workout for you!!

 

[CSS]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

The redding dies I bought today said expand no more than .010" per step.

 

[footman2000]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

The win brass is working beautiful. I have been punching .3 moa groups regularly with hornady match 105,s lapua is sending me some brass to see if it fixes the problem. Thanks again for all of the input. It always amazes me how much wisdom hits these boards.

 

[wbeard]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

Interesting....i've always experienced Lapua brass to be better than Win.

 

[footman2000]

Re: Lapua Brass Issues?

You have got to be right. I took the expander button out of the Reading full length sizind die and resized the most difficult brass to chamber- they worked fine. With the expander button they would not chamber well. I then loaded a 105 berger bullet into the case and the problem was back again. I pulled the bullet and again the problem remained. One more time through the full length sizing die without the expander button and back to perfect. I guess I will have to turn the necks do a few thousandths at the base of the neck.