Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

[Jodykid]

Hi, Guys. I've got a brand new Remmy 700 with a factory barrel and chamber I need to work up loads for. Will Lapua brass make enough differance in accuracy over race-prepped Win to be worth the extra bucks? I'll be shooting 200 yds with 168 MKs and possibly longer with 175 MKs.

Joe

 

[RTH1800]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

What I like about the Lapua brass is out of the box uniformity and case life. I use Win in the SR 25 and Lapua in the bolt guns. I have not ran into the bad Win brass that I keep hearing about. I am sure it is out there though. Do not know how much.
RTH

 

[psinclair]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

It might shoot better....but I do know it will last longer. It's all I run in my .308's.

 

[danska]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

I like Winchester brass a lot for the money. I bought a bunch of new brass and have had good results through the sorting process. I've also had good luck with the Black Hills match brass (made by Winchester).

 

[overgunned]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Lapua is best. Uniform, lasts. Winchester is the best of the average priced brass, IMO.....

 

[asbestosglove]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Buy the cheaper brass and shoot more. You would be hard pressed to see an advantage with the outfit you described over "race prepped" Winchester. Nancy Thompkins recommends Win brass in her long-range book and she, along with her husband and two daughters are arguably the most decorated long-range shooting family in the world.

AG

 

[BCP]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

I would buy winchester. Also hello from norcal.

 

[vman]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Both win and lapua brass are good, but lapua does it hands down for me... better quality

 

[mattmc40]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Same here from me.. Win is good but the lapua is excellent!! Worth the money!

 

[Joe-n-TX]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Winchester. Buy more. Shoot more.

 

[CCooper]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

I think it depends on the shooter's budget. If you have deep pockets, buy Lapua, if not then buy Winchester so you can shoot more. I don't have deep pockets, but I still shoot Lapua--it's that good in my opinion. Eliminate as many variables as possible and you will spend less time trying to figure out where that flyer came from.

 

[overgunned]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Being it is a factory rifle, I'd prolly just buy Winchester. I do shoot Lapua out some custom 308, 243, 223s....

 

[MinorDamage]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

Not sure how much you really need to "shoot more". I rarely shoot more than 200 in a range day. That said, I have 500 lapua cases sitting around the house. That would be about 250 bucks in brass. Over 15 reloads that makes the cost of each piece about 3.3 cents...or about 16 bucks for all 500. If you are going to shoot a lot of comps and are going to lose some, you may be more interested in Winchester. Lapua makes you hurt a bit more when you lose them.

Josh

 

[Jodykid]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

OK, Lapua it is. I started with Winchester in my .223 and after 5 loadings, I'm starting to get some loose pockets. The Lapua .223 match cases are still going strong. The Wins needed a lot of prep (race prep) but the Lapuas only needed trimming. The Wins had an average of .0012 neck runout and Lapuas had .0003 for a batch of 200 of each case type.

From what you guys say, just from a case life aspect I would be better off going with Lapua as opposed to buying twice as many Wins and having to prep and match them all. My time IS worth something.

Joe

 

[LibertyArms]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

i shoot both for diff guns, the lupua will out last the win brass. Youll get more reloads out of it for sure.

 

[avd]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

The top picture are rounds fired using Lapua brass and the bottom picture is Winchester. I dont think the Lapua is any more accurate, or atleast it is not for me. However, the Lapua brass requires less prep work and the walls are thicker as well. I have winchester brass with 8 reloads and they still seem fine. The most i have so far on my lapua brass is 6 reloads and they are good as well. So i cant yet say if the lapua brass will last longer. The lapua brass is basically twice the price but i cant tell you if it will last twice as long. Hope this helps.

 

[desertHK]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: avd</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">the Lapua brass requires less prep work</span></span> </div></div>

Agree.
I have Lapua brass 308 that have passed at least 15 reloads without any signs of problem.

 

[Mudcat-NC]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

it is possible to take new Lapua, right from the box, prime it, drop in powder and then go shoot it and expect it to perform as if it was on its 2nd firing. While I like my Winchester brass (the only other commerical brass I will normally buy), I find I cant really do that with it unless I want to do some work culling out a lot of them for necessary prep. I dont see any accuracy difference either, except maybe in the "mental department" and that does count for something

 

[RTH1800]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

About Nancy reccomending the Win brass, I think there are two reasons for this.
One, all the brass they use is weight sorted, culled and match prepped.
Two, Win has more case volume and will allow faster loads, which is a help at 1000.

 

[MinorDamage]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

rth,

Those faster loads will also significantly shorten the life of the brass.

Josh

 

[Jester8]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

I bought some 22-250 Lapua brass from Sinclair when it was on sale. First time ever buying or seeing it. Looks like it is some high quality stuff. I usually buy Win. I have about 700 pieces of the WIN.

If it performs any better I might start switching gradually. I also noticed that when I anneal the WIN cases they are not the same color as the Lapua. Mine don't turn out as dark as theirs are. So I might experiment a little with them.

Can't wait to load up some rounds and try them out. Do you guys FL size them before loading?

 

[jtac]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

I've got excellent groups from win and rem brass. The win being better and holding up more. I usually buy it from bass pro or midway and the win is excellent and hardly find one out the bag that has to be run through the sizer die. Recently bought a bag from midway. Put a 165 gr HPBT Gameking from Sierra and they look beautiful

 

[btm_54]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: rth1800</div><div class="ubbcode-body">About Nancy reccomending the Win brass, I think there are two reasons for this.
One, all the brass they use is weight sorted, culled and match prepped.
Two, Win has more case volume and will allow faster loads, which is a help at 1000.
</div></div>
+1 on case capacity for Wichester cases maybe this is not relevant for 200 yds but it is good to be aware of for longer distances.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: avd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The top is Lapua brass and the bottom is Winchester. </div></div>

Winchester is better than Federal and Hornady, and not as good as Lapua or Norma.

 

[avd]

Re: Winchester or Lapua 308 cases??

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MitchAlsup</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: avd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The top is Lapua brass and the bottom is Winchester. </div></div>

Winchester is better than Federal and Hornady, and not as good as Lapua or Norma.</div></div>

I didn't mean Winchester was at the bottom of the barrel. I was refering to my pictures. The lapua pictures are on top and the Winchester pictures are on the bottom.