Slowrunning
Silver $$ Contributor
Thanks Alex, pick your poison I guess? Brass availability driving some of this. Hopefully that improves with the lapua 6br.
6BRA Alpha Brass question
- Thread starter savageshooter86
- Start date
Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
I have some guys on Peterson. Its shooting well and works in normal chambers. Probably worth a try before re chambering.
You likely won't experience issues in that lower node. I didn't in the old chamber/alpha brass combo. It was when I started running 105s at 2950 in a 28" I started getting random bolt lift/ejector marks but primers still looked good. That low to mid 2800 node is where most guys are at in field style shooting events with br, bra, dashers. It's usually weather safe, low recoil, better barrel life, maybe 2 click moe of elevation and an extra click of wind. When shooting off props and tripods, I'd personally have a tough time shooting the 0.1mil difference of wind.
Ccrider
Gold $$ Contributor
This is true. The Alpha 6bra brass worked flawlessly and shot tight with less powder at 525 yards in the lower node for me. I got pressure signs in the middle and higher node.
Slowrunning
Silver $$ Contributor
Good to know, I hadn't considered the lower pressure helping. There's a node a little over 2900 that I keep debating trying to move to. Gonna just stay put though. If I ever have issues I'll probably fireform peterson brass.
Ccrider
Gold $$ Contributor
I had no problems with Alpha at 2930+- shooting 103gr. bullets. I had heavy bolt lift at 2950.
I have been shooting some new Alpha brass, but i have been jamming the bullets with no hard bolt lift with 105 gr bullets and 32 gr of Varget. I did try to seat .015 off the lands and had hard bolt lift. something to try if you want
This post is a little long. If you want the short answer I’ll buy more in the future.
I was wanting to get some more experience with the alpha brass before I gave my feedback. I had bought 200 cases to try back in June 2021. At the time I got them I inspected them and was very please with what I found. I was saving them for my bench gun when I got it put together.
In the mean time in 2022 I had a friend with a bra, I told him buy some alpha. I showed him how to work up a load with them. Knowing the case capacity was less we started with about 1.0 less powder. I don’t remember for sure the exact charge. In a few rounds we had it working. No issues. 28” barrel with 103 edlx at about 2950.
Fast forward to this year when I got my bat bench gun chambered and in a stock. Started to break it in, high pressure signs from the start. Went jamming bullets to make sure case was against bolt. I was using up odds and end components. I had to keep backing it down. Thought was there something wrong with the gun? Went to a known powder and bullet, still high pressure. Something is wrong this just can’t be with the charges I’m using. (I use Quickload and things are just not adding up). Threw together a load with lapua brass and some varget I had. Same load as other rifle. Velocity just a little slow and no pressure signs.
When I was done had 105 berger’s and 108 both shooting at about 2700. It was grouping good but I couldn’t go any higher without problems. It seemed whatever I did with the two different Bergers it shot small. Too bad I only had one box of each.
I called Andrew and talked to him about what I was seeing. They have made changes to the brass since my lot. We talked about some of the changes, I don’t know all the details. He sent me 10 cases of the latest lot to test. I got a chance to shoot them before my wife and I went on vacation. I loaded up a ladder working them up from where the others had been. My quick assessment, May have not been perfect but was definitely usable. Gave the feedback to Andrew and they sent me two boxes of the latest lot.
Got back from vacation with one chance to put a load together before the next match. Of course the wind was blowing like usual. Barrel was very low round count so I went with .2 low on charge(I now know I shouldn’t have done that).
I’m trying some Vapor trail VDAC 103s with the new brass. I’ve ran the velocity up to what quick load would show me to be about 65k with no issues. I could go higher but it’s not going to shoot up there and no reason to wreck the brass. I would recommend a mild load for the first firing. I’ll be using that to fireform the second box at the next match.
I’ll give a shout out to Tom E at vapor trail, @Tom E these VTAC 103 are shooting and they are available on the shelf. If you are waiting for Berger, you might want to try these instead. I have a new batch of 105 Vld hunting which has been my go to bullet and the 103 are working well enough I haven’t even opened them to try.
From everything I’ve seen I have no reservations taking these to the nationals at vapor trail next month.
Only thing I’m still out on is what it think about the primer pocket. I’m going to have to change from my normal on how it treat those.
Happy shooting,
Forrest
I was wanting to get some more experience with the alpha brass before I gave my feedback. I had bought 200 cases to try back in June 2021. At the time I got them I inspected them and was very please with what I found. I was saving them for my bench gun when I got it put together.
In the mean time in 2022 I had a friend with a bra, I told him buy some alpha. I showed him how to work up a load with them. Knowing the case capacity was less we started with about 1.0 less powder. I don’t remember for sure the exact charge. In a few rounds we had it working. No issues. 28” barrel with 103 edlx at about 2950.
Fast forward to this year when I got my bat bench gun chambered and in a stock. Started to break it in, high pressure signs from the start. Went jamming bullets to make sure case was against bolt. I was using up odds and end components. I had to keep backing it down. Thought was there something wrong with the gun? Went to a known powder and bullet, still high pressure. Something is wrong this just can’t be with the charges I’m using. (I use Quickload and things are just not adding up). Threw together a load with lapua brass and some varget I had. Same load as other rifle. Velocity just a little slow and no pressure signs.
When I was done had 105 berger’s and 108 both shooting at about 2700. It was grouping good but I couldn’t go any higher without problems. It seemed whatever I did with the two different Bergers it shot small. Too bad I only had one box of each.
I called Andrew and talked to him about what I was seeing. They have made changes to the brass since my lot. We talked about some of the changes, I don’t know all the details. He sent me 10 cases of the latest lot to test. I got a chance to shoot them before my wife and I went on vacation. I loaded up a ladder working them up from where the others had been. My quick assessment, May have not been perfect but was definitely usable. Gave the feedback to Andrew and they sent me two boxes of the latest lot.
Got back from vacation with one chance to put a load together before the next match. Of course the wind was blowing like usual. Barrel was very low round count so I went with .2 low on charge(I now know I shouldn’t have done that).
I’m trying some Vapor trail VDAC 103s with the new brass. I’ve ran the velocity up to what quick load would show me to be about 65k with no issues. I could go higher but it’s not going to shoot up there and no reason to wreck the brass. I would recommend a mild load for the first firing. I’ll be using that to fireform the second box at the next match.
I’ll give a shout out to Tom E at vapor trail, @Tom E these VTAC 103 are shooting and they are available on the shelf. If you are waiting for Berger, you might want to try these instead. I have a new batch of 105 Vld hunting which has been my go to bullet and the 103 are working well enough I haven’t even opened them to try.
From everything I’ve seen I have no reservations taking these to the nationals at vapor trail next month.
Only thing I’m still out on is what it think about the primer pocket. I’m going to have to change from my normal on how it treat those.
Happy shooting,
Forrest
Has Alpha made another revision to fix the issues guys are having?
Mulligan
Silver $$ Contributor
Would be interesting to know.... as far as I know their revision has been their reamer.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
Agreed. I don’t see how they can get with everyone else and still fit Alpha-spec chambers.
Agreed, there are some sizing techniques that help one cycle then not the next. One primer seems to help one cycle and not the next etc. All in all it's a huge ass ache to try and run a premium product.
I've got 500 pieces on 6 firings and 500 with 2 firings and the list of fixes I've tried is long.
I've got some friends in denial and others who think I'm doing it wrong. There's been some good opinions and suggestions for a fix in this thread as well as opinions that are easy to tell based on no experience with the brass in question. My experience has been real and as described above, ever evolving and ever changing, get it running clean for a cycle or two maybe three then back with the bolt lift again. Try some new things and limp along on the low node.
I don't believe I'll be buying anymore.
From what I gathered there have been some slight changes from the brass that I originally had. And I can verify that the case weight is about 1 grain less on the latest.
I talked with Andrew today about what I was seeing with the new brass. He told me that they did hardness test on the brass I sent back and also sent them to a third party. The test came back the same as the current brass.
Those that know me know that I’m a ME by trade and know first hand how hard it can be to find root cause of issues. Andrew and I had a good discussion and I gave him another thing to look at. He’s going to test it on the brass I sent back.
I think I mentioned before, my chamber is not an alpha chamber. I’ve had my reamer since 2017.
Curious question, has anyone tried a harrels die, in the form of say a D0, whereas most people run a D3 with lapua in a Wheeler chamber. I have a Wilson 6bra die, and have ran a few my 6bra into my buddies D3 Harrels Dasher die. They sized essentially the same at the base. So the Wilson is essential a D3 style die.
If a guy went with a Harrels D0(less base sizing) and let the brass grow to fit the die, it would start to get better chamber grip. Currently if I fire 105 hybrids with 30.5gr varget in my 28" barrel at 2880fps(using 1-2x fired brass), I have a fired base of 0.4694-0.4696, sized brass is 0.4688-0.4691. I have brass that has 4-5 firings on it, and the fired dimension is 0.4698-0.4701, and sized it is 0.4693-0.4695(still 002 under the alpha chamber base diameter).
You guys think a looser based die may help solve some this issue? If perhaps after 2 firings I can have a sized diameter of 0.4703, and fired of 0.4707 will allow for better chamber grip?
I start to see intermittent bolt lift and case head swipe above 2920 in the 28" with 105s and varget/4166/N150. But it's not always there, inconsistent psi sings.
If a guy went with a Harrels D0(less base sizing) and let the brass grow to fit the die, it would start to get better chamber grip. Currently if I fire 105 hybrids with 30.5gr varget in my 28" barrel at 2880fps(using 1-2x fired brass), I have a fired base of 0.4694-0.4696, sized brass is 0.4688-0.4691. I have brass that has 4-5 firings on it, and the fired dimension is 0.4698-0.4701, and sized it is 0.4693-0.4695(still 002 under the alpha chamber base diameter).
You guys think a looser based die may help solve some this issue? If perhaps after 2 firings I can have a sized diameter of 0.4703, and fired of 0.4707 will allow for better chamber grip?
I start to see intermittent bolt lift and case head swipe above 2920 in the 28" with 105s and varget/4166/N150. But it's not always there, inconsistent psi sings.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
My Alpha 6BRA brass didn’t survive the first firing. I did a modest load of 29.3gr of Alliant 15.5 and had no pressure signs except one piece that split from the .200 line to the shoulder.
I have a Whidden die that was custom made to my fired brass that came from a chamber cut with a Wheeler reamer. So in principle I was going to do as you say. The Alpha didn’t appear to be ductile enough to grow like that.
Yeah I've had some success using a looser Harrels die. Unfortunately I'm not sure which it is, or suspect it's a D1 though. It sizes the .200 considerably less than my LE Wilson
My fireform load is 31gr 4166 sending 108bt at 2890, and the web is only 0.4692 I have 900pcs alpha ocd, never had an issue, other than not getting the velocity achievable with lapua.
Ran up to 30.6gr TS15.5 with 110 atips going 2870, but case is full. You had a bad piece of brass mate. Their brass is tough as F. I've had a 6cm alpha srp using rl26, 115 dtacs near 3300fps and no bolt lift, or excessive web expansion, yeah there was an ejector mark.
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