Federal, BHA Match Brass, Lapua Brass

[DennisH]

I was trimming my brass after three firings, I also was turning the necks roughly .0015, just enough to true the necks up, still had a few dull spots which was OK.

I had NO problem with my 30 cal alignment mandrel with the BHA and Lapua Brass, fit the inside of the neck like a glove. Turning the necks was a piece of cake!

The FEDERAL brass, a different story! I couln't even get close to getting the mandrel inside the neck! I force two of them in and QUIT! I now see why they sell inside neck trimmers!!!!

Anybody else experience this with Federal?

 

[drumcorpschamp]

Dennis,

I have an idea what might be going on. I recently prepped a bunch of .308 Fed. GMM and .308 Black Hills Match brass and out of curiosity I miked the thickness of the necks. It turns out, the Federal brass had a neck thickness of .015" and the Black hills had a thickness of .0125" on average. They both showed different inside diameters after coming out of a standard full length sizing and decapping die. One brand sprung back more than the other when dragging them over the expanding ball.

Did you expand the inside diameter of the necks (with the expander that comes with the neck turning mandrel) before trying to turn them? My experience is that the Federal definitely needs expanding before turning the necks and the Black Hills was borderline for needing expanding.

Hope you solve this,
Jerry

 

[Shynloco]

Dennis,
For whatever this may be worth, over the years I have come to pretty much use Lapua brass in all the calibers I shoot since I'm after best accuracy and shoot strictly paper. I did have a friend who bought a box of .308 factory loaded Federal Match Ammo so I kept his casings once he fired the box of ammo off. Since I was reloaded my .308 at the time, I decided to put the Federal brass through a comparison test by using the same identical precision reloading procedures as I was doing for my Lapuas that would be loaded with Sierra 168's and 175 gr HPBT. Of course I Full Length sized the Federal brass that frankly surprised me how hard the casings were when throwing the lever on my Redding Big Boss press as compared to the Lapua's. All casing were measured and trimmed to the same length and then loaded with the same powder (RE15) that has proven to be the best for ultimate accuracy in my rifle. Now I didn't measure the neck thickness but all casings were put through the mandrel where I once again noticed the increased residence when expanding the necks to make sure they were trued as I do with all the casings I reload. So I guess I'm not a bit surprised that you also have found the Federals to be more difficult to work with. But the ultimate decision to use them or not came when I fired all the rounds at the range. IN MY RIFLE, the Lapua's out-performed the Federal brass in accuracy, even though every other aspect (except perhaps brass thickness) was employed and this is NOT a plug for Lapua brass. When I seek accuracy, brand name means nothing to mean until I've testing every brand I can get my hands on. But after several tests I have conducted over the past two years I can tell you that being an ultimate accuracy freak, I've not found any other brass that shoots better than Lapua does in any of my bolt guns in .308, .223, 6mmbr or 6.5.

I have never used or tested BHA Match brass so I will not speak to that comparison. Info only.

 

[DennisH]

I mainly use Lapua and have never had a problem, just as you have stated!

I just have about a gallon of Federal and was going to try and use some of it. Looks like I am going to clean it up and sell it!

Dennis

 

[fdshuster]

I've used a limited number of .223 Rem. Federal brass & always had a lot of loose primer pockets after the second loading, ( factory, then one reload). Lapua is now my only choice for the bolt guns and Winchester & Black Hills for the gas.

 

[Taildrag15X]

I use a neck reamer first on my Fed. GMM brass, works sweet for me.