New Lapua Brass .223 Questions

[blackraven1079]

Just started using Lapua brass .223 and have a few questions -

After counting both boxes they seemed to be down 1 case in each (99 per box)! Any one else have that issue?

Whats the most loads any one has every had out of these cases? I always hear reloaders say between 10 - 15 times, if I'm running a high charge i reckon i'll be lucky to get to 10 loads!

As these cases cost me a little bit more coin this time i want to get the most out of them. As they are not yet fire formed, i will run them all through the resize die for the first time, after firing them for the first time is it worth me full length sizing them any more (working the brass and all that)?

My last question is on case trim length. My Hornady manual states that i should trim back to 1.750, when i measured every case they ranged between 1.746 all the way up to 1.754. Normally i would trim all cases to 1.750 and just ignore and load the few that are under 1.750. Whats the general rule of thumb here, is it safe practice to load those few? I reload for the accuracy and hate having a few cases out by even 0.001.

Any advice on the above would be greatly received.

Regards

Carl.

 

[groovinpickle]

Re: New Lapua Brass .223 Questions

I've bought 800 pieces of Lapua .223 in the last 2-3 years and in my experience it's pretty much good to go out of the box. Headspace and neck dimensions are very consistent and are pretty similar to what I'd size them to when resizing. Length is the only thing I've seen vary much, as you described, but I'm not sure that it's a critical dimension for accuracy... at least not critical enough to warrant processing before the first firing.

The one flaw you may find is slightly dinged case necks from shipping. I use a Sinclair expander die (.223" mandrel) to help round the necks back out. Conventional wisdom is to stay away from the expander buttons on decapping rods of sizing dies. When they are pulled back though the neck they can tend to pull the neck crooked. I prefer the expander die and neck sizing bushings. No neck turning for me (yet).

 

[Trevor300wsm]

Re: New Lapua Brass .223 Questions

I shoot primarily only Lapua brass. Your wasting your time trimming cases right out of the box. Shoot them until they need to be trimmed and then go back and trim them all to a uniform length. I really doubt it's going to effect accuracy.

Why are you sizing before you fire form? I certainly wouldn't FL resize after the fire form either......if you do, what was the point of fire forming?

Are you shooting benchrest? If not, then try a lil experiment. Take 10 new cases and do your personal "Full Prep" on them and load. Then take 10 new cases and do nothing except make sure the necks aren't dented, inside/outside chamfer, and then load. See if you get any noticeable accuracy variances. Do this with NEW cases for both A and B samples. You'll be suprised at how little, if any variance you see.

 

[bricktop]

Re: New Lapua Brass .223 Questions

1) Open new box of fantastic looking brass, which hopefully contains 100 pieces
2) Neck Size
3) Load
4) Fire form
5) Clean
6) Neck Size
7) Trim
8) ... and so on

I've never had to FL size it out of the box to get them to chamber, so I just neck size the new brass to get a straight neck and somewhat uniform neck tension (cause even with new brass they usually don't shoot that bad), then load it and fire form.

 

[TexIndian]

Re: New Lapua Brass .223 Questions

The first time I bought any Lapua brass, I tried to FL resize them but the dies hardly even touched them (and it's about the same for any new brass I've bought in recent years). I run the Sinclair expansion mandrel into the neck of new cases as mentioned above and that gives me a perfect I.D., puts any neck wall irregularities on the O.D., and gives me about .002 of neck tension. If you wanted more neck tension, you can use Sinclair's turning mandrels, which are .001 smaller.

I do like to trim new brass just to give me a chamfer on the inside and to square up the tops (I use a trimmer that chamfers and deburrs while trimming). Lapua has pretty smooth lips on the neck but most other brands have some roughness that needs to be knocked off in the same process. I'm not looking to reduce the length of the cases (except to uniform any longer ones), just to 'touch' the cutters and clean up the edges. I can usually do this without shortening the cases much - less than .001 difference.

After that I try to touch the trimmer cutters after every firing. I don't go all the way back to the minimum, just enough to clean them up again and make them all uniform. If they reach max length, I still just knock off a few thousandths, not back to the 'trim to' length.

Are you using a bolt gun? I think what Trevor was getting at is that you don't want to FL resize your brass after the first firing, just neck size it (assuming you are using this brass in just one gun). This way, the brass is custom-formed to fit your chamber. After a few firings you usually find that the brass is getting hard to chamber. Then you will have to go ahead and FL size it or at least bump back the shoulder a tad.