Lapua 308 brass & precision prep tips

[Indyfishyak]

So I scored 200 lapua 308 win brass on gun broker. I am newer to reloading 308 (maybe loaded 100 so far) I was looking for tips / best practices for gettin life out of cases. I was thinking things like annealing/neck sizing/ flash hole tips or other suggestions. I just bought my fist neck sizing die but have not used one. Would love your thoughts.

I am not new to reloading so advanced comments are appreciated. I am trying to suck precision out of each round.

 

[USMC-FF]

I'll be watching this. Right now I use Lake City LR brass for my R700 .308. Hoping to get good accuracy out of the LC LR brass but ive been thinking about using Lapua for out past 600 yards in F-class F/tr.

Subscribed!

 

[bigedp51]

So I scored 200 lapua 308 win brass on gun broker. I am newer to reloading 308 (maybe loaded 100 so far) I was looking for tips / best practices for gettin life out of cases. I was thinking things like annealing/neck sizing/ flash hole tips or other suggestions. I just bought my fist neck sizing die but have not used one. Would love your thoughts.

I am not new to reloading so advanced comments are appreciated. I am trying to suck precision out of each round.

1. Is the brass brand new and unfired.
2. If the brass was new it may have been purchased in larger lots and sorted by weight and rejected for being heavy/light.
3. Why would you buy brass sight unseen?
4. Lake City brass is made to very high quality standards and lasts many reloads and is very cost effective.

Below is some technical information, "BUT" in a off the shelf factory made rifle much of below may be overkill, and neck sizing doesn't mean your accuracy will improve.

Complete Precision Case Prep
Preparing Cases for Long-Range Accuracy

Complete Precision Case Prep within AccurateShooter.com

 

[Meister]

Lapua is the best brass made. The flash holes are drilled, the necks are always proper and the weight spectrum is small. Weigh each case after they are fully prepped for loading, but before the primer, sort them in lots by weight. Sort your bullets the same way, Load the heavy bullets with the heavy brass. Hitting the center of your vibration node is more important than saving brass if accuracy is your thing.

I purchase Lapua 308 brass by the thousand and generally have a less than 1% rejection rate. 5-8 cases per thou get tossed. 40% optimum weight, another 35-40% percent acceptable weight, 15% questionable weight and the rest go in the blasting bin. REPR's gotta eat too.

 

[Yeah]

Move as little brass as you must with each resize. I typically prefer to FL size but neck with a collet is the means to the first sentence if you are loading for one chamber and/or reamer.

Annealing is best skipped.

Are you loading 308 Win with these?

 

[Yeah]

Hitting the center of your vibration node is more important than saving brass if accuracy is your thing.

Do tell how loading heavy bullets into heavy brass keeps one centered in his vibration node.

 

[Indyfishyak]

Brass is brand new unfired. Still sealed in packages. It is hard to find any where right now. Lapua seems to be the "gold standard in brass. Well those are my assumptions but maybe I made a bad decision in buying but that would be contrary to the consensus of research. So I will find out if I am a moron later.

 

[Indyfishyak]

Is there a prefect weight for lapua 308 brass in your opinion? Just curious

 

[Indyfishyak]

These will be loaded as 308 win. Definitely curious if weigh matching will keep me in the harmonics node!

 

[Broom_jm]

Weight sorting is one step in brass prep for getting the most accuracy from your rifle. The key is eliminating variation. When every single case is sorted, prepped and loaded to exacting standards, you have fewer excuses for your group sizes.

Meister mentions weight-sorting bullets and using the heavy ones with heavy cases; I don't follow that logic, either. I weigh cases and I weigh bullets. Those that fall out of the acceptable range for either, are set aside and used for less serious work, or simply discarded.

Since there are guys out there shooting less than 1/2 MOA with Winchester, Lapua, LC and others, don't let anyone's personal experiences prevent you from getting great results with the Lapua brass you bought. At worst, it will be perfectly serviceable for your needs. At best, it's likely to require less prep work and have fewer unacceptable pieces in the lot.

 

[Meister]

Do tell how loading heavy bullets into heavy brass keeps one centered in his vibration node.

Pretty simple, it keeps the slightly heavier bullets slightly more pressure due to a smaller interior dimension on the brass. Same goes for light bullets in light brass, slightly larger interior dimension drops pressure a few Cu, keeping a constant enough speed that the bullet/brass combination isn't as wasteful as using them for blasting ammo.

 

[Meister]

These will be loaded as 308 win. Definitely curious if weigh matching will keep me in the harmonics node!

There are computer models out there that can guess where the node is on you rifle, but the only way to know for sure is to ladder test your rifle with the bullet/brass/powder/primer/OAL/neck tension you want to use.

PM me if you'd like to meet me at the shop some day and chat about it. Bring your rifle and we can measure the chamber and I can offer up some advice on a starting load, and how to spread and work your loads when laddering. Component prep is important, but there are more considerations than just weight if you are looking for zero deviation. My advice it to work you way up to that and concentrate on the basics for now.

 

[Indyfishyak]

There are computer models out there that can guess where the node is on you rifle, but the only way to know for sure is to ladder test your rifle with the bullet/brass/powder/primer/OAL/neck tension you want to use.

PM me if you'd like to meet me at the shop some day and chat about it. Bring your rifle and we can measure the chamber and I can offer up some advice on a starting load, and how to spread and work your loads when laddering. Component prep is important, but there are more considerations than just weight if you are looking for zero deviation. My advice it to work you way up to that and concentrate on the basics for now.

i have done some testing with other brass to find my node with Varget and 168 smks but will have to retest and reconfirmed with the lapua brass. Will take you up on the chat and measuring the chamber. Are you a gunsmith? Anyways appreciate your taking the time to share your knowledge.

 

[Meister]

Just a hobbyist at this point. Looking at getting formal smithing training in the near future.